The Global Challenge Award Giving Students the Tools & Confidence to Solve Global Problems Together
STEM Mentor's Guide 2008-2009
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TABLE OF CONTENTS WELCOME AND OVERVIEW .................................................................................................................. 3 WELCOME .................................................................................................................................................... 3 OVERVIEW OF THE GLOBAL CHALLENGE AWARD ....................................................................................... 4 TECHNICAL INNOVATION PLAN (TIP) .......................................................................................................... 4 GLOBAL BUSINESS PLAN (GBP) .................................................................................................................. 5 MINI CHALLENGES ....................................................................................................................................... 6 HOW POINTS AND PRIZES ARE AWARDED .................................................................................................... 7 CONTACT INFORMATION .............................................................................................................................. 8 GETTING STARTED................................................................................................................................... 9 WHAT YOU NEED ........................................................................................................................................ 9 THE GLOBAL CHALLENGE AWARD WEBSITE............................................................................................. 10 USING GLOBENET (HTTP://GLOBENET.GLOBALCHALLENGEAWARD.ORG) ................................................. 11 eFOLIO (HTTP://MY-EFOLIO.COM) .............................................................................................................. 13 HOW TO USE EFOLIO .................................................................................................................................. 14 To Start a New Work Document: .......................................................................................................... 14 To Make a Comment on a Piece of Work: ............................................................................................ 15 DESCRIPTION OF THE MENTOR'S ROLE ......................................................................................... 16 OVERVIEW ................................................................................................................................................. 16 WHEN AND HOW ARE TEAMS ASSIGNED?.................................................................................................. 16 YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES ............................................................................................................................ 17 UNDERSTANDING KEY MILESTONES .......................................................................................................... 17 COMMUNICATION....................................................................................................................................... 19 How to Introduce Yourself to Your Team Members ............................................................................. 19 Mentor Protocols .................................................................................................................................. 20 Communicating with the Team’s Adult Advisors.................................................................................. 24 Communicating with the Mentor Coordinator...................................................................................... 24 Collaborating with other Mentors ........................................................................................................ 25 HANDLING ISSUES................................................................................................................................... 26 NON-COMMUNICATING TEAM MEMBERS ................................................................................................... 26 DROP-OUTS ................................................................................................................................................ 26 BOUNDARY ISSUES ..................................................................................................................................... 27 ANSWERING QUESTIONS REGARDING POINTS ........................................................................................... 27 BALANCING MENTORING WITH SCHOOL AND LIFE .................................................................................... 27
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Welcome and Overview Welcome Welcome aboard! You have been chosen as a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) Mentor in the Global Challenge Award competition. This Mentor's Guide will provide a broad overview of the Global Challenge, explain your role within the program, describe the tools and applications you will use, and provide sample E-mails to aid you in communicating with your teams. You are a valuable member of the Global Challenge Award community and we are excited to have you mentor our participants! Your participation will help high school students understand the scientific and technical content of their proposed business solutions to real world problems, such as global warming and the energy crisis. Given the diverse makeup of the international teams and the age range with which you will be working, you will also find yourself helping your teams in other ways. For many of the participants, the challenge of working collaboratively with an international team of students who live in disparate time zones and have different school schedules will be frustrating and you may need to help your students develop effective global communication skills to appropriately handle issues that may arise. Students at this age may also have trouble articulating their ideas effectively. Some teams may lack an “initiator” who gets the team organized and moving – your help in teaching members how to be both a leader and team player may make the difference between finishing the challenge or dropping out. This is a wonderful opportunity for you to give back to society and to offer students information that you wished you had access to when you were in high school. Based on the experiences of some of our former Mentors, you may be surprised at how much you learn yourself throughout the course of this year!
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Overview of the Global Challenge Award The Global Challenge Award is an online international competition for high school aged students that strengthens skills in the areas of science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and critical thinking while learning about global business practices. The competition challenges students to develop innovative solutions to a socially relevant global problem, such as global warming and the future of energy. Teams of US high school students collaborate with international counterparts from October to May to address global climate change and compete for prizes and scholarship awards. Some of the projects require teams, and others are activities that can be worked on individually. The following is a list of projects that students can complete: •
Technical Innovation Plan (TIP) – a team-based innovative idea
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Global Business Plan (GBP) – a team-based innovative idea plus business plan
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Mini Challenges – individual activities, some which involve friends
A short description of each of these projects is described below.
