Planning and Executing Your Project

Sample Action Plans

Goal: Team Oral Presentation on Experiment #2 (Dialysis)

Date due: November 13, 1898

1. Outline

# of meetings needed: 1 (November 7th, 1898).
Person involved: Oral presenter writes the outline based on team inputs
# of hours needed to complete the task: 2 hours.
Task to accomplish the goal: The format and the content of the outline will be discussed during team meeting. The team presenter will then write the outline and submit it as a part of the team progress report.

Obstacles to goal: Team members have different opinions on how materials should be presented.
Strategies / Resources used to overcome obstacles: 1) Work on a compromise that is acceptable to all members of the team. 2) Ask team advisor for suggestions. (e.g. How presentations were given in the past.)

2. Gathering laboratory data

# of lab sessions needed: 6 (October 23rd – November 6th).

Persons involved: Team members work collaboratively on data acquisition
# of hours needed to complete the task: 20 hr; 8 hr – calibrations and sample run. 12 hr – do actual runs with and without ultrasound, taking concentration, pressure, and IR measurements.
Tasks to accomplish goal: Tasks to accomplish goal: 1) Ally and Allan do Dialysate flow rate and blood-side flow rate calibrations. 2) Aaron and Sally do IR spectrum calibration. 3) Allan and Ally run mass transfer experiments without ultrasound to determine steady state. 4) Ally and Allan run mass transfer experiments with and without ultrasound. Aaron will measure pressure during runs and Sally will do IR readings. 5) Compare data and determine whether ultrasound enhances mass transfer.
Obstacles to goal: 1) Unfamiliar with the operation of some lab equipments. 2) Systematic errors in data acquisition. 3) Having air bubbles trapped inside the dialyzer. 4) Lack of background knowledge on mass transfer.

Strategies / Resources used to overcome obstacles: 1) Ask lab instructors or team advisor for assistance when problem regarding equipment operation arises. 2) Resort to textbooks or other scientific literatures for background information on mass transfer. 3) Discuss team’s progress with advisor regularly.

3. Analyzing and discussing data and results.

http:fudeadmyDocs# of meeting needed: 2 (November 7th, and November 9th)
Persons involved: All four members of the team. Data analysis will be broken down into four parts. Each member of the team will be given one part to work on individually. The results will then be integrated during team meeting.

# of hours needed to complete the task: 4-6 hours for each person
Tasks to accomplish goal: 1) Dialysate flow rate and blood-side flow rate calibration curve. 2) IR spectrum calibration curve. 3) Mass balances on each dialysis test run. 4) Comparison on mass transfer data before and after using ultrasound bath.

Obstacles to goal: 1) Lack of data. 2) Lack of background knowledge that is essential to data analysis. 3) Team members disagree on methods of calculation. 4) Team members have different standards on work quality.

Strategies / Resources used to overcome obstacles: 1) When differences arise, either on methods of calculation or on standards of work quality, try to come up with a compromise that is acceptable to all team members. When compromise cannot be reached, bring the issue up at meetings with advisor. 2) Read about mass transfer before plunging into doing calculations. 3) Write down every observation made in the lab.

4. Creating Graphic Representations

# of meeting needed: 1. (November 11th)

Persons involved: Each member of the team will work on _ of the task. The results will then be integrated during team meeting.

# of hours needed to complete the task: 4-5 hours for each person.
Tasks to accomplish goal: 1) Calibration curves (e.g. Flowrates, IR spectrum). 2) Comparison of mass transfer data before and after using ultrasound.

Obstacles to goal: 1) Differences of opinion among team members. 2) Members of the team didn’t finish work on time. 3) Members of the team have trouble making a certain graph.

Strategies / Resources used to overcome obstacles: 1) Willing to make compromises when differences in opinion arise. 2) If a member did not finish work on time, the team leader should ask him to finish his work before the next team meeting. If the situation persists, resort to advisor for help. 3) If a team member has trouble on a particular problem, the team should help him by working through the problem with him.

