In this section, Prof. Haynes Miller and Susan Ruff share the course calendar from Spring 2013 and describe some scheduling choices and disruptions.
The following calendar reflects the schedule for Spring 2013. Not included are the hour-long mentor meetings that occurred once a week for each of the student teams.
| WEEK # | TYPE | MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY | FRIDAY |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Other | — | — | — | — | No class at MIT (emergency cancellation) |
| 2 | Project 1 | Project 1 topic selection | Project 1 development | |||
| Other | Course introduction | — | — | — | Teamwork workshop | |
| 3 | Project 1 | Project 1 development | ||||
| Other | Presentation workshop | — | — | — | Writing workshop | |
| 4 | Project 1 | Project 1 development | Project 1 first draft due | |||
| Project 2 | — | — | — | — | Project 2 topic selection | |
| 5 | Project 1 | Project 1 debriefings (1 hour per team) | Project 1 development | |||
| Project 2 | Project 2 development | |||||
| Other | — | — | — | — | Team 1 practice presentation | |
| 6 | Project 1 | Project 1 development | Project 1 final draft due | — | — | |
| Project 2 | Project 2 development | |||||
| Other | Team 1 in-class presentation | — | — | — | Team 2 practice presentation | |
| 7 | Project 2 | Project 2 development | ||||
| Other | Team 2 in-class presentation | — | Team 3 practice presentation | — | — | |
| 8 | Other | No class at MIT (spring break) | ||||
| 9 | Project 2 | Project 2 development | ||||
| Other | Team 3 in-class presentation | — | — | — | — | |
| 10 | Project 2 | Project 2 first draft due | Project 2 development | Project 2 debriefings (1 hour per team) | ||
| Project 3 | Project 3 topic selection | Project 3 development | ||||
| Other | Team 4 practice presentation | — | — | — | Team 4 in-class presentation | |
| 11 | Project 2 | Project 2 development | Project 2 final draft due | — | — | |
| Project 3 | Project 3 development | |||||
| Other | No class at MIT | — | — | — | No class at MIT (emergency cancellation) | |
| 12 | Project 3 | Project 3 development | ||||
| Other | — | Team 5 practice presentation | — | — | Team 6 practice presentation; Team 5 in-class presentation | |
| 13 | Project 3 | Project 3 development | ||||
| Other | Team 6 in-class presentation | Team 7 practice presentation | Team 8 practice presentation | — | Team 7 in-class presentation | |
| 14 | Project 3 | Project 3 first draft due | Project 3 development | Project 3 debriefings (1 hour per team) | ||
| Other | Team 8 in-class presentation | — | — | — | Team 9 practice presentation | |
| 15 | Project 3 | Project 3 development | Project 3 final draft due | — | — | |
| Other | Team 9 in-class presentation | — | — | — | — | |
Scheduling Choices and Disruptions
Spring 2013 was a particularly disrupted term, with several university-wide emergency cancellations. This wreaked havoc on the workshop schedule and the planned project timelines. Our class was scheduled for a one-hour slot on Mondays and a two-hour slot on Fridays. We had intended to schedule the formal one-hour presentations on nine consecutive Mondays, with two-hour practice presentations on the preceding Fridays. Because of the disruptions, three of the presentations occurred on Fridays, and we had to scramble to schedule the practice presentations. The disruptions also forced us to run a shortened version of the presentation workshop in a one-hour slot instead of a two-hour slot.
Even without these disruptions, it was probably overly optimistic of us to think we could adhere to such a constrained schedule. We would have had a lot more flexibility if we had scheduled the class for two-hour time slots on both Mondays and Fridays.
Spring break also felt like a big interruption to the second project, although one student proved beautiful theorems while on vacation in Panama!