Early Semester Tasks

These tasks must be completed in the first week or two of the semester.

Class/Lectures for the First Weeks

When you look at the syllabi from recent semesters you see that they start to take on a common look. We like to take the first 2 weeks to train students about the project as a whole to make sure that they understand our scope and they can make smart decisions about which teams to join. Make sure to pass around a sign-in sheet in every lecture for the first two weeks because we get a lot of people wandering in and out of the class, which makes it difficult to try to organize teams.

• The Intro to AguaClara lecture, which just gives some background about the project, is available on the outreach team USB drive located in the demo plant suitcase. It is the same general presentation we give to most groups that invite us to speak.
  • A back-up copy is also located in Documents on the clearwater computer account in the AguaClara lab
• Monroe generally gives the State of AguaClara lecture, which just summarizes our progress and challenges. He has a copy of it.
• The Intro to Teams lecture is the first chance new members get to hear about the teams. At the very beginning of the semester email the returning members from each active team (you and Monroe will decide which teams will be active before the semester starts). Ask/tell each team to send you 2 slides so they can give a 2 minutes pitch for their team.
  • Have the returning students send you the slides AT LEAST 4 days before the lecture and feel OK harassing them! This is the best way new students learn about each team.
• Lab Open House is an informal chance for everyone to come downstairs to tour all of the experimental set ups and ask returning members questions in a one-on-one setting. After this lecture the students should all be sent the planning survey so you can chose teams.
• The Wiki Training Lecture is described on the child page linked to.

You will want to keep emphasizing to the new team how although they are coming to class, 95% of their time in AguaClara will be spent with their teams so it is important to make an educated decision as to where they might be able to fit in and learn well.

Forming Teams

After the students have been introduced to the project and potential teams, the team leader will send out a planning survey. Remember that all surveys we use are GoogleDocs on the CUAguaClara account with username and password. Double check that the survey has been updated for this year before sending it out! All surveys need to be updated every year.

Take into account the following points when forming teams

1. You always want to try to have at least one returning member on each team, otherwise the learning curve is pretty steep and the teams without returners tend to get a lot less accomplished in the semester
2. Try to get a good array of older and younger students on each team, that way there is a good chance that you will have at least one of the younger students stick around next year to provide continuity for that team.
3. Think about how many people each team really needs. Some times it is better to cap a team at a small efficient size (2 or 3 is great!) depending on what they need to accomplish.

As soon as you and Monroe finalize teams send each team an email and encourage everyone on that team to start reviewing their wiki space. If you can schedule it into the syllabus, immediately host a Team Meeting lecture, which is where you tell everyone its required class as usual, except you only talk for five minutes and then have everyone split into their teams and start introducing themselves. Tell them to pick a weekly meeting time right then and there, and make sure they know that every team is required to meet in person at least once per week and turn in detailed meeting minutes of their weekly activities.

Wiki Access

Give all new team members wiki access. To do this follow the instructions given below

• Follow this link: https://confluence.cornell.edu/customspacemgmt/permissions/docustompermissionsmanage.action?key=AGUACLARA&selectedGroup=confluence-aguaclara-users
• Enter the new team members' netIDs one at a time

SourceForge Access

Give all new team members access to their respective SourceForge folders. To do this follow these instructions.

Getting Teams Going

It is very hard for teams to digest their task and start working immediately. You will want to encourage them to really take the time to understand their challenges and form them into semester goals. Also encourage the teams to talk with you and/or Monroe about the theoretical points they don't totally understand. This really sets the tone for the rest of the semester.