Technical Innovation Plan (TIP) The Technical Innovation Plan (TIP) competition requires teams to collaborate on a solution to the global warming problem or address some aspect of the future of global energy sources (e.g. a solar powered car, an energy efficient refrigerator, etc.). Students prepare a document guided by a score card (the TIP Rubric) that explains their idea, describes the underlying physics, environmental science, technology and math that make their product or process work, and show how their idea reduces the generation of greenhouse gases. The major elements of the TIP are: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
Table of Contents Title Page and Executive Summary Basic Description of your product Technology & Integration Create a Model Key Personnel Bibliography Appendix
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Since doing the work of the TIP is a major step toward the longer Global Business Plan., you may want to suggest to your teams that they submit all the above work with minor editing to fulfill major sections of the GBP. Teams may use any resource they choose (e.g. books, experts, teachers, the Internet, software, Global Resources). In their final document, they must cite every resource used and how they were used, following a guideline known as APA formatting. More on this later. Points for the TIP competition are awarded by an external panel review of the final team product scored with the TI Rubric, plus the total number of individual points earned divided by the number of student team members.
Global Business Plan (GBP) The Global Business Plan (GBP) is the largest challenge that we offer and is an extension of the Technical Innovation Plan. The GBP competition requires teams to develop a complete business plan guided by a score card - the GBP Rubric - regarding their technical innovation in order for their idea to be adopted globally. In addition to the description of the solution idea required in the TIP competition, the business plan also includes a discussion of the proposed solution’s impact on the relevant manufacturing or service industry, market conditions, manufacturing and operations, and financial and political feasibility. A business plan format was chosen to ensure that students are working towards technical solutions that are economically viable, demonstrate scientific and technical understanding, and provide evidence of knowledge of global teamwork, communications and business practices. Teams have Web-access to the GBP Rubric at all times and are encouraged to work iteratively on their business plan using the rubric and feedback from team members and you, their Mentor. The major elements of the business plan are: 1. Table of Contents 2. Executive Summary 3. Industry Analysis 4. Product Description & Technical Analysis 5. Market Analysis 6. Manufacturing and Operations 7. Financial & Political Feasibility 8. Key Personnel 9. Bibliography 10. Appendix
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Just like the TIP, teams may use any resource they choose (e.g. books, experts, teachers, the Internet, software, Global Resources). In the plan, they must cite every resource used and how they were used. Points for this competition are earned by external panel review of the final team product scored with the BP Rubric, plus the total number of individual points earned divided by the number of student team members.
Mini Challenges The mini challenges portion of the Global Challenge Award includes the STEM Explorations, Green Earth Corp projects, and Design TASC. The Design TASC has a requirement that a teacher help support the project, so the teacher should be the student’s main contact for this activity. Each activity is described below. STEM Explorations are small, medium, and large self-guided study units in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. Some explorations are designed to be done individually, while others make use of an ad hoc team of friends. The student does not have to use his or her TIP or GBP team, but may choose to do so on some explorations. The Global Challenge’s added value to precollege STEM education models comes in part from the inclusion of these short, stand-alone, selfdirected units of study that teams are challenged to complete in order to accrue additional points towards their overall score. These mini-challenges link STEM concepts by connecting them to the overarching global challenge problem as well as to ideas in global systems science and the study of complex systems. Game and simulation-based learning ideas are used to engage students in the study of the various STEM topics, by leveraging existing online resources, such as simulations, minimovies, games, interactive tutorials, flash animations and other visually interesting STEM applications, in the development of these mini-challenges. Students can complete STEM Explorations at their own pace and in any order they choose. Each STEM Exploration consists of up to three levels: the BASIC, the GOING BEYOND, and the GOING CRAZY. Students can earn points that can be redeemed for prizes and help them improve their chances of winning a Scholarship Award.
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Green Earth Corp’s mission is to reduce global emissions of green house gases while improving the quality of science, technology, engineering and mathematics education through project-based service learning and green jobs for youth worldwide. There are 3 projects you can choose to complete and you earn monetary prizes and individual points. Design TASC is sponsored by the College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences at the University of Vermont. This competition gives teams of high school students the challenge and satisfaction of designing, building, and testing a device to perform a specified task. Then they ship it or bring it to the University of Vermont to compete with hundreds of other solutions in a wild twoday event. Awards go to individuals as well as their school. The Technology and Society Connections (TASC) competition is another way to gain individual points.
How Points and Prizes are Awarded The Technical Innovation Plan and Global Business Plan final projects will be judged based on final submissions posted in eFolio in accordance with the TIP Rubric or GBP Rubric, depending on the submission. Final awards will also take into account the number of points accumulated by each team in the Points & Prizes System. Judging will take place between May 1 and May 30, with final results announced on June 1. . Each final submission is reviewed by two tiers of judges: internal Global Challenge award staff and external academicians, science and engineering professionals and business leaders. All evaluation results are posted online to ensure the transparency of the judging process. Scholarship Awards will be given to individual team members for first, second and third place standings in the Best Technical Innovation Plan as well as the Best Global Business Plan. You can find more information about the Global Challenge Award at: http://www.globalchallengeaward.org/thisyearschallenge/contestrules.html. Individual team members will be awarded points for both team and individual efforts. In order for students to receive points, work must be posted in the correct folder with the correct title in eFolio. Team members may redeem points for any of the prizes after June 1. You are not responsible for awarding points to your team members, but you should be familiar enough with the rubrics to be sure your teams are including everything they need in order to collect the maximum amount of points. You are encouraged to give feedback to your teams just like an official judge. Specific values of points are outlined for each project and you can explain this to your students. If your students
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have specific questions regarding points or the judging process, please have them contact David Gibson at
[email protected].