5. Creating overheads

# of meeting needed: 1 (November 11th)
Persons involved: The team presenter makes overheads based on team inputs.
# of hours needed to complete the task: 6-8 hours.
Tasks to accomplish goal: Making the overheads, including graphs, tables and text.
Obstacles to goal: Team members have different opinions on what material should be put on the overheads.
Strategies / Resources used to overcome obstacles: Make compromises when differences in opinion arise. If compromise cannot be reached, ask for assistance from advisor.

6. Practice presentation with team

# of meeting needed: 1 (November12th)
Persons involved: Presenter practices in front of the rest of the team.
# of hours needed to complete the task: 1 hour.
Tasks to accomplish goal: The oral presenter will give a practice talk to the rest of the team.
Obstacles to goal: Team members have different opinions on presentation style.
Strategies / Resources used to overcome obstacles: Make a compromise that is acceptable to each team member.

7. Practice presentation with advisor

# of meeting needed: 1 (have to be scheduled with team advisor)
Persons involved: Presenter practices in front of his teammates and the team advisor.
# of hours needed to complete the task: 1 hour.
Tasks to accomplish goal: The oral presenter will give a practice talk in front of his teammates and the team advisor.

Obstacles to goal: 1) Schedule conflicts. 2) The oral presenter didn’t finish making overheads.
Strategies / Resources used to overcome obstacles: 1) Schedule a meeting with advisor one week in advance. 2) Team should remind the presenter of the meeting at least two days in advance.

8. Final critique by presenter

# of meeting needed: 1 (November12th)
Persons involved: Presenter receives final critiques from his teammates.
# of hours needed to complete the task: _ to 1 hour.
Tasks to accomplish goal: 1) Revision of overheads. 2) Do another practice presentation if necessary.
Obstacles to goal: 1) Overheads are still not organized. 2) The presenter did not make changes on overheads based on the suggestions he had received from both his teammates and the team advisor.
Strategies / Resources used to overcome obstacles: 1) Team should remind the presenter to make changes on overheads. 2) Give constructive critiques

GOAL: ORAL PRESENTATION ACTION PLAN

Date due: October 18th, 1898

1. Outline

Due date: October 10th, 1898
# of meetings needed: 1 (October 5th, 1898).
Person involved: All four members of the team.
# of hours needed to complete the task: 2 hours.
Task to accomplish the goal: The format and the content of the outline will be discussed during team meeting. The team presenter will then write the outline and submit it as a part of the team progress report.

Obstacles to goal: Team members have different opinions on how materials should be presented. Team members who cannot attend team meeting.

Strategies / Resources used to overcome obstacles: 1) Work on a compromise that is acceptable to all members of the team. 2) Ask team advisor for suggestions. (e.g. How presentations were given in the past.) 3) Implement ground rules concerning conflict management and task delegation.

2. Gathering laboratory data

# of lab sessions needed: 9 (September 14th – October 16th).
Persons involved: All four members of the team.
# of hours needed to complete the task: 30 hours.
Tasks to accomplish goal: 1) Calibration of the densitometer. 2) Calibration of the thermocouples. 3) A distillation run with total reflux taking time versus temperature data. Take sample concentrations at various time intervals corresponding to changes in heater power. 4) Run true batch distillations, varying reflux ratios in order to maintain constant product stream concentration.
Obstacles to goal: 1) Inaccuracy of lab instruments. 2) Unfamiliarity with operation of various lab equipment. 3) Breaking of lab equipment. 4) Lack of real world experience with batch distillation versus our theoretical knowledge.

Strategies / Resources used to overcome obstacles: 1) Ask lab instructors or team advisor for assistance when problem regarding equipment operation arises. 2) Resort to textbooks or other scientific literatures for background information on batch distillation. 3) Discuss team’s progress with advisor regularly. 4) Be careful when handling lab equipment. 5) Practice makes perfect.

