Hear from Engineering Prof. Harry Toups

Transcript

After our start of the semester skills building workshop, student teams take on three distinct month-long cycles of experimentation in our lab. A third of the way through, teams deliver a written preparatory report which serves as a full-fledged formal draft of the more complete engineering style final report due at the end of each cycle. To ensure substantive engagement by all TEAM members in the drafting and editing of these reports, individual students assume lead author responsibility for a major section of each report. In at least one cycle during the semester, the instructor provides exhaustive feedback on the draft preparatory report. In other cycles, a more minimalist approach is used. Some of these six major written deliverables constitute the lion's share of each student's formal written communication activities. Each student also delivers an individual oral presentation during the semester.