Contact Information We want you to feel confident in the full support of the staff at the Global Challenge Award. For any questions, concerns, issues, suggestions, etc. please do not hesitate to contact any of the staff at the Global Challenge. Here’s a brief synopsis of the staff and who you should contact: David Gibson is the Executive Director of the Global Challenge. He is available to answer any general questions you have about the Global Challenge and he is responsible for awarding points and posting them to the website. His E-mail address is
[email protected] and his Skype address is dcgibson. Kendra Sowers is the coordinator for all the mentors. She is the person who is available to help you through any team issues that arise or if you have general questions about your mentoring role. She will be in touch with you regularly to review milestones that are due and to encourage you to communicate with your team. Her E-mail address is
[email protected] and her Skype address is Kendra.Sowers. Susan Hull-Grasso is the Director of STEM Development and oversees the entire STEM curriculum. Her E-mail address is
[email protected] and her Skype address is Susan.Hull.Grasso. For more detailed information on the staff at the Global Challenge Award, please go to www.globalchallengeaward.org and select the Contact Us button. Under the Management Team link, you will find a description of all the Global Challenge Award staff along with their contact information.
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Getting Started To be fully prepared to fulfill your role as a Mentor, you will need to get access to some electronic applications and familiarize yourself with how to use these tools and how the Global Challenge Award works.
What You Need You will need the following tools to get started in your role as STEM Mentor: An Email account. Email is our most important channel of communication. We’d like your students to know your email address, use it often, and hear regularly from you. Students can “drop out” at any time by not answering emails, and if they stay out of communication with you after a few attempts, they are taken off of their team and our registration lists. A few students ask to be taken off, and we’re happy to oblige them at any time. However, we want you to be sensitive to students who might sound like they are on the verge of giving up, but who just need more encouragement and support to take their next step. We want all students who want to be part of the Global Challenge to be very welcomed, fully supported and not pressured except by their own desire to achieve something for themselves. Access to a personal computer on a regular basis. You need your own personal computer or regular access to one. Some colleges and other settings don’t allow you to download applications (like Skype) except to your own computer. Skype (a free Instant Messenger tool). Skype is useful for synchronous communications (chat, video conferencing and voice over the Internet). It is free and many of our students use it. To download it, go to http://www.skype.com. You can add Kendra (kendra.sowers), Susan (susan.hull.grasso) and David (dcgibson) as some of your first contacts. Know about previous winner’s projects. You should review the projects of previous winners so that you will see the quality and presentation of the final work product. See http://www.globalchallengeaward.org/team_tools/patentoffice/2008winners.html.
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Become familiar with the Global Challenge website (www.globalchallengeaward.org). We want you to be very familiar with the Global Challenge Award website and the electronic applications we use to connect team members together and share documents. The website is the launching point for the two electronic applications that we use at the Global Challenge Award: GlobeNet and eFolio. Each of these sites launch back to the other two. In what follows, we give you step-by-step instructions for using these applications. We assume you know how to use Email and can figure out how to use an instant messenger tool such as Skype, so we will only describe the website, GlobeNet and eFolio functions.