3. Analyzing and discussing data and results.

# of meeting needed: 2 for data analysis and 2 for discussions (September 28 – October 12).
Persons involved: All four members of the team. Data analysis will be broken down into four parts. Each member of the team will be given one part to work on individually. The results will then be integrated into one complete analysis during team meeting.

# of hours needed to complete the task: 6-8 hours for each person
Tasks to accomplish goal: 1) Construct McCabe-Thiele diagrams for batch distillation. 2) Mass balances and energy balances of the distillation system. 3) Calculation of vapor velocity, reflux ratio, and distillate concentration for each run of batch distillation. 4) Stage efficiency calculation. 5) Temperature change inside the column.

Obstacles to goal: 1) Lack of data. 2) Lack of background knowledge that is essential to data analysis. 3) Team members disagree on methods of calculation. 4) Team members have different standards on work quality.

Strategies / Resources used to overcome obstacles: 1) When differences arise, either on methods of calculation or on standards of work quality, try to come up with a compromise that is acceptable to all team members. When compromise cannot be reached, bring the issue up at meetings with advisor. 2) Read about distillation before plunging into doing calculations. 3) Write down every observation made in the lab.

4. Creating Graphic Representations

# of meeting needed: 2. (October 12th – October 15th)
Persons involved: Each member of the team will work on _ of the task. The results will then be integrated into one during team meeting.

# of hours needed to complete the task: 4-5 hours for each person.
Tasks to accomplish goal: 1) McCabe-Thiele diagrams for batch distillation. 2) Column efficiency graphs. 3) Graphs of temperature variation as a function of time.

Obstacles to goal: 1) Differences of opinion among team members. 2) Members of the team didn’t finish work on time. 3) Members of the team have trouble making a certain graph.
Strategies / Resources used to overcome obstacles: 1) Willing to make compromises when differences in opinion arise. 2) If a member did not finish work on time, the team leader should give him a stern warning and ask him to finish his work before the next team meeting. If the situation persists, resort to advisor for help. 3) If a team member has trouble on a particular problem, the team should help him by working through the problem with him.

5. Creating overheads

# of meeting needed: 1 (October 12th – October 15th)
Persons involved: The team presenter will make the overheads based on the inputs she receives from her teammates during meeting.

# of hours needed to complete the task: 6-8 hours.

Tasks to accomplish goal: Making the overheads, including graphs, tables and text.
Obstacles to goal: Team members have different opinions on what material should be put on the overheads.

Strategies / Resources used to overcome obstacles: Make compromises when differences in opinion arise. If compromise cannot be reached, ask assistance from advisor.

6. Practice presentation with team

# of meeting needed: 1 (October 16th)
Persons involved: Presenter practices in front of the rest of the team.
# of hours needed to complete the task: 1 hour.
Tasks to accomplish goal: The oral presenter will give a practice talk to the rest of the team.
Obstacles to goal: Team members have different opinions on presentation style.
Strategies / Resources used to overcome obstacles: Make a compromise that is acceptable to each team member.

7. Practice presentation with advisor

# of meeting needed: 1 (have to be scheduled with team advisor)
Persons involved: Presenter practices in front of her teammates and the team advisor.
# of hours needed to complete the task: 1 hour.
Tasks to accomplish goal: The oral presenter will give a practice talk in front of her teammates and the team advisor.

Obstacles to goal: 1) Schedule conflicts. 2) The oral presenter didn’t finish making overheads.
Strategies / Resources used to overcome obstacles: 1) Schedule a meeting with advisor two weeks in advance. 2) The team should remind the presenter of the meeting at least two days in advance.

8. Final critique by presenter

# of meeting needed: 1 (October 17th)
Persons involved: All members of the team
# of hours needed to complete the task: _ to 1 hour.
Tasks to accomplish goal: 1) Revision of overheads. 2) Do another practice presentation if necessary.
Obstacles to goal: 1) Overheads are still not organized. 2) Presenter has not make changes on overheads since the last practice presentation.
Strategies / Resources used to overcome obstacles: 1) Remind the team presenter to organize overheads during team meetings. 2) Let the presenter know that she could always ask her teammates for help.

