# Calendar

In this section, Prof. Haynes Miller and Susan Ruff share the course calendar from Spring 2013 and describe some scheduling choices and disruptions.

The following calendar reflects the schedule for Spring 2013. Not included are the hour-long mentor meetings that occurred once a week for each of the student teams.

Course calendar.
WEEK # | TYPE | MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY | FRIDAY
--- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | ---
1 | Other | — | — | — | — | No class at MIT (emergency cancellation)
2 | Project 1 | Project 1 topic selection | Project 1 development
Other | Course introduction | — | — | — | Teamwork workshop
3 | Project 1 | Project 1 development
Other | Presentation workshop | — | — | — | Writing workshop
4 | Project 1 | Project 1 development | Project 1 first draft due
Project 2 | — | — | — | — | Project 2 topic selection
5 | Project 1 | Project 1 debriefings (1 hour per team) | Project 1 development
Project 2 | Project 2 development
Other | — | — | — | — | Team 1 practice presentation
6 | Project 1 | Project 1 development | Project 1 final draft due | — | —
Project 2 | Project 2 development
Other | Team 1 in-class presentation | — | — | — | Team 2 practice presentation
7 | Project 2 | Project 2 development
Other | Team 2 in-class presentation | — | Team 3 practice presentation | — | —
8 | Other | No class at MIT (spring break)
9 | Project 2 | Project 2 development
Other | Team 3 in-class presentation | — | — | — | —
10 | Project 2 | Project 2 first draft due | Project 2 development | Project 2 debriefings (1 hour per team)
Project 3 | Project 3 topic selection | Project 3 development
Other | Team 4 practice presentation | — | — | — | Team 4 in-class presentation
11 | Project 2 | Project 2 development | Project 2 final draft due | — | —
Project 3 | Project 3 development
Other | No class at MIT | — | — | — | No class at MIT (emergency cancellation)
12 | Project 3 | Project 3 development
Other | — | Team 5 practice presentation | — | — | Team 6 practice presentation; Team 5 in-class presentation
13 | Project 3 | Project 3 development
Other | Team 6 in-class presentation | Team 7 practice presentation | Team 8 practice presentation | — | Team 7 in-class presentation
14 | Project 3 | Project 3 first draft due | Project 3 development | Project 3 debriefings (1 hour per team)
Other | Team 8 in-class presentation | — | — | — | Team 9 practice presentation
15 | Project 3 | Project 3 development | Project 3 final draft due | — | —
Other | Team 9 in-class presentation | — | — | — | —

## Scheduling Choices and Disruptions

Spring 2013 was a particularly disrupted term, with several university-wide emergency cancellations. This wreaked havoc on the workshop schedule and the planned project timelines. Our class was scheduled for a one-hour slot on Mondays and a two-hour slot on Fridays. We had intended to schedule the formal one-hour presentations on nine consecutive Mondays, with two-hour practice presentations on the preceding Fridays. Because of the disruptions, three of the presentations occurred on Fridays, and we had to scramble to schedule the practice presentations. The disruptions also forced us to run a shortened version of the presentation workshop in a one-hour slot instead of a two-hour slot.

Even without these disruptions, it was probably overly optimistic of us to think we could adhere to such a constrained schedule. We would have had a lot more flexibility if we had scheduled the class for two-hour time slots on both Mondays and Fridays.

Spring break also felt like a big interruption to the second project, although one student proved beautiful theorems while on vacation in Panama!