The Global Challenge Award Website The website provides the latest information on the Global Challenge Award program and will help familiarize the mentors with the organization’s goals and structure. The Global Challenge Website and applications are the starting point for outreach to the world. The website is the repository of everything everyone needs to know about the project (rules, prizes, points, research topics, etc.). From the main website, students and adults from around the world register at GlobeNet, which provides them with a personal web page and a map of the world to locate and make friends. Students form small teams with a friend and an adult they know, and then join with a similar team to form an International Team – the basic working unit for the biggest challenges and rewards. Each team saves its work and applies for points by posting things in the eFolio. Challenges and Activities: This area of the main web site describes all the projects and their associated activities in which the students can participate. Depending on what projects the students chooses to complete, he/she will see tabbed items off their homepage with the appropriate project choices. The following items are located in the Challenges and Activities link: •
TIP Challenge – build a technical innovation plan
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GBP Challenge – build a global business plan
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Mini Challenges – learn science, technology, engineering & math content, join Green Earth Corps, make a movie, join TASC
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Team Tools: This link on the main web site is where all the electronic tools are housed that a student may use to form a team, store documents, communicate with their team members and advisor, and submit a patent. The following items are located under the Team Tools link: •
GlobeNet – find friends, make teams
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Team eFolio – get points, store documents, submit solutions
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Teleconference Room – talk and work with team members and friends
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Global Resources – search for articles and web sites
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Patent Office – submit your team’s innovative idea for protection and sharing
Using GlobeNet (http://globenet.globalchallengeaward.org) The GlobeNet application works closely with eFolio and the main web site and has three primary roles: 1. Build the registration database 2. Help students create country teams and international teams 3. Houses their personal home pages. When a student registers for the Global Challenge Award, they create their own personal webpage within GlobeNet. Their personal webpage is their main working area for the competition and contains links to the main web site as well as their team’s eFolio. On their personal webpage, students have an area to type messages, make a to do list, view their current team members, create a calendar for the team’s activities and milestones, and see a summary of projects with the current accrued points. A sample of the personal webpage is shown on the next page:
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If students join either the TIP or GBP, they are helped to form teams of four (2 students from the US and 2 from any other country, plus 2 adults nominated by students from both countries). Once this “International Team” is formed, students can begin working on any of the challenges and activities. Our first goal is to have students experience a successful global team effort. However, we also know that maintaining teams is very hard, and is even tougher when it is a global team. So, we’ve created many ways for students to continue working for great rewards even if their team has trouble; they can work on STEM Explorations or start other projects on their own.
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In addition to international team efforts, the student has the option of working individually on some activities. A few of these activities may require the student to create an ad hoc team, which is facilitated on their personal homepage. These activities are all located in the personal web page section under the GBP and TIP areas.
eFolio (http://my-efolio.com) In all cases, every student in The Global Challenge Award eventually gets access to eFolio and this is where YOU, the STEM Mentor, begin to work with the student – on any and every project they join or create. In every case, in order for the student to get points and be recognized for their work, evidence has to be submitted into eFolio, where it is stored, scored and recorded. Points show up on the student’s personal web page and, if they are on a team, then all students on the team can see the shared points of each team project. The eFolio application has three roles in recording and documenting: 1. Survey results 2. Work documents 3. Key conversations with you, their Mentor There is a section in eFolio for taking surveys and another section for storing documents and adding discussions. 1. Taking Surveys: Students take surveys so we can follow their progress and show what they get out of the experience. Some surveys are taken at the beginning of the year, others at the end. At the end of each Challenge or Activity, there is usually a small survey to take, which helps us document whether students learned something and how they felt about the activity. You do not need to see their results or bug them about taking the surveys; we just wanted you to know why we have them. 2. Creating Work: Unlike the Surveys, we DO want you to take an active role in relationship to the work documents. We would like you to comment on the documents to help the students do the best possible job with their answers. There are almost no limits to the help you can provide, short of actually writing the drafts and all editions for them. The point is for you to be a model of a good science-minded researcher and seeker of knowledge. We WANT them to see how you would say something, what you think about things, and what other resources you can think of to help expand upon their ideas. You are allowed to edit their writing as much as you like or want to, but don‘t drift over into doing most of their work for
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them. Because we want you to use the eFolio to interact with the students, we will describe in more detail how to use the buttons and functions in eFolio in the section following.
How to Use eFolio In this section we will describe how to create a new work document and how to make comments on an existing work document. In most cases, the students will be creating the new work documents, but you may also want to give them a new document at some point. The bulk of your use will be in commenting on the student’s work.
To Start a New Work Document: 1. Under Create Work, select Work from the left hand menu, then click the New work button which is located at the top of the page. 2. In the Title field, enter a title (this title can be edited later and you can delete anything you create). Important! Students MUST have specific titles in order for their work to count. We plaster this message all over the web site at the end of each activity where we give instructions on how to “Grab Your Points.” Here is the format: [Your Name]-[STEM Exploration title]-[Process Level] (e.g., David Gibson-Social, Physical and Economic Balances-BASIC LEVEL]) 3. In the Status field there are 3 options: • Draft: This is the default option. Use this status when you are working on a document and are not ready for others to comment on it. • Ready for Feedback : Use this status if you want anyone else to see this work and be able to make comments on it. You’ll be able to select who can see it once this option is selected. • Complete: Use this status when the document has been edited and reviewed and it is completed. 4. Pick a Folder (or more than one) to place the work in. Important! For students to get credit for their work, it is important that the place the work in the correct folders. Each activity they complete has specific instructions for which folder the work needs to be placed. For example, if your team is working on a STEM exploration activity, the work must be placed in the “STEM Explorations” folder. All folder names are detailed for the students in the “Grab Your Points” area of the activity. 5. In the Details field, you can post a message about your work that others will read before looking at your work. This is an optional field.
