A5: Comments

I apologize for the delay in getting your grades back to you. Most of you did a good job on this assignment, and most points that were lost were for technical misunderstandings of systems. When writing the technical side of things, try not to write facts that you have not looked up yet. If you were writing a technical paper for another one of your classes you would be forced to cite where you got that information from. Think about this process when you are writing facts about your systems. This will allow you to avoid mistakes of misinformation, and you may end up learning more! As always, feel free to email me with any questions.

- David Morrison

A4: Comments

Most of you all did a GREAT job on A4, I was very excited to see how hard many of you worked on this project, especially so close to midterms week. Keep up the good work! The main place groups lost points on was again the numeric parameters. Many of you used the spreadsheet which you developed in class as a basis for the numerical parameters That is a great way to start, but to receive the full 100%, it would be been beneficial to use that excel sheet as a jump off point and attempt to think of additional parameters to help you understand the limitations of the systems. Those who did not take the extra step were only marginally penalized for this.

Some students are very good at emailing me before the project, and I have attempted to help them (usually to the benefit of their grade). If you are stuck or need help interpreting part of the assignment, feel free to email me.

- David Morrison

Numeric Parameters for A4

Question:

I have some questions about A4 if you don't mind, I have asked the TA, and he effectively answered me. But his answer seemed a bit difficult for me to do!

I asked him about the numeric parameters needed for each structural system to be provided, suggesting the file that you shared to the class; he said it is a good start (and I realized that we need more info). That was cool. But when I asked him about the charts that we have to be provide (as stated on the rubric:"Both charts and typical numbers are presented for relevant parameters")

he said yes I expect you to provide charts for each system as shown in this website as an example: http://coolsteelframes.wordpress.com/numeric-parameters/

This is like doing A3 9 times! or I have misunderstood him.

 

Response:

You do not need to repeat all the information for each structural system.  We’d ask that you consider what are “key parameters” for your particular structural system.  It seems likely that you could extend the list we started in class.  You certainly don’t need as many charts as are given in the cited example, but selecting one or two that show important information seems like a good idea for full credit if you can find them.

A3- Structures Comments

Everyone did a wonderful job on their Structural System website! The grades were very high across the board, and it appears everyone is adjusting to working well in teams. I think a major point of improvement everyone could work on is numerical parameters. As future engineers, we all need to make sure that we can give a quantifiable data point to your fellow engineers. It is not enough to say "this structure can survive in cold conditions." Attempt to quantify the coldest conditions the structure can survive in, and provide a temperature range that is suitable for the structure.

Please also review my comments on your teamwork assessment and be sure to look at my previous post on what many of you have been doing wrong. Team work assessments are designed to give you a 100% if you have done all of your work. I hope everyone takes a look at my comments on the rubric as well as the previous blog post to understand the requirements. Make sure you give SPECIFIC tasks that your group mates performed, and how well they did. Also make sure you provide ALL necessary team identification information to receive full credit.

Teamwork Assessments

Some of you lost points on your teamwork assessments because you missed part of the requirements. Make sure you include your team number and teammate names in your assessment so the team can easily identified. Remember to follow everything on this rubric to receive full points:

If you did not receive a grade, you most likely did not submit your teamwork assessment to the teamwork assignment. Do not upload your teamwork assessment to the actual team assignment (ie: A2) as your group-mates will be able to see your review of them (not the purpose of this). If you think you submitted and do not have a grade, then you most likely did this. Please email me (David) your assessment if you are missing a grade for the teamwork assessment. Please also remember team work assessments do not have the ability to be resubmitted.

David Morrison

A2 Grading Notes

Overall everyone did FANTASTIC on this assignment. I was very pleased with the level of effort everyone gave to the assignment. This allowed me to be slightly nit-picky on some areas of the assignment. However, overall everyone did a great job, and it was clear that there was plenty of learning from each team member.

Cohesiveness:
While delegating work is part of the job, I think that for this assignment some teams may have not worked as closely as they could have. This showed up in websites that had different language / formatting from section to section. To work as an effective team, communication must happen early and often to ensure that the product looks like it is coming from a team, not just a group of individuals.

Logistical notes:
Only ONE (1) member from each team needs to submit the assignment every week. Also, your team work evaluation should be submitted SEPARATELY from your project submission as part of the teamwork evaluation submission.

A1a - Revit Assignment : Grading Notes

Hello again,

For feedback on your specific assignment, make sure to view the graded rubric on bbLearn. Many of you forgot to upload your Revit file, or upload a sheet. This makes it hard to provide a grade for you in those categories. The most common mistake was to forget to provide an annotation of the length to verify that a wall has the length of your last name multiplied by 10.  Some students went as far as writing this explicitly on the sheet, but you were awarded points as long as the correct length was shown on the sheet. If you wish to receive full credit, don't forget to view the rubric for each assignment, as this will always be how you will be awarded points.

I really enjoyed some of your submissions, and it was clear some of you went above and beyond the call of duty to create exciting and interesting models.

Feedback to make this assignment easier / more clear:
Many of you had issues with selecting the correct template, and those of you whom selected the wrong template suffered until you restarted, and selected Architectural. It may also be useful for students to learn how to import families in the event that a family is not there that they are looking for.

Stats:
Average - 89.75
Median - 97
StdDev - 14.48
These stats don't show the entire picture. The outcomes were mainly bimodal, with a cluster of students forgetting to upload their Revit files or sheets resulting in large point losses.

As some of you have already done, feel free to email me with any questions. - David Morrison