Group Sociology Project

This project, done in groups of three members, is worth 30% of the total Course grade.

The project is a two-part engagement with any one of the sociology articles in the LIBS 7007 Course Reader.

1. Phase One is a fifteen-minute seminar that presents an analysis and explanation of your selected article from the LIBS 7007, Technology & Society Reader in terms of its relevance to Mechanical Engineers.
2. Phase Two is an engineered study guide which allows any Mechanical Engineer or Mechanical Engineering student to navigate, comprehend, and make workable sense of your chosen sociology article. In accordance with this purpose, the project form and platform will itself be immediately congenial to, and functional for, the specified population of users.

Deadline.

1. Phase One of the project is delivered on a post-Mid-Term course Friday of your choosing. See the Course Syllabus for the sign-up date.
2. Phase Two of the project must be completed by 23:59:59, December 14th 2014.

Grading Metric. The project effort will be considered to be 30% multiplied by the number of members in your group. So the three-member group will produce a project which is expected to represent 90% of a BCIT Course's effort. There will be one Group Grade that applies to all Group members.

Grading Criteria. The project will be graded on specific published criteria. TBA.

Delivery Requirements.The twin primary requirements for both Phase One and Phase Two of the project are comprehensibility and delivery of understanding. A secondary requirement is worth assessment: which will result from your Group's analysis of your selected sociology article. If in either Phase One or Phase Two your Group determines that you selected sociology article has no benefit for the working Mechanical Engineer, then that assessment will be a part of your deliverable. However, note that your assessment must be framed within the context of Course lecture on the basic Course concepts of (a.) technology and (b.) society

Project Group Management. Each group will organise itself collaboratively. Division of responsibilities and tasks, schedule of dates for progress and deliverables, decisions relating to the realisation of the project criteria, and personnel-related matters, are all the responsibility of the group members in consensus. Where a  decision is required that defies consensus, the Course Instructor is the de jure Project Manager.

Project Focus. In fidelity to the project criteria, the focus, philosophy, structure, and conceptualisation of the completed project is at the decision of the group. The primary focus, however, must be be on producing a result which makes your chosen sociology article accessible and functionally comprehensible to Mechanical Engineers in Canada.

Project Scope. The scope (and thus the size)  of the project is determined by (a.) the purpose and (b.) the grading metric detailed above. The Course lectures are the fundamental frame for the scope, but additional Group research in support will be assumed, to a degree set by the Delivery Requirements, above.

Project Work. Friday classes in LIBS 7007 will have fifteen minutes assigned for work on Phase Two of the Group Project. This quarter-hour can be used for the group to discuss and synthesise that week's lecture material in LIBS 7007 and to work on understanding, formatting, and incorporating that week's material into the project. The Instructor is, of course, available for consultation during the time.

It is expected that significant work on the project will also be done outside class-time, in line with the 30% of Course grading that the project represent per student.

Project Sign-Up. Sign Up for a Phase One date is in class Sept. 16th. A one- or two-page Outline for Phase Two of the project is due in hard copy at the start of lecture on Course Week Six, October 10th. Outline criteria TBA.

Dr. Stephen A. Ogden, BCIT LIBS