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6. In the Files field, check the box to upload a file. This is your main Work and it can be any kind of file. We recommend that you use .doc or .txt for word files and .jpg, .gif or .png for images. You can also upload other files such as .mp3, etc. Browse to find your file and select it to upload. The following fields only appear if you select Ready for Feedback or Complete in the Status field: 7. Skip the Standards fields as we are no longer using this field. 8. In the Advisors field, choose people who you want to be able to see and comment on the work. 9. In the Rubric field, select Feedback Only. 10. In the Feedback field, ask your students to tell you something specific about your work. Do you want them to give it an OK? Do you want them to add things? Do you want them to just read and then give you a pat on the back? Let them know what you are looking for or need from them. 11. Click Submit.
To Make a Comment on a Piece of Work: Both you and your students need to know how to comment on work in order to have “discussions” about the work. We want you to give a lot of comments on their work, mostly to prod students to keep up the good work, post more, and refine their ideas. To make a comment: 1. Under Create Work, select Work from the left hand menu and then select the title of any work in the list (or a comment from someone on any work in the list). 2. Select the Comment button located on the top of the page. 3. In the Subject field, enter a title for your comments or you can even begin your feedback here (e.g. “I liked this version the best”). 4. In the Comments field you can enter (or finish) your comments here. (e.g. “Because I think you got all of the team’s suggestions worked in and the language is ready for an outside reader.”) 5. Sometimes you may wish to edit the document itself or, if your comments are extensive, you may wish to type them in a separate file and upload it. To upload a file, check the Upload box, and then click Browse to find your file and upload it here, otherwise skip this step. 6. Click Submit. You will see your comments posted to the site.
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Description of the Mentor's Role Your role in this process is critical to helping International Teams (ITs) and individuals be successful in this challenge. This section of the manual outlines your roles and responsibilities, provides a timeline of milestones, and suggests protocols for communicating with your team.
Overview As a mentor you should consider yourself as a role model for your students. You have expertise that your students can tap and we want you to share as much of your knowledge as you can. You are a full fledged team member of the teams you are assigned with an important role to play. Let loose, stretch your knowledge, and share with them your insights. Your expertise will serve to improve the final product, so don’t be afraid to provide constructive feedback on their work and offer lots of helpful suggestions for possible sources of information.
When and How are Teams Assigned? Your job as a mentor starts whenever you are first assigned a team. Most likely you will be given your first team in October, although teams continue to be assigned as they are created. Students have the ability to join the Global Challenge Award until December, so you may be given teams as late as January. On average, most mentors are responsible for approximately 10 teams. However, we want you to feel confident that you have the available time to invest in your team’s success, so feel free to negotiate the number of teams you are assigned. We recognize that you have a full course load of studies and we want your work as a mentor to be the right balance with your other collegiate responsibilities. International Teams (ITs) in the Global Challenge Award competition, ideally consist of two US students, one US adult advisor, two International students, and one International adult advisor. Some of these teams will be very active communicators, while others may not ask much of you. For the most part, "the squeaky wheel gets the grease", but you want to make sure that you don't let quiet teams fall through the cracks. Expect that some teams will immediately gel while others may experience challenges collaborating. Online collaboration with people in a different time zone (often many hours different) who may not all speak English can be difficult. You may need to help teams set standard communication methods and help them determine how they are going to best function.
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Your Responsibilities Your primary role is to provide technical assistance to the teams that are assigned to you and to support and encourage them. You will communicate regularly with your teams regarding upcoming schedule milestones, pass along important notices from Global Challenge Award staff, ask about their successes and their struggles, and offer them assistance on technical issues. This section provides a detailed look at the milestones that students are responsible for so that you can help them meet their goals and describes your responsibilities around communicating with your students, the adult advisor, the mentor coordinator, and other mentors.
Understanding Key Milestones In order to help your students accomplish their goals, it is important you know what the key Global Challenge milestones are for the year. Many individual activities are self-paced and can be done anytime throughout the year. For the two major team projects, the GBP and TIP, there is a due date that needs to be strictly adhered to if the teams want to be considered for award money. Below we have listed milestones in the order they should be completed and, if there is a due date, we have listed it.
Global Challenge Award Milestones Student Milestone
Mentor Responsibility
Register for the Global Challenge Award and select the projects they want to work on. Form a country team (2 kids and one adult) if they want to participate in team projects. Form an international team (find another country team from a different country than your own) and choose a team name. This is the point that you, as their mentor, will be assigned to project teams. Set up their eFolio account. Work on the team building exercises with their team. At this point teams are really getting to
Due Date (if one exists)
None.
None.
None.
ASAP.