GOAL: EXPERIMENT ACTION PLAN

Date Due: October 11th

Important Milestones for getting the Goal accomplished:

1. Running batch column at steady state.
2. Make True batch runs to produce an overhead product with the tray column
3. Run a packed column at steady state and as a batch still.

1) Running batch column at steady state.

# of lab sessions needed: 2: September 20th – September 25th.
Tasks to accomplish goal: 1) calibrate densitometer and thermocouples. 2) prepare McCabe-Thiele diagrams for the methanol-water solution. 3) make standards to check densitometer drift every lab period. 4) run column and record temperature profile, and sample for compositions. 5) vary heater power to see how the degree of boil up affects separation.
Obstacles to goal: 1) Column is defective and doesn’t run properly. 2) Don’t have adequate supply of methanol. 3) Temperature gets too high and we get poor separation.
Strategies to use to overcome goals: 1) seek help from lab technicians and faculty advisor. 2) Turn power down and wait for column conditions adjust.
Persons assigned to each task: Sheng – research background information on batch distillation. Sally – prepare M-T diagram. Allan – basic project schedule. Aaron– lab procedures. Sally and Allan – make standards for densitometer calibration curve. Allan and Aaron – operate column and record data.
# of hours need to complete task: 8 – 2 lab periods. 8 – to complete review of theory and planning.
Resources needed to do the task: distillation column, background information, methanol/water solution. densitometer, thermocouples, syringes to take samples.

2. Run a true batch column.

# of Lab Periods necessary to complete: 2 (September 27th – October 2nd)
Tasks to accomplish Goal: 1) run column and vary reflux ratio. 2) take reflux ratio versus overhead composition data.
Obstacles to Goal: 1) broken reflux gate. 2) unfamiliarity with procedure.
Strategies to overcome goal: 1) report broken equipment. 2) consult faculty advisor about procedure.
Persons assigned to each task: Ally– record temperature data. Sally – take samples and measure density. Aaron– make adjustments on column as necessary. Allan – manages overall procedure and help where needed. Start to analyze data. Liaison between faculty advisor and team.
Support people involved: Prof. . lab technicians.

3. Run a packed column.

# of Lab periods necessary to complete: 2 (October 4th – 11th)
Tasks to accomplish goal: 1) install the packed column. 2) run at steady state. 3) Find limits of flooding and maldistribution. 3) Compare separation obtained to that of the tray column. 4) Also run batch column to compare results in a similar fashion.
Obstacles to goal: 1) Not having packing material for column. 2) Unfamiliarity with concepts behind packed column.

Strategies to overcome obstacles: 1) make sure before hand that material is available on time. 2) Have a faculty meeting to discuss concepts and make sure we understand.
Persons needed: all members of team working together on all aspects. One installs the equipment, and divide up measuring of data same as in other labs.

GOAL: WRITTEN ACTION PLAN

Date due: October 18th,

Important Milestones for getting the Goal accomplished:

1. Producing a first draft
2. Revising and editing to final draft status

1. Outline

Due date: October 10th, 1898
# of meetings needed: 1 (October 5th, 1898).
Person involved: All four members of the team.
# of hours needed to complete the task: 2 hours.
Task to accomplish the goal: The format and the content of the outline will be discussed during the team meeting. The team will then write the outline and submit it as a part of the team progress report.
Obstacles to goal: Team members have different opinions on how materials should be written. Team members who cannot attend team meeting.
Strategies / Resources used to overcome obstacles: 1) Work on a compromise that is acceptable to all members of the team. 2) Ask team advisor for suggestions. (e.g. How presentations were given in the past.) 3) Implement ground rules concerning conflict management and task delegation.

