Senior Project Brainstorm

Roles:

1. Timekeeper/Facilitator:  Keeps everyone on track, on schedule, and focused on the relevant question.
2. Active Participant:  Everyone else!  Participate, ask questions, keep your head in the game!

The Process:

1. Presenter (2 minutes)- Reads their 3 ideas, and explains why they are interesting to them, and what problems they are grappling with.
2. Group Discussion (5 minutes)- The presenter is silent, and the rest of the group discusses their ideas.  Remember, the goal here is to come up with new ideas, to push their thinking further and in new directions.  Let your ideas flow!  During this time, the presenter is silent and taking notes. Here are some potential questions for the group to discuss:
   1. Which idea do you think is most interesting to you, personally?  Why?
   2. Which idea is most interesting universally, on a local, national or global scale?
   3. What other avenues or ideas do you see that they haven’t thought of yet?
   4. What about this idea hasn’t been explored in our community, our society?
   5. What topics are these ideas connected to?  
   6. How can we make this idea more different, novel or break the mold?
   7. What ideas do you have for them with regards to the problems they mentioned?  
3. Presenter Returns (2 minutes)- The presenter joins the discussion for the last two minutes, and asks for any feedback/questions they may still have. 
4. Presenter Summary (1 minute)- The presenter speaks on their own, and addresses the following two questions:
   1. What new ideas do you have after this?  Or, how has your idea changed?  What do you want to change about your idea?
   2. What direction are you thinking about taking your project/research at this point?

The Reflection
​Before you move into your Initial Research phase, make sure that you complete a typed reflection on the following questions:

1. What feedback or ideas did you get from the group discussion?  How valuable was it?
2. What new directions is this taking you in?
3. What is your leading idea at this point for your research and your project?  Describe it, and why you would like to head in this direction.  Also address, how confident are you in this leading idea?

HOMEWORK:

1. Sign up for Conference:  Go to this page, and put your name down under the  teacher you most want to conference with.  That teacher will contact you to set up a time and date for your conference.
2. Study for Quiz on Friday!  Study for your bill to law quiz on Friday.  Confused?  Look at the "What you need to know" handout on the docs page of my DP.