You are given the names of the teams when they are formed into an IT team. E-mail your teams to introduce yourself. We have provided a sample introductory Email later in this section. None, although ensure the team members have an account so they can proceed. Help your teams in moving through these exercises if you notice they are not progressing.
ASAP.
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Should be done right after registration. None, although this is a crucial step before team project
Global Challenge Award Milestones Student Milestone
Mentor Responsibility
know one another, coming up with norms for communicating, and learning each other’s interests and strengths.
Ask questions like, “How are you handling decision making?” and “Who is your leader?” Helping teams set up communication protocols will help to keep them on track later on. You may want to ask them about the ideas they are thinking about and help them narrow down their choices. Help your teams meet this deadline by communicating regularly with them, pointing them to appropriate resources, and providing your own feedback.
Research ideas to work on and check out past participant’s reports. Finalize the team’s core idea and submit to the Patent Office.
Decide whether the team wants to write a GBP or a TIP or both.
Explain both projects and be sure the teams know the time commitment that each one requires. Teams can do both!
Make a plan for completing the GBP and/or the TIP and assign who is doing what.
Review plans with your teams. Be sure they have set a realistic schedule to complete the different sections of the reports. Use the rubrics to get specific milestones that need to be accomplished for each project. This is so important so students have an idea of what is involved to finish the project. Keep checking in with your teams to be sure they are going to meet this final deadline. Can you review documents for them, re-write sections that need it, provide valuable feedback, etc.? Congratulate teams on finishing their team projects. Remind them that they can still do more activities on STEM and Surveys if they want more points. Go to website, check results, and congratulate your teams and yourself for a job well done!
Final submission of the GBP and TIP.
Additional STEM Activities and Surveys can be done in May while waiting for results. Winners of GBP and TIP are posted on the website.
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Due Date (if one exists) work begins.
None.
Last date to submit is January 30th. The earlier they submit an idea the sooner they can get to work. This should be decided 1-2 weeks after they submit their idea to the patent office. None.
Due date of GBP and TIP is April 30th.
Anytime before June 1st.
June 1st!
Communication Communication is the KEY to successful teams! We cannot stress the role of communication enough! This is the most important component of mentoring as good communication helps to keep your team moving forward. You are your team’s first line of communication if they have issues within their teams, have technical questions, or are trying to locate outside resources. Given their disparate locations and time zones, students use telecommunications, such as online chats, “voiceover-Internet” phone and video conference calls in order to undertake their global teamwork. Past mentors have commented that spending time with your teams at the beginning of the year is crucial to the team’s overall success. Some teams will take the initiative to get to know one another, discuss how communication will be handled, choose a leader, set goals, etc. but other teams will need your assistance in getting them on the right track. The more cohesive a team is at the onset of the project, the less effort it will be for you in the long run. Expect to communicate with your teams at least once per week. These communications should be sent to your entire team which includes the adult advisors. You can ask questions about their progress, encourage them when you feel they need it, provide “tickler” questions to help them in their projects, and be supportive of their efforts. Be proactive in checking in with teams if you don’t hear from them. You are not responsible for “babysitting” them, but making a good effort towards pushing them forward is what we are looking for.
How to Introduce Yourself to Your Team Members Mentors will be provided with a list of their International Team members as they are formed. Teams will be added to the Mentor’s list of teams over the course of the fall, since registration stays open from October 1 through December. Mentors should immediately establish personal contact with each of their teams, as opposed to sending out mass emails. A sample introductory email is here as an example. Dear (insert team member names), Welcome to the Global Challenge project! We are very excited that you have decided to participate in this challenging but very rewarding program! My name is Bill Green and I will be your team’s Mentor throughout the course of this year’s challenge. I am currently a sophomore at the University of Vermont where I am majoring in Environmental Engineering.
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My job is to help your team successfully complete the Global Challenge. I can answer your questions about the program structure, work with you on building an effective team, and answer any technical questions you may about your business solution idea. I can also review your work and provide you with constructive feedback to improve your final project, if you would like. You can expect regular emails from me as I check in to see how you are doing. Please feel free to Email me at any time with your questions or concerns. I look forward to working with you and getting to know you. Good Luck! Bill Green Undergraduate Mentor The Global Challenge Award University of Vermont Skype name: Bill.Green
Mentor Protocols It is very important that you build a good relationship with each of your teams. You will need to communicate regularly with them. We suggest that you send a weekly email reminding them of upcoming schedule milestones and inquiring about any challenges that they are facing. Communication with your team members will vary from team to team, but we wanted to provide some general protocols for you to follow:
Contact your team regularly Keep team members on track by regularly communicating project milestones. The Mentor Coordinator will be sending you weekly reminders about deadlines and you can use these E-mails as a guideline for the E-mails you send out to your teams. Remember that each team will be at a different place in the project pipeline since they are starting at different times, working at unique paces, and choosing different projects to learn and complete. You will want to tailor your E-mails to your teams based on their progress and where they are at. Some examples of questions you may want to ask include: •
How is it going?
