This assignment is due by class time on Wednesday of Week 1. Follow the steps below, which involve creating and editing webpages. Submit your assignment by pasting the link to the pages you created in the corresponding assignment on the class Gauchospace site .

A central skill to your success in research projects and beyond will be the ability to plan, track and account for your efforts and achievements. In the ERSP you will do this planning and tracking using an online research log. This is essentially an electronic research notebook that is viewable to the rest of your research team (or in this case, the rest of the ERSP scholars and me).

Research logs serve a variety of purposes, including (but not limited to!):

  • To help you plan and remember your goals for the week
  • To help you measure progress toward these goals, and get better at goal setting and time management
  • To communicate your activities and questions with me and with the other members of your group
  • To keep track of findings, ideas, and results related to your research

 

Getting Familiar with a Research Log

Before you begin setting up your own research log, take a moment to get a feel for what a research log is all about by looking at the logs of past research students. These aren't always exactly in the format that I'd like you to keep your logs, but as you get more advanced with research, you'll be able to develop your own style and these logs show some of the fundamentals as well as some of the acceptable freedom of keeping a research log.

I'll ask you to reflect on these logs in one of the steps below.

Setting up your research log

The first part of this assignment is to set up your research log page. We have shared a Google Drive folder that is exclusively for your team ( named 2023-team-prof-facultyadvisor). All your assignments for CS110 should be stored under that folder.  Start by creating subfolders for individual members of your team. Create a "Group Work" folder to store work that you do as a team. Under the "Group Work" create a Google Doc that contains links to your individual research logs. You may maintain your logs as a Google Doc or in Notion.

Research Log: Required entries and formatting

Every week you will be adding to your research log.

Here are the guidelines for how to add entries to your log. If you have any questions about this or want to add something more than these specifications, just let us know:

  • Every week you will add a header for the week (e.g. "Week 1" or "Week 7") with the dates. Note that our weeks will run from Thur-Wed, as Thomas (our TA) will be giving you feedback on your logs sometime after Wednesday's class (most likely on Friday evening), so your log for the week needs to be up to date by Wednesday before class!
  • Under that header, you will list the goals for the week
  • Each day you work, you will enter the date of your work, and record your accomplishments. You may make additional notes as necessary.
  • Each day when you are done working, you should record the amount of time you spend working at the top of that day's entry.
  • Entries are listed in reverse chronological order, with the most recent week and entry always at the top of the page.

Here is a template/example for your entries (that you can copy and use much of for this first assignment): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zoO-T2wF0dQ9ZMo8Wpl8-MHYApUK57Grb0-VZ85ay2g/edit?usp=sharing

Log reflection

Also in your log, reflect on the logs you read in the first part of this assignment. Address the following questions:

  • How did the logs differ in style (not just in content)? What advantages do you see in one style over another?
  • How do you think the logs were useful, both to the researcher as well as those working with the researcher?
  • Did the students keeping their logs seem to meet their goals? Did they get better at meeting their goals over time?
  • (Optional) Anything else you want to say about the logs?