baby steps

Many of us will remember the wonderful film What About Bob?, where Bob learned the theory of baby steps: one little tiny step at a time keeps you from feeling overwhelmed. Well, today the Capstone seniors were applying the baby step theory to finishing up their projects. Unfortunately, a majority of seniors in Eliza and Chou's room were absent today, but those who were present worked diligently. Felipe generously stuck around for a while to help out with super techie questions, since Chou couldn't be with us today, and Eliza is known more for her creativity and curriculum design than techno-ninja skills.

Eliza showed a powerpoint she had made to help the students organize their presentations about their Capstone projects: Each project should have: a 30 second introduction where the student describes the initial question leading to the project; a description of methods including software used and steps taken to accomplish the goal; a report of results where the student will describe the project in detail, including any obstacles that were encountered; a final discussion/summary of the overall project, which includes a statement about where this project might lead the student to further research or interests in the future; and a moment to acknowledge the assistance of others.

The room was absolutely silent as every one of the students worked quietly on his or her own project, either finishing the Capstone, beginning the presentation, or working on past Certifications.

Students wrote brief blogs simply listing their accomplishments for today and then commented on the biggest obstacle they encountered while working on their projects.