Background
You are required to keep an up-to-date design notebook throughout the term. This is an essential design practice that documents the history of your work. Your design notebook contributes to a significant portion of the individual component of your final grade.
Notebooks are required in professional practice as they are important legal documents. A notebook is your working design document, and it is populated as you work. Notebooks should not be after-the-fact make-work. At the same time, your notebook should also be something you are proud of, and something you could show to a potential employer.
Physical Notebooks
In general, notebooks should be either a 8.5×11″ spiral-bound book or a standard-bound engineering notebook. Unlined notebooks are preferred. Please obtain an appropriate notebook to use by the third class.
Use your design notebook to document all of your work and contributions towards your team’s project. The notebook will also be used for a required reflection entry after each project milestone. You should always bring your up-to-date notebook to team meetings and any project-related activities. Please do not use the notebook for lecture notes. Notebooks are working documents, but they must provide a comprehensible trail for your product development effort. Illegible notebooks will receive a poor grade.
Please be sure to write the date on each page when you make entries and use indelible ink. Design notebooks are legal documents.
Submission
Your physical notebook should be turned in to your team instructor during the lab after each milestone: Weeks of Sept 16, Sept 30, Oct 28, Nov 18 and Dec 9. For each of these submissions, you should have a milestone reflection.