Shorr H PLTW EDD 2025-26-Per 5 Assignments

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Due:

Project Proposal Presentations in Google Classroom

Project Proposal Presentations

Presentations in Nov TBA.

These are the questions that serve as the lenses to look at your presentations through.
Did they describe a real problem and adequately justify its existence?
Do their customer requirements follow from their research into prior and existing solutions?
Are their product specifications concrete, measurable, and are they supported by their research?
Will those product specifications be able to adequately guide their design of a solution to the problem?

Presentation ideal max timing in minutes:

3.5 element A
Engineering problem statement
Your top 2 or 3 best sources of evidence to support the existence of said problem.

3.5 element C
go through the customer requirements and product specs
explain what it means to meet, fail to meet, or exceed each spec.

Make a google slides deck and follow the good practices of presentations that we talked about before (no walls of text, etc).

Note:
We have skipped Element B in the presentations because we need to shorten them to fit into one class period. In explaining some of the customer requirements from Element C, you could say something like "this was influenced by existing products x, y, and z because they did or failed to do ______".

So, max time for the presentations will be 7 minutes. Split it roughly evenly between A & C.

Group Order:
Created by Garrett Shorr: Thursday, October 30 1:52 PM

Past Assignments

Due:

Notebook Check #2 in Google Classroom

Notebook Check #2

Range of dates covered:
10/3 (or whenever I checked yours individually) to 11/6
Created by Garrett Shorr: Monday, November 10 12:18 PM

Due:

Element C Portfolio in Google Classroom

Element C Portfolio

Requirements:

List of customer requirements with explanation of how each was derived from the pros and cons. Should have coverage of the Eight Fundamental Design Criteria from the Element C powerpoint.
List of product specifications (concrete, measurable) with an explanation for why those metrics were chosen (ideally with support from external sources, not just your own speculation or made-up values).
Similar Solution Matrix consisting of your Element B solutions judged against your customer requirements using a 1-3-9 scale.  1 = doesn't meet requirement. 3 = meets requirement. 9 = exceeds requirements. Should have some brief explanation about why the various solutions received the scores they did. You can take a screenshot of this spreadsheet and put it directly into the google doc. Also separately link the sheets document.
Mosquitos: Good customer requirements and breakdown for what 1/3/9 represents. Several product specs not actually concrete.

Coyotes: No breakdown of what 1/3/9 categories are, but good explanations as to why each product in the matrix got 1/3/9. Appearance customer requirement incomplete. Some product specs not concrete. Great citations.


Reminders:

Support your product specs with citations. Have reasons for the values you choose.
Make sure the product specs are concrete!
You can weight more important customer requirements higher in your similar solution matrix. For example, in the attached image, the "bioplastics actually get degraded" is weighted higher than other requirements because it is crucial to the success of the solution.
Created by Garrett Shorr: Wednesday, November 5 7:50 AM

Due:

Element B Portfolio in Google Classroom

Element B Portfolio

One member of your group should submit the google doc containing your Element B. It can be part of the same document as Element A as long as you use appropriate Header styles.

"Element B portfolio sample 5.pdf" was an excellent past example: they found a variety of attempts at solving the problem from different angles, analyzed the pros and cons, and cited research supporting those classifications. The only thing they didn't do was provide links for all of the actual products/patents (some were cited). Lastly, the outline format isn't needed. They could have just used h2 subheaders for each solution they evaluated and h3 subheaders for pros & cons.

"EDD Element B Portfolio.pdf" was another excellent past example.  Again, outline format not needed. Analysis was detailed. Solution selection was pretty good with a variety of apps, but only one physical solution to discourage phone use was presented when there were other options with different approaches out there.

The similar solution matrix will be done as part of Element C


Summary of what's needed for each solution you find:


Product Name
Product Picture
Description
Website of where you found it
Pros/Cons (preference: bullet pointed)
Analysis: short sentence or two summing up the strengths & weaknesses, citations as necessary

Find a wide variety of products, look for alternative solutions, alternative competitors

Don't forget to search the app stores (google, apple)
Created by Garrett Shorr: Tuesday, October 14 3:18 AM

Due:

Notebook Check #1 in Google Classroom

Notebook Check #1

Range of dates covered:

9/10 - 10/3
Created by Garrett Shorr: Wednesday, November 5 7:50 AM

Due:

Element A Portfolio in Google Classroom

Element A Portfolio

Due Tuesday 9/23 end of class  -- Only one person per group should submit it. Everyone else mark it complete once a member has submitted.

Summary: Start with your problem statement and then spend a
couple paragraphs elaborating on it. Support your problem statement with
lines of evidence and cite all your sources. Do so in narrative form.

You'll make a single google doc for your project portfolio. I'll show you how to use headers and other styles to make generating a table of contents super easy. 


This is general description for a 5 on Element A: 
The problem is clearly and objectively identified and defined with considerable
depth, and it is well elaborated with specific detail; the justification of
the problem highlights the concerns of many primary stakeholders and is based on comprehensive,
timely, and consistently credible sources; it offers consistently objective
detail from which multiple measurable design requirements can be determined.


Example Commentary:
1. Would have been full credit if the problem statement were included. A wealth of research is provided to justify that bad posture is a problem. Although only 2 attack paths were included (health & safety and economic), the abundance of relevant citations for each makes up for not finding a 3rd path. Bibliography is complete and superscript citations are included for every statement drawn from a source.

