Syllabus ENGR 201CO S08

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MESSIAH COLLEGE
ENGR 201CO S08 - Group Orientation/Communications


Classroom

  • Combined - Frey 145
  • Group Specific - Frey 253

Time

  • Combined: selected Mondays at 1:50 - 2:50 PM (see Schedule below)
  • Group Specific: Monday 1:50-5:15 PM or after Combined time above

Advisor - Harold Underwood

  • Office hours - 1-2 pm WF, M 10:15-11:15 am, 10:30-12 Noon TR,

or by appointment.

  • E-mail address - HUnderw@messiah.edu
  • Office Phone - 796-1800 ext. 7125
  • Home Phone - 697-9709

Group Leader - Nathan Horst

  • E-mail - jk1311@messiah.edu
  • Phone - ext. x4027


Contents

Overview

What is Group Orientation?

Group Orientation is the first of 7 courses that make up the integrated projects portion of the Bachelor of Science in Engineering program at Messiah College. In this Integrated Projects Curriculum (IPC) you put the knowledge content of other classes to work in creative hands-on problem solving. The IPC brings you and other students together with professors and other advisors to solve real-world problems brought to us by off-campus clients. Through these projects we also seek to live out our Christian faith as God's stewards over the resources of the engineering discipline.


The IPC courses are challenging, but not like other courses. Innovative features include shared project leadership by students and educators, project teams of students from all years of study, and sustained effort between academic semesters to achieve tangible results for clients. The IPC functions within the Collaboratory for Strategic Partnerships and Applied Research, so you gain practical work experience in a real organization. Some students decide to pursue voluntary service and leadership in the Collaboratory, but the IPC gives every engineering major some practical experience and an opportunity to consider how their work and Christian faith connect.


In Group Orientation you learn how to work in the the organization called the Collaboratory, and how to work on a project teams. You also gain technical knowledge and competencies specific to your Group. In other words, this is where the Group advisor and current student leaders equip you to be useful in the fall semester on a project team. All of your other classes are general to the engineering discipline; they serve many but no particular industry or class of project. This class is focused specifically on what you need to know to contribute to the work of your Group.

Goals of this class

Students who successfully complete Group Orientation will be able to:

  1. Describe the mission, core values, and operating principles of the Collaboratory.
  2. Discuss the basic principles of project management.
  3. Apply the practices of productive teams and team members.
  4. Write SMART goal, specification, and deliverable statements for a project.
  5. Write SMART one-week task assignments for another class member.
  6. Complete a SMART one-week task assignment given by another class member.
  7. Describe 6 phases of application development.
  8. Name features of good project documentation.
  9. Build a page in the Collaboratory wiki.
  10. State your Group's mission statement, and how it advances the mission of the Collaboratory.
  11. Discuss your Group's history, lessons learned, work culture, and core values.
  12. Name your Group's projects, their clients, and their global objectives.
  13. Research and write a review of the literature on a topic relevant to your Group.
  14. Pass quizzes on technical material specific to your Group.
  15. Satisfy certification requirements for the use of shop and laboratory equipment strategic to the work of your Group.
  16. Demonstrate proficiency in material and part selection for applications important to your Group.

Policies

  1. If you are absent due to illness or emergency, please call or leave a message so that your professor can determine if the absence is excused or unexcused. If your professor does not hear from you within 48 hours of the missed class then the absence is unexcused.
  2. If you miss a quiz and your absence is excused, the professor will probably ask you to take it later. In rare cases you may be excused from the quiz, meaning the quiz will not count for or against your final grade. If your absence on the day of a quiz is unexcused then you have earned a score of zero.
  3. The professor will accept late work if you have an excused absence. The length your extension will depend on the assignment and circumstances. You must make arrangements for an extension when you see your professor about the absence.
  4. Assignments will be collected at the beginning of class on the due date. The professor will accept late work up to one full day after the due date with a 10% penalty, and work that is more than a day but not more than a week late for 1/2 credit. You can not excel in this course if you don't keep up. The goal of this late-work policy is to encourage you to keep up with the work, while providing some flexibility for the occasional emergency. Finally, if you miss an assignment, get something in. Half credit is much better than a zero!
  5. You may submit work that is assigned on a day that you are absent from class. There will be no opportunity, however, to make up in-class assignments. If you have an excused absence the professor will excuse you from in-class assignments; they will not count for or against you on the day of your excused absence. If the absence is unexcused, you have earned a score of zero for class exercised on that day.
  6. The standard for all assignments is professional documentation prepared for your peers. Write for persons who know as much but not more about engineering than you. This is because when you write about your IPC project it will be for the next generation of students!
  7. Plan on Group Orientation class running for three hours. The actual class length will vary from week to week, but please do not commit to other activities in anticipation of routinely finishing class early.