•
What goals are you working on?
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How is your team functioning?
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Have you established regular communication times or methods?
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Have you completed the Team Building exercises, including how to use eFolio?
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Have you started to brainstorm ideas for our project?
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Have you discussed if you are pursuing the Technical Innovation Plan or the Global Business Plan?
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Are there any challenges you are facing that you need my help with?
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Can I point you to any resources that you need right now?
Generally, the question to keep in your mind is “Are they making progress?” If yes, then just assist them when they ask for help. If not, then take a more proactive role in trying to get them to set goals and make a plan of who is going to accomplish what by when. You also may want to delve deeper into issues if the team is having problems working and delegating tasks. Be sure to answer emails from your teams promptly. We know that you are also college students with heavy workloads, so good time management is important here. You may find that it is most efficient to set aside some time each day to answer all of the Global Challenge Award emails that have come in over the past 24 hours. Below is an example of what an E-mail might say to one of your teams: Hi (insert team member names), I’m just checking in with your team to see how things are going. Last time we spoke, you were working on understanding the science of solar cells. How did that go? What are you working on at present? Do you have any questions? I look forward to hearing from you! Regards, Bill Green Undergraduate Mentor The Global Challenge Award University of Vermont Skype Name: Bill. Green
Monitor your Team’s Efforts on eFolio On a regular basis you should check eFolio to see how your teams are coming along in the projects that they decided to accomplish. You can do this by completing these steps: 1. Open eFolio.
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2. Under Participants, click Learners by Key Advisors. 3. Find your name and you will see your team members listed below. Look at the statistics. You can see how many surveys each team member has completed, what work is in draft and review, and what work has been completed. 4. Remind team members to complete surveys and ask them about the project to help keep them on track.
Comment and Provide Feedback on Project Work Teams value your feedback, so provide constructive comments that teach students how to write effective, technical documents. There are almost no limits to the help you can provide, short of actually writing the drafts and all editions for them. The point is for you to be a model of a good science-minded researcher and seeker of knowledge. We WANT them to see how you would say something, what you think about things, and what other resources you can think of to help expand upon their ideas. You are allowed to edit their writing as much as you like or want to, but don‘t drift over into doing most of their work for them. You should expect to perform complete reviews of each team’s draft business plans prior to the April 30 due dates. You can play the role of an official judge using the rubric to help you point out areas that might need to be improved. Do not give your teams a score, but rather provide feedback on the areas that might need to be improved. Unless otherwise pre-arranged you can expect your teams to request rapid turn-around times. Please keep this schedule in mind as the end of the program draws near, as the scheduled end of the GC program may conflict with University end-ofyear projects, term papers and final exams. We recommend reviewing sections throughout the year, so you aren’t bombarded with the entire project right before the deadline.
Know and Teach the APA Format The final product for both the GBP and TIP are to be in the APA format. These format guidelines have been added to the rubrics, so students will lose points on their final product if they do not follow the APA guidelines. It is important when they are referencing other sources that they do it correctly. When sources are cited within the text these sources should be cited like this: TEXT FROM SOURCE (Author’s name, date). In the Bibliography this author should be able to be located with the complete source cited.
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Show your Students How to Find Resources We have great resources as part of the Global Challenge Award that have been specially tagged for use by our students. Part of your role is to be sure that students are aware of these resources and know how to access them. These global resources are located under Team Tools, Global Resources. There are three ways to search: 1. Type a keyword or phrase into Search Global Resources (such as Ask a Scientist) and click Search. 2. Browse the section titles in the left hand menu that are under Global Resources. 3. Click on words in the Word Cloud. All of these words have been tagged to go to the appropriate resource. Students can also use other resources such as Google. We invite you to nominate new resources that you or your team think should be added to our resource list. . If you have ideas for a new section or a new link to add to an existing one, please email David Gibson at
[email protected].
Solve problems with your team members Team members should come to you with their technical questions. This is an opportunity for you to share your knowledge or to do your own research and stretch your own knowledge-base. You should always try to point them to resources that exist and to share whatever knowledge you have.
Model good scientific and literary standards They will learn your style of researching, writing and acting, so be professional. Use the time with your students as a teaching opportunity as they want to know what you know.
Make Yourself Available on Skype Consider hosting some occasional open Skype sessions for all of your teams, so that the kids can bounce questions and ideas off of each other. You may want to make yourself available via Skype at certain times for students to contact you. Try to find a day and time that is convenient for all of your
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team members, and be mindful of time zone differences. You might need to schedule two different times to accommodate all of your students. If you already use Skype, you might consider creating an "alternate identity" that you use only for Global Challenge Award, to avoid being overwhelmed by student requests.