2. A full credit paper if the following corrections were addressed: Remove the hyperbole in several sections. The evidence is persuasive without exaggeration (e.g. "Defective sunglass companies will find a way to cut corners in every aspect of their product."). Some citations are unclear--did NASA say the reflected light issue from snow also extends to water and sand? If not, that's an assertion without evidence. It's easy to show that water reflects light, but it should be sourced. General simplification of some awkward language construct (e.g. "The problem we have when it comes to sunglasses and eye protection in general is how poorly made modern day sunglasses are, due to the risks that come with wearing them." could have been "Some modern day sunglasses are poorly made and fail to sufficiently protect against sun damage to the eyes."). Be direct.

3. A full credit paper with some minor flaws: A few awkward sentence structures and a bit of exaggeration in the final graph interpretation in section III. 

4. A good example of how market research can be used to justify a problem. I have my comments directly in the pdf. I believe it earned an A- or B+. I had warned them prior that they should disambiguate some of the data in order to better support the problem but they never did. The problem statement also made an assertion that wasn't supported by the evidence (that the new player base was being turned away).

Created by Garrett Shorr: Tuesday, October 14 3:18 AM

Due:

Element A Problem Statement Presentations in Google Classroom

Element A Problem Statement Presentations

More details about making a good slideshow will be discussed as we get closer to this date.

You'll be presenting your problem statement to the class along with at least 3 lines of supporting evidence.

Each group will have 5 minutes to present and there will be 3 minutes for questions.

Each member should speak.

Google slides don't have to be elaborate. Five or six slides will do:
Slide 1: Group Name and Team Member Names (group name doesn't have to be what I called you--you get to choose your own)
Slide 2: Problem Statement. This will be the only wall of text allowed in a presentation.
Slide 3: Supporting Evidence #1: use bullet points and only write the key ideas. Do not read word for word from the slide.
Slide 4: Supporting Evidence #2: use bullet points and only write the key ideas. Do not read word for word from the slide.
Slide 5: Supporting Evidence #3: use bullet points and only write the key ideas. Do not read word for word from the slide.
(and if you have more than 3 solid pieces of evidence, continue the above pattern for the rest)

Submit your google slides--Only 1 per group.
Created by Garrett Shorr: Tuesday, October 14 3:18 AM

Due:

Notebook Check #0 in Google Classroom

Notebook Check #0

Range of dates covered:

8/15 - 9/9

Submit a google doc with peer-grading of each category and a reflection on what you need to do to improve for next time.

Reminder of what specific topics are built into the Standards section:
* Blue ink
* each new page has a topic & date
* Bottom of each completed page is signed by owner & witness
* Can you read it?
1 can't read at all
3 can squint hard and kind of get most of it maybe
5 totally easy to read
* diagrams are labeled
* units are included with any measurements
* pasted/taped in documents are secure and signed half-on half-off
* no large blank space (line through and signed)
Created by Garrett Shorr: Tuesday, October 14 3:18 AM

Due:

Group Formation in Google Classroom

Group Formation

Have one person per group respond to this and list your group members and tentative topic(s) you shared interest in.
Created by Garrett Shorr: Tuesday, October 14 3:18 AM

Due:

Group Norms in Google Classroom

Group Norms

Due end of class Monday:

Submit your group norms on a google doc with digital signatures of each member. Only one submission per group is needed.

Group Norms should at least address:

timeliness and responsibility
fair division of labor
conflict resolution
modes of communication
handling absences
general attitudes
Created by Garrett Shorr: Tuesday, October 14 3:18 AM

Due:

Preliminary Problem Presentations in Google Classroom

Preliminary Problem Presentations

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1CTY8EPHZ6uQf92FxUH9XXhtesNpGVbAGhzCIyLo9FCQ/edit?usp=sharing
We want to do these presentations first thing on Monday. You should be done by the end of class on Thursday.
Edit *ONLY* your 3 slides with your favorite 3 problems from your brainstorming (you must be logged onto your school email account to access and edit the slides)
Remember, delete the questions when you answer them on your slides. That will save space and make what you write much more visible in the back. For example, do not make your slide look like this:
What is your problem?
I hate it when people write too much on google slides presentations
Why is it a problem?
It's just a wall of text and it's hard to read. The text is small because there's too much redundant stuff on the slides.
Who does it affect? How many?
People who have to watch presentations so every high school student.
Where does this happen?
It happens in schools across the US.
When does this happen?
Powerpoint became widely used in the 1990s and with google slides it has become a bigger problem from the mid 00's through today
Instead make it like:
People write too much on google slides
Wall of text -- Hard to Read
Text too small, redundant text
Affects students in US high schools 1990s - Present
Created by Garrett Shorr: Tuesday, October 14 3:18 AM

Due:

Syllabus in Google Classroom

Syllabus

Please return them signed on Tuesday 8/19
Created by Garrett Shorr: Tuesday, October 14 3:18 AM

Due:

First Day Survey in Google Classroom

First Day Survey

Complete the attached survey and mark this assignment complete when you are done.
Created by Garrett Shorr: Tuesday, October 14 3:18 AM