EPICS Fall 2009
Suggested Critical Thinking/Reflection Questions Through Week 9
Critical thinking/reflection is an important part of learning, and of design. We continue to
try to find the best way to encourage thoughtful and useful critical thinking connected to
your design that complements your project work, and not as seen as taking away time from
your project work. In addition, we want to make sure that they overall load is appropriate
for one or two credit hours. Therefore, we will only have two formal reflections this
semester: one at the beginning of the semester and one at the end. Additional reflections
will be able to be completed as “skill sessions” or “learning activities”.
There are two other ways that your critical thinking skills will be developed this semester.
The first way is to incorporate reflection into the course and the project through short
“Questions of the Week.” The “Questions of the Week” are short discussion topics that you
will be able to write on for a short time (approximately 3 minutes) in your lab notebook
during lab frequently throughout the semester, followed by a short discussion or included in
the project update for the week. These discussion topics will be related to the course
outcomes, the lecture topics, and/or aspects of design. This will help towards your “critical
thinking” component of your lab notebook grade. Team leaders/advisors will have flexibility
in which questions they have teams write about, so they should be more relevant to your
projects and the issues your team is facing. The second way is the incorporation of critical
thinking questions as part of the project documentation. This allows us to target
appropriate and specific aspects of the project throughout the design.
A good question you can ask yourself throughout the semester is, “What didn’t work this
past week, why didn’t it and what have you done about it?”
In addition, the following are ideas for weekly Reflection questions through Week 9
(“Question of the week”?):
Week 1
Week 2/3
Week 4
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Week 5
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Week 6
1/12/09
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What are my goals this semester in EPICS?
What are my biggest fears about being in EPICS?
Why did I enroll in EPICS this semester?
What do I know about my project partner?
What do I need to know to be a better designer for my project partner?
What larger need is my project partner addressing?
How can I help address my project partner’s need?
What do I think they need most? Does that match what we are doing?
Lectures:
o How can we apply concepts from the “Test Plans” lecture to our
projects?
o What did I learn from the “Intro to Design I” lecture that I can apply to
my project?
Do we have a good plan for executing our project goals this semester?
How was the documentation left from last semester? Did I help write it?
If it needs to be improved, what specific steps can I take to improve it?
What stage of the design process is my project in? Do I think we have
addressed all of prior stages appropriately?
What other tools or strategies can I use or do I need to improve my
design?
How can I improve my oral or written communication skills?
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EPICS Fall 2009
Suggested Critical Thinking/Reflection Questions Through Week 9
Week 7
 Next week the Project Partner memo is due. In preparation for writing the
memo, consider the following:
 Is our project on track to meet our original project goals for the
semester? If not, how will this impact our project partner? Also, what
can we do to get the project back on schedule?
 Have we sought and received feedback from our project partner on the
work we have completed so far this semester? If not, what questions
do we have about the design that requires our project partner’s input?
Have these already been addressed in the specifications? If not, what
details need to be added to the project specifications?
Week 8
 How is my team functioning? What are we doing well? How can we
improve?
 What can I do to improve how my team is functioning?
 What other resources (inputs/skills) do I/we need to address any issues
that we are having?
Week 9
 How has the feedback from the Internal Design Review impacted my
design?
Final Reflection: (Individual)
To be submitted on Blackboard
A. In your week 15 individual memo you summarized your accomplishments and
learning over the past semester. Write one to two paragraphs that describe the
skills that you developed this past semester and how they will impact your future,
personally and professionally.
B. If you could go back and start the semester over, knowing what you know now,
summarize what you would have done differently in one to two paragraphs.
Comment on the impact that you believe these changes would have had on the
project, your experience, and your learning.
C. Please write one to two paragraphs describing what existing knowledge and/or
skills you brought to your EPICS work.
D. Please write one to two paragraphs describing the knowledge or skills you have
learned from other members of your team in your EPICS work.
E. Please write one to two paragraphs describing your awareness of ethical issues
and how those ethical issues impacted your EPICS work.
1/12/09
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