Keep Your Teams Apprised of Your Schedule We know that there are some weeks when regular communication will be difficult. Please let you team know when you will be on vacation, when you have exams, and any other times when communication will be difficult for you. You may want to know when team members are on vacation as well. In the past, teams have found that setting up a calendar of important dates (vacation, exams, etc.) for each team member helped to keep the team’s communication intact. Your team has a calendar on their personal homepage that you should encourage they complete with their dates and you should do the same. Scheduling milestones around vacation schedules is important for your teams and something they may want to consider when creating project schedules.
Always be supportive, positive, and encouraging! Communicating with the Team’s Adult Advisors Adult advisors selected by the students are not expected to have technical knowledge, so the role of the adult is mainly to keep the students motivated and on track. Because the adults are often parents or teachers, they have frequent contact with the students and are in a good position to help them with planning and organization. Some adults will be very active on their teams and others not. Remember that adults are volunteers and their participation is largely whatever they can bring to the table. We have found that many successful teams have strong advocates as their advisors, but this is largely an area where you have little control. If you sense that a team’s adult advisor is largely unavailable, you may want to step up and provide more support to that team.
Communicating with the Mentor Coordinator Just as your role is to help your teams achieve success in the Global Challenge Award competition, the Mentor Coordinator's role is to help you achieve success as a Mentor. Whenever
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you have questions, concerns, or frustrations, it is important that you discuss them with the Mentor Coordinator. The Mentor Coordinator will be in regular Email communication with you, so be assured that support is available if you need it.
Collaborating with other Mentors You are not in this alone! There are other Mentors in the program besides you, and some of them have been doing this for several years. Feel free to contact other Mentors with any questions you have or for technical assistance with problems outside your areas of expertise. All of the mentors Emails can be found within eFolio.
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Handling Issues Based on communications with mentors in previous years, we have seen certain issues frequently arise. Some of these are addressed below. Always remember to let the Mentor Coordinator know if you or your teams are experiencing difficulties that you don't think you can fix on your own.
Non-communicating Team Members Sometimes you may have members of teams who simply do not communicate. When a member of team will not respond to your E-mails or those of their fellow teammates, it is appropriate for you to take corrective action. Send an E-mail and let the student know that if you don’t hear from him/her within 3 days, then we will assume he/she doesn’t want to part of Global Challenge anymore. If the teammate responds and wants to continue with the Challenge, then indicate that they need to communicate regularly with the team and be an active participant. If you don’t hear from the student, then contact Kendra Sowers, the Mentor Coordinator, who will officially drop the team member and try to find a replacement. If there is not an available person for the team, then the team can continue with 3 students.
Drop-Outs Sometimes one or more members simply drop out. They may have not realized what they were getting into, they may have had a disagreement with other team members, or something unexpected may have happened. They may formally resign and communicate this with their team, or they may simply disappear and stop responding to emails (see above). Keeping in regular contact with your teams will help you stay on top of these problems. If the problem is interpersonal in nature, you may be able to help the team members resolve their differences and continue working together. If one or more members quit, contact the Mentor Coordinator to see if there are other teams that have lost member that might be combined into a new team (if it's not too late in the competition).
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Boundary Issues Sometimes students may make what you think are unreasonable requests. Remember that your responsibility is to provide guidance, technical expertise, and direction. Short of actually writing the sections for the final solution, everything else can be thought of as a learning opportunity for your students. You should feel like a fully active member of the team. The students can learn a lot by the sources you turn to for research, your method for researching new things, the way you write technical documents, and how you organize and present information. Re-writing sections and editing their work is helpful in that it teaches the students how to be effective technical communicators. Be constructive with your feedback and mentor them to the best of your ability.
Answering Questions Regarding Points You do not have the responsibility for assigning points to any piece of work your teams complete. You should provide feedback when asked on content and grammatical errors, but make no promises to your teams about what points they will receive. There is a detailed rubric of point values for both the TIP and GDP that can be found at http://www.globalchallengeaward.org/the_global_/contestrules.html under the appropriate project. Students should be using these rubrics to be sure they have completed all the pieces each project and can see for themselves what each section is worth. You can check all the pieces of work that they post and provide comments and grammatical feedback. If you have questions that you cannot answer, please direct your students to contact
[email protected].
Balancing Mentoring with School and Life We understand that you are already busy with your undergraduate education. We do not expect you to sacrifice your academic success or your entire social life for the sake of participating in the Global Challenge Award as a Mentor. At the same time, you are being paid for this position and need to treat it like the part-time job that it is. If you are having trouble balancing your responsibilities as a Mentor with your academic workload, contact the Mentor Coordinator to explore solutions.
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