2. Gathering laboratory data

# of lab sessions needed: 9 (September 14th – October 16th).
Persons involved: All four members of the team.
# of hours needed to complete the task: 30 hours.
Tasks to accomplish goal: 1) Calibration of the densitometer. 2) Calibration of the thermocouples. 3) A distillation run with total reflux taking time versus temperature data. Take sample concentrations at various time intervals corresponding to changes in heater power. 4) Run true batch distillations, varying reflux ratios in order to maintain constant product stream concentration.
Obstacles to goal: 1) Inaccuracy of lab instruments. 2) Unfamiliarity with operation of various lab equipment. 3) Breaking of lab equipment. 4) Lack of real world experience with batch distillation versus our theoretical knowledge.

Strategies / Resources used to overcome obstacles: 1) Ask lab instructors or team advisor for assistance when problem regarding equipment operation arises. 2) Resort to textbooks or other scientific literatures for background information on batch distillation. 3) Discuss team’s progress with advisor regularly. 4) Be careful when handling lab equipment. 5) Practice makes perfect.

3. Analyzing and discussing data and results.

# of meeting needed: 2 for data analysis and 2 for discussions (September 28 – October 12).
Persons involved: All four members of the team. Data analysis will be broken down into four parts. Each member of the team will be given one part to work on individually. The results will then be integrated into one complete analysis during team meeting.

# of hours needed to complete the task: 6-8 hours for each person
Tasks to accomplish goal: 1) Construct McCabe-Thiele diagrams for batch distillation. 2) Mass balances and energy balances of the distillation system. 3) Calculation of vapor velocity, reflux ratio, and distillate concentration for each run of batch distillation. 4) Stage efficiency calculation. 5) Temperature change inside the column.

Obstacles to goal: 1) Lack of data. 2) Lack of background knowledge that is essential to data analysis. 3) Team members disagree on methods of calculation. 4) Team members have different standards on work quality.

Strategies / Resources used to overcome obstacles: 1) When differences arise, either on methods of calculation or on standards of work quality, try to come up with a compromise that is acceptable to all team members. When compromise cannot be reached, bring the issue up at meetings with advisor. 2) Read about distillation before plunging into doing calculations. 3) Write down every observation made in the lab.

4. Creating the First Draft

# of meeting needed: 2. (October 12th – October 13th)
Persons involved: Each member of the team, excluding the presenter, will work on 1/3 of the task. The results will then be integrated into one during team meeting.
# of hours needed to complete the task: 4-5 hours for each person.
Tasks to accomplish goal: 1) Writing of the introduction, abstract, materials and methods, results, discussion, and conclusion 2) Preparation of all graphs and tables
Obstacles to goal: 1) Differences of opinion among team members. 2) Members of the team didn’t finish work on time. 3) Members of the team have writing problems
Strategies / Resources used to overcome obstacles: 1) Willing to make compromises when differences in opinion arise. 2) If a member did not finish work on time, the team leader should give him a stern warning and ask him to finish his work before the next team meeting. If the situation persists, resort to advisor for help. 3) If a team member has trouble on a particular problem, the team should help him by working through the problem with him.

5. Creating the Second Draft

# of meeting needed: 1 (October 14th – October 15th)
Persons involved: The entire team, the Writing Center, revision suggestions from the Faculty Advisor or TA
# of hours needed to complete the task: 6-8 hours.
Tasks to accomplish goal: Improving the First Draft with the suggestions given by the Writing Center, TA, Faculty Advisor, Practicum Teacher; Any additional or revised data workups will also be incorporated
Strategies / Resources used to overcome obstacles: Make compromises when differences in opinion arise; Seek as much input from outside sources as possible; Plan ahead to make sure that the resources needed (i.e. people, references, data) will be available when time comes to write the second draft.

6. Creating the Final Draft

# of meeting needed: 2 (October 16-17th)
Persons involved: All team members excluding the presenter
# of hours needed to complete the task: 6-8 hour.
Tasks to accomplish goal: With input from the first and second drafts, finalize the paper
Obstacles to goal: Team is preparing for the oral presentation concurrently
Strategies / Resources used to overcome obstacles: Practice time management skills that will make sure both written and oral presentations will be given full attention