Final Project Format and Expectations

*Please read ALL OF THIS before coming to us with questions!

As we have discussed in lab, each project should include an introduction/context statement and a report on the project itself.  Both of those will be posted to the course website.  Each of you will also make a brief (but inspiring / challenging / amusing / otherwise engaging) presentation in lab about your experiences.  Below, find our expectations for each of these components.

Note: if your project does not fit this format, you MUST let us know ASAP.

The Introduction (Due Wednesday, Nov. 23):

For those doing a more applied project, this section should provide some background information that will help us (and others) better understand the rationale behind your work.  You might survey previous projects that have addressed a similar issue, or you might present an overview of whatever problem it is you are trying to address.  Aim for a focused account; the information you provide should not be arbitrary, but directly related to the work you are doing.  Reading this, then reading your project, we should say “aha! I see why you did what you did.”  You’ll want a minimum of 5 academic sources, though drawing on more will make your statement richer.

For those of you doing a more scholarly project, this section introduces the main ideas and organizational framework of your work.  Like your applied peers, you want to focus your introduction on only those details relevant to understanding the project you have done.  Since your work is largely research based, you will likely need more sources overall – assume a minimum of 10 for the whole project.

Regardless, introductory statements should be somewhere between 4 and 7 pages, double-spaced, in Word – but you’ll be posting them to the WordPress site.  Feel free to include figures, links and images in the post if you like. Remember that even though you’re posting in the form of a blog, you are still expected to maintain a scholarly approach and tone. Please use standard in-text citations (Collins and Allen 2011) and list all references at the end.

The Project (Due Dec. 14):

Obviously, this portion will vary widely among students, but should include the final product of your scholarly work (a feasibility statement, a meta-analysis, etc) or a summary of/reflection on your applied work.  Include any resources, videos or images you created while completing your project, and any relevant information for their use.  Again, this should probably be between 4 – 7 pages and will be posted to the WordPress site – though lengths will depend on the nature of your project.  Talk to us if you are unsure about how long this should be, but also trust your intuition: tell us as much as we need to know to understand what you did and what it meant to you.

The Presentation (to be given during the last week of lab):

Seriously, go watch some TED talks before you work on this.  They are exemplars of informative and inspiring presentations, and you can learn a lot from them.

We’re not looking for a step-by-step PowerPoint here – we want you to tell us what you got out of this project (even if it’s not what you thought you would learn going in) in a way that is as interesting for us as it is fun and worthwhile for you.  Think about the challenges you faced and how you addressed them – think about surprises along the way – think about what you will take from this work and how it will impact your future.  That’s what we want to hear here.  So be thoughtful, and tell a good story.

These presentations should be short, 5-8 minutes.  They can be interactive, and you may use any props you like.  PowerPoint is fine, but make sure you use it creatively.  Prezi is also a fun online presentation manager you might want to play around with.

We will be presenting in lab on the week of Dec 5^th. Come ready to be enlightened by your classmates, to ask good questions, and to applaud the efforts of your friends and peers.

“I’ve never let school interfere with my education”

One of my favorite quotes of all time, as uttered by Mark Twain himself.

After coming from a highly competitive high school, where grades most certainly made the person, and continuing on to an institution of higher learning where the stakes are just as high, if not higher, I think it is vital that students step  back and reflect on why they are here. I like to think that I have found myself in college. Yes, it sounds cheesy (this is Wisconsin, after all), and maybe even cliché, but it’s true. For me, high school was about going through the motions: studying for exams so I could get the A, scanning books in order to complete study guides, and gritting my teeth over the stack of papers that never seemed to leave my desk. College has been a life experience, an education, not only in academics, but also in life, myself, and what I want to do with my future.

In lieu of the aforementioned Mark Twain quote, I firmly believe that I have cemented my future through my experiences in campus, state, and national politics. This is not to say that my lectures, discussions, and labs have not been phenomenal, but it is to say that one’s education is not complete without these extracurricular experiences.

I also think that the heavy emphasis on grades, multiple choice exams, and other forms of evaluation that simply rely on rote memorization are overused, and over-valued. Encouraging students to simply rehash what they have heard in lecture does not teach them to think critically, or evaluate the information that they are receiving. It simply teaches them to copy lecture slides and repeat the information back to the professor verbatim.

For my project, I would like to talk to a variety of professors and TAs at the University of Wisconsin and from my high school about alternative methods of evaluation and learning for students. I would also like to talk to students about how their stress levels correlate with the types of evaluation that are used in their various classes. Finally, I would like to provide students with an anonymous feedback system, in which they are able to suggest new learning mechanisms to professors and to the University. Our country lags behind in terms of education, not because we do not care about teaching our students, but because we are not targeting reforms properly and using the resources that we have available most efficiently. I think it is the job of students who live and breathe the system everyday to let educators and our governments know that we can no longer accept the status quo if we want to build for our future.