Overview

You'll complete a total of five "snippets" (one per week) summarizing your (and your group's) progress and plans for your final project. Each snippet will be worth one point, and will be graded as "credit" (1 point earned) or "no credit" (no points earned). The snippet content will not be specifically graded (simply turning in a completed snippet will earn you full credit). However, you should use the snippets to help track your progress and keep the teaching team (the course instructor and teaching assistants) up-to-date. As described below, snippets comprise answers to each of the following three questions:

What did I work on over the last week?
What am I planning to work on next week?
What are the impediments to my progress?

In most cases, roughly 2--4 sentences should be sufficient to answer each question. In total, filling out your snippet each week should take you around 5 minutes.

What did you work on over the last week?

Briefly describe key milestones achieved, tasks accomplished, and other project elements that required your time, effort, and/or resources. Some examples:

Last week I worked with my team to brainstorm project ideas. We decided to

design an experiment to study potential links between happiness and weather.

Last week I ran 5 participants in our task. This brings our total number of

participants to 45. We hope to run 50 participants in total.

Last week I worked with my group members to design our project poster. We

spent several hours watching Adobe Illustrator tutorials, which enabled us to become proficient enough to create an initial draft. I devoted most of my time to selecting a beautiful font for the poster.

During the very first week's snippet (due on the first day of the first project week-- May 2, 2022), you can either leave this question blank, or you can insert some filler text:

Because this is the first project week, I have no project progress to report for the prior week.

What are you planning to work on next week?

Briefly describe key planned milestones, tasks, and other aspects of the project. These should appear in your answer to the next week's "what did you work on over the last week?" question. Some examples:

This week I am planning to implement our team's experiment. I will also

purchase the necessary equipment, including 37 packages of chewing gum, a rechargeable 9-volt battery, the tail feather of an albino peacock, and a box of colored chalk.

This week I am planning to run our final 5 participants in our task. This will

conclude the data collection phase of our project.

This week I plan to print our group's poster. I also plan to practice my

portion of our poster presentation during skydiving practice this Thursday.

What are the impediments to your progress?

If you are currently stuck on anything, or if you foresee potential roadblocks to your (or your group's) progress, describe them here. If you require assistance in solving or circumventing the impediments, you should also reach out separately to your teaching team to make sure they are aware of the issues. Work with your project team and teaching team to create a plan for moving forward. Some examples:

Unfortunately the feather store was all out of albino peacock feathers. We

were able to adapt the relevant aspects of our experiment to instead rely on 6 rubber bands.

There were no impediments to my, or my group's, progress this week. I do not

foresee any impediments to our progress in the coming week.

I accidentally defined the paper size for my group's poster in units of millimeters instead of inches. We will

need to re-print the poster using the corrected scaling.

Using GenAI

You may use generative AI to help organize your thoughts and draft your weekly snippets. However:

Snippets must reflect your genuine understanding of your group project's progress and your personal contributions
Generic, boilerplate AI-generated summaries are not acceptable — your snippet should contain specific details that only someone actively involved in the project would know
Use AI to help you articulate what you've learned, not to replace the reflection process

The weekly snippet is a low-stakes opportunity to practice honest self-assessment and clear communication about ongoing work.

Additional notes

Each student must fill out their own snippet each week (although common elements may appear across students, especially within the same group). Snippets are due by 11:59 PM on each Monday during project weeks. No late snippets will be accepted.