I want to thank everyone- I had had a really long day yesterday- took me hours to register our team with a weird password thing (probably somehow my fault- but they system wasn't sending me the password it said it was sending), went to work and coached robotics for three hours- just tired- I really appreciate everyone's suggestions on the project topic and our team member with a lot of presence and a lot of imagination- don't want to squelch that- will definitely review the rubric with kids , and will talk to the parents of my super creative one- I had to last year and that helped- I'm not concerned about moving on- we're still a new team- I just think these more abstract topics make a lot more work for the kids- that's what I found last year- but it's their project- and they all need to be excited about it and they learned a lot of interesting cutting edge technology from our speaker even though that didn't move them to their topic. All good. All the responses really helped me and I appreciate this community. Laura Dysart On Oct 5, 2010, at 6:18 PM, Brandy bergenstock wrote: > What is your question? > Brandy > From: Michael Brown <[log in to unmask]> > To: [log in to unmask] > Sent: Tue, October 5, 2010 4:27:33 PM > Subject: Re: [VADCFLL-L] project topic > > I wish I could get a reply to any emails. Like shouting into a > vacuum. > > Mike > On Tue, Oct 5, 2010 at 9:08 AM, barrie bowers > <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > One thing that has worked well for our team is sharing suggestions > by e-mail in between meetings, and then letting the kids "discuss" > there ideas and proposals by e-mail. This gives all of the kids a > voice, so one dominant team member doesn't necessarily take over as > can happen in person. We also ask a lot of questions, again being > deferential to the kids, but ask them to think through the > practicalities of various ideas, and how they would play out in > terms of the project/presentation, etc. > > Good luck!! > > --- On Mon, 10/4/10, Eric Palmer <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > > From: Eric Palmer <[log in to unmask]> > Subject: Re: [VADCFLL-L] project topic > To: [log in to unmask] > Date: Monday, October 4, 2010, 10:18 PM > > > Should you care? Well that is a big question that only you can > answer. > > You need to consider your team's goals. What are the trying to > accomplish, > how mature are they, can you push them to grow? > > Also some teams just can't be advanced beyond a certain point each > year. > > But if you want to try to take them to the next level, ask then to > study the project rubric > and evaluate the teams' choices against the rubric. This can get them > thinking in categories > > presentation, research, sharing etc. > > Which ideas can best acheive the rubric. > > Some teams struggle with this. Some can't think very categorically > but some can. And all of them > grow their critical reasoning skills when stretched this way. > > > But also they need to have fun. So balance it. > > Isn't being a coach fun? > > Eric Palmer > team 1740 TNBI > > > > On Mon, Oct 4, 2010 at 10:06 PM, Laura Dysart > <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > > We had a contact with the head of a bio-medical engineering > department at > > VCU- he came and spoke to our team and shared all kinds of great > recent > > innovations and ideas for exploration- they learned a lot no > matter what- we > > have one student with a super sci- fi mind who including last year > wants to > > do something super abstract- the team voted on his idea over > something more > > concrete and doable- and I think that is all good- and it is their > > assignment- and their decision- has anyone else struggled with the > choosing > > of more sci- fi topics that end up very difficult to prove would be > > possible? thought a couple students had some concrete projects > that were > > very applicable and would make an immediate difference- but it got > nixed by > > the larger group (less exciting)- I know it's all them- just > feels like a > > second season of extremely abstract- harder to do.....I have asked > a lot of > > questions.. I guess I am really asking if anyone else is > struggling and > > should i even care? we have a dominant one with imagination that > answers > > questions very authoritatively and don't want to come across as > discouraging > > him as I ask questions? Thanks- LD > > -- To UNSUBSCRIBE or CHANGE your settings, please visit > > https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-l.html and select "Join > or leave > > the list". > > > > -- VADCFLL administrative announcements are sent via VADCFLL-ADMIN- > L. Visit > > https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-admin-l.html to subscribe. > > > > -- To UNSUBSCRIBE or CHANGE your settings, please visit https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-l.html > and select "Join or leave the list". > > -- VADCFLL administrative announcements are sent via VADCFLL-ADMIN- > L. Visit https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-admin-l.html to > subscribe. > > To UNSUBSCRIBE or CHANGE your settings, please visit https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-l.html > and select "Join or leave the list". > VADCFLL administrative announcements are sent via VADCFLL-ADMIN-L. > Visit https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-admin-l.html to > subscribe. > > > > -- > -- > Michael Brown > Y!:nrune AOL:nrune > GPS: Team Virginia Brown's > To UNSUBSCRIBE or CHANGE your settings, please visit https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-l.html > and select "Join or leave the list". > VADCFLL administrative announcements are sent via VADCFLL-ADMIN-L. > Visit https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-admin-l.html to > subscribe. > > To UNSUBSCRIBE or CHANGE your settings, please visit https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-l.html > and select "Join or leave the list". > VADCFLL administrative announcements are sent via VADCFLL-ADMIN-L. > Visit https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-admin-l.html to > subscribe. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE or CHANGE your settings, please visit https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-l.html and select "Join or leave the list". -- VADCFLL administrative announcements are sent via VADCFLL-ADMIN-L. 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