Structure
EG1004 Structure
The course consists of a weekly three-hour lab, a two-hour recitation, and a one-hour lecture. A supervising faculty member, a team of TAs, and a writing consultant manage each section.
There will be common lecture for all the EG1004 sections each week. The lectures are delivered by Polytechnic faculty or outside experts discussing topics of general interest in engineering and technical work in general. To help you fully appreciate the lecture, and be able to pay attentiona to the speaker, we will distribute handouts of the speaker's slides after each lecture.
Two laboratory TAs supervise all lab work. The three-hour weekly lab begins with a five munute quiz based on the lab manual. You are expected to be fully familiar with the lab and what is required of you before you arrive at the lab, and the quizzes are a way to insure that you're ready to participate in the lab. After the quiz, your TA will proceed with a prepared briefing (usually a PowerPoint presentation). You will then perform the required lab work in teams following the guidelines in this manual and the instruction provided by your TA. The lab TAs grade all written work for engineering content. You lab section will typically consist of up to nine teams of two students each, for a total of eighteen students per section. You will be assigned a team partner on a rotating basis, following industry practice where engineers and scientists are formed into large teams based on availability and technical expertise. Sometimes you might not like your teammmate, but like industry you will both be expected to put your personal feelings aside and operate as an effective team.
One TA will run your two-hour weekly recitation. The course instructor supervises this session. Your team will prepare a PowerPoint presentation describing the laboratory experiment, which you will deliver in front of the group. The instructor provides pointed criticism, encouraging your classmates to do the same. Periodically during the term, you will also present information about your semester long design project.
The writing consultants (one per section) attend the second hour of recitation each week. They will present a 10-minute mini-lesson about a writing topic and then circulate in the lab during the rest of the hour, providing individualized help to students who need it. The writing consultants grade all written work: not for engineering content, but for written expression.