ISTF2009: Suitable for a Disaster

Team Assessments

Prepare a 100-word paragraph from the team (to include input from the teacher, technical advisor and the students) on how teaming progressed throughout the program duration,

We started out communicating by talking in large groups, which helped us decide our project and many subgroups of it. As we got into researching the details, we split into smaller groups or simply worked as individuals. Since most of our research for background information was online, e-mail worked as an effective means of communicating; people could instantly read what was written whenever necessary. Unfortunately confusion occurred when no one informed anyone that they were done with research or needed clarification. All of these emails were sent to our teachers so they could understand where we were in our work. We approached possible technical advisers by using what we had learned to compose e-mails to them.

Prepare a 100-word paragraph from the team on what they learned about researching and innovating a solution to a real world problem throughout the program's duration,

As our team continued to research, our product progressed. Originally a smart suit that passively communicated vitals and other data, our project evolved into one that both actively and passively sends and receives data, as well as verbally transmit useful data during a disaster. The innovation of our project came in the application of the suit. Our team learned that research is an art; you must think out of the box to find the correct keywords that produce what you hope to find. Every website or reliable resource needed to be read, re-read, and paraphrased. Throughout the project everyone got better and better at researching. At first people were not paraphrasing very well and more editing was need, but toward the end, our research became concise and to the point.

List three recommendations from the team (to include input from the teacher, technical advisor and the students) concerning lessons learned.
1. Each member of the team needs to read what others have already written and posted so that we know what still needs to be started, edited, or is finished. This prevents wasting time researching what other team members already know.
2. When a task is assigned, it needs to be completed quickly and thoroughly without procrastination or distraction. Often, one person’s job cannot be started unless a related topic is complete.
3. When using the internet as a source of research, it is important to use multiple sites to avoid possible false information and to fully understand the topic of interest.