Element K
Reflection on the
Design Project

Liked:

1.  Online portfolio with inserted live Google Documents

2. That we were encouraged to find reasonable problems to solve.  In the past I have seen students encouraged to solve world wide massive issues like hunger.

3. Working in a group and having group members with different strengths.

Change:

1. Mini problems at the beginning.  My students have worked with each other for years.  I will do the cardboard boat at the end of the year (when it’s hot).  I want plenty of time to get the main project completed.

2. Not really a solution, more of a concern.  I’m concerned about the amount of paperwork and losing my students' attention and motivation.

3. The rubrics, especially the EDPPSRMNOP seems huge and too much.  I plan to simplify.

Liked:

1. The amount of breakout/work time was good for our team.

2. The resources provided to us were super easy to understand and made completing the coursework simple and clean. 

3. The support from the master teachers went a long way toward equipping us to teach this class this coming year.

Change:

1. We should have more strict and defined team norms before we started to settle things like conflict resolution

2. Solutions to downtime for students who say they have “nothing” to do since the finished their portion

3. Personal, maybe getting up at 5 am every morning was a mistake.

Liked:

• Team life was a little rocky out the gate, but it ended up being a strength once we found our groove, jam, etc.  The instructors handled this well and listened to my adversity.  This problem ended up making us all stronger and more personal.

• I liked the tag team approach on instruction and roles that they establised… 1.) stories, class experiences 2.) requirements for us to meet and pass the course and master information. Both were very positive and accommodating in break out rooms.

• “Follow the process, nothing is wasted…”  proved out!  The process helped us come together as a team! This order helped us create something of quality, particularly in a short and condensed training.  Our team members differences helped us all contribute pieces that folded together nicely.

Change

• The materials were generally accurate for CS track, but terms and linear flow do not follow Scrum Agile Development methods. The process of A - M feels like a waterfall process.  IMO, we really need to talk about iteration and cycles to be CS appealing.  The reflections / retrospectives need to occur more often for metacognitive effect.

• I call  “wayfinding” on what to watch/read to meet Block submissions.  I want to do the block first  and then fill in the watch/read  after, The navigation seems to be upside down.  This is a common teach / submit problem!  I don’t think PLTW materials have the “wayfind” correctly laid out.  Vocab on submit questions sometimes appear random if you have a block first approach.

• Components, Letters, Block, Student View, Training View taxonomies.  None of these are helpful for memory, call it what it is (ie Reflection).   Also navigation could be a selection or filter (Training View, Teacher View, Student View).

• Paper Journal emphasis.  In 2026, even in 2018 when I left industry, the journals could be in something like notes.

• Project Management.   There are tools for Gantt charts, we should use them or just take it out of training.   There are flows like Issues, Kanban, and Gantt.  If you train to it you need to have a tool.