Grades

Serving as your assistant in a time of personal growth and development is your professor's motivation for teaching. We are not here primarily to rank you according to ability. Your value as a person is independent of class performance. Whether you excel or struggle, you are an important part of our lives this semester and beyond.


Grades for the course should, however, reflect individual progress as engineering students. A fair and thorough evaluation is important, both to you and to the reputation of the Engineering Program at Messiah College. Since your achievement must eventually be reflected in a grade, we have established the following basis for determining grades in this course:

  • 25% Combined
    1. 50% Quizzes
    2. 50% Assignments
  • 75% Group Specific
    1. 25% Quizzes based on Ham Radio Technician Class License Question Pool
    2. 25% Reports or Reflective Writing Assignments based on Activities
    3. 10% In-class Activity Participation (see Schedule/Group Specific)
    4. 10% Knowledge Proficiency: Ham Radio Technician Class License Exam
    5. 5% Skill Proficiency: soldering equipment

Schedule

Group Orientation is a 3-hour laboratory class. Some learning activities in this class are Combined, that is they are for all students in Group Orientation this semester. Be there! Other learning activities are specific to your Group.

All Combined class sessions are on select Mondays at 1:50 PM in Frey 241. The Communications Group will conduct its Group Specific activities on Mondays from 1:50-5:15 PM, or after the Combined session from 3-5:15 PM.

Week of February 4

  • Combined: The Collaboratory
  • Group specific
    • Activity #1.1 AM Radio DXing / Report on results
    • Read The ARRL Ham Radio License Manual (HRLM) Chapter 1

Week of February 11

  • Combined: Working on teams
  • Group specific
    • Activity #1.2 Comm. Practice: The Phonetic Alphabet (FRS Radios) / Reflective Writing Exercise
    • Read HRLM Ch. 2 & Review all exam questions highlighted in light blue boxes

Week of February 18

  • Combined: Putting the wiki to work for you
  • Group specific
    • Activity #1.3 GPS Coordinates & Grid Square Conversions / Report
    • Quiz on HRLM Ch. 2 Question Pool / Read HRLM Ch. 3 & Related Questions

Week of February 25

  • Group specific
    1. Activity #2.2 Frequency & Wavelength Calculations Worksheet
    2. Activity #2.3,4 Demo's: Line-of-Sight Propagation and Tropospheric Ducting
    3. Activity #2.5 Radio Waves & the Ionosphere Worksheet
    4. Quiz on HRLM Ch. 3 Question Pool / Read HRLM Ch. 4 & Related Questions

Week of March 3

  • Group specific
    1. Activity #2.6 Tracking the Path of Amateur Satellites
    2. Activity #3.4 Hook-Up Wire: A Soldering Project
    3. Quiz on HRLM Ch. 4 Question Pool / Read HRLM Ch. 5 & Related Questions

Week of March 10

  • Group specific
    1. Activity #4.1 Station Layout
    2. Activity #4.4 How Antennas Work: Build One / RWE
    3. Quiz on HRLM Ch. 5 Question Pool / Read HRLM Ch. 6 & Related Questions


Week of March 17 - SPRING BREAK


Week of March 31

  • Combined: Introduction to Project Management I
  • Group specific
    1. Guest Speakers: Lessons Learned from and Benefits of Amateur Radio
    2. Activity #5.1 More Communication Practice
    3. Activity #5.2 Class Net using FRS Radios (message handling) / RWE
    4. Quiz on HRLM Ch. 6 Question Pool / Try www.hamtestonline.com

Week of April 7

  • Group specific
    1. Activity #6.1 Repeater Anthology
    2. Activity #7.1 Guest Speaker from Local Power Company: Safety Issues
    3. Quiz on HRLM Ch. 7 Question Pool / Try www.hamtestonline.com

Week of April 14

  • Combined: Introduction to Project Management II
  • Group specific
    1. Quiz yourself using www.hamtestonline.com and review as needed
    2. Activity: Travel to Harrisburg Test Site for Ham Radio License Exam--Sat. April 19 @ 8:00am

Week of April 21

  • Group specific
    1. Activity #8.1 Discussion of Principles & Purpose of Amateur Radio Service
    2. Activity #8.2 Discussion of Responsibilities, License Classes, Technician Class Frequency Privileges, Frequency Sharing, Third Party Communications, etc.
    3. Make amateur radio contacts / report log of activities

Week of April 28

  • Combined: Research
  • Group specific
    • Activity: Project work

Week of May 5

  • Group specific
    • Activity: Project work

Final Exam Period: Tuesday May 13 10:30-12:30

  • Combined: Discussion and recommendations for improving this course
  • Group specific
    • Activity: TBA
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