Week 2: Moonshot kick off

Katie Schuler
Katie Schuler
Due Thursday, September 10th at the end of class

Materials from today's class

Objectives
  1. Get acquainted with your team
  2. Learn how to access to the class blog
  3. Begin to explore the big question or problem your team will tackle this semester
  4. Learn how to earn 5 bonus points each week as individuals
Logistics
  • You'll get into a breakout room with your moonshot team and spend 30-40 minutes working together on this assignment. 
  • Then, we'll get back together as a class for a few closing things

Tasks
  1. Team Name: Spend a few minutes thinking of a name for your team.  It can be as funny, charming, serious or boring as you want. The only rule is to make it school appropriate. 
  2. Team Ghost account: Your team will use Ghost (a simple blogging platform) to post to the class blog (https://languageandthebrain.org)
    1. Designate a team member to receive ghost updates. This person’s email will be linked to your team’s ghost account (only one email per team is possible). Note that you can also create a throw-away email account to use for this purpose.
    2. Respond to the Campuswire question (Responses to Moonshot Assignment #1) with (1) your team name and (2) the email you’ve decided and I will invite you to the team blog. 
    3. Once you receive your invitation, enter your team name in the “full name” box and choose a password you’ll all be able to remember (at least 10 characters).
    4. Make some changes to your profile. Navigate to your profile and change at least: (1) the picture, (2) the slug, and (3) the bio (a brief bio on your team’s general interests is fine for now).  If you’d like to make additional changes - the cover image, for example - that is up to you.
  3. Write a brief post. Make sure you include the following things.
    1. Meet our team. Include a short introduction to everyone on your team.  You may include whatever you want, but for each team member, you must include at least: photo/headshot**, where you are from, your class year, your major and your primary areas of interest.  
    2. Finding our shared passions. Narrow down your subject area.  What interests do you have as a group? What are you most passionate about? Where do your interests overlap? Who do you want to help?
    3. Practice using tags in the blog: Use the tag Moonshots for your post.


UPDATE: tech trouble is preventing you from receiving a ghost invitation via email. Instead, please submit a URL link to another document (google doc, dropbox link, etc) rather than the blot post URL.

Submission
  • Submit your moonshot assignment by publishing your blog post and submitting the published URL to your submit link to a google doc (or dropbox link, or similar) post here: Moonshot Blog Post 0 Submission Link
  • Only 1 member of the group needs to make the submission.

** NOTE: If you would prefer not to post a photo of yourself, that is perfectly fine.  Just choose some other image that you feel represents you.
WEEKLY BONUS POINT OPPORTUNITY (Community Engagement)
For each moonshot post, you can earn 5 bonus points by commenting on other team's blogs. To earn your first 5 bonus points (individual): 
  • By Monday, read and comment on at least 3 other team's post and login to disqus (you can use google or facebook, or create a new account if you wish). 
  • Then declare your bonus points on canvas

Guidelines for future bonus-point worthy comments
Using casual language is fine and encouraged, but your comment should make an original, meaningful contribution and show that you actually took a few minutes to read this team’s post.  One word or generic comments will not be eligible for bonus points.

Example of good comments that count: 
  • “Wow this is such a great idea and really is such a huge problem!  My grandma had a stroke and suffered from aphasia afterward, and I remember how difficult her recovery process was.  She never fully regained her language. Would be amazing to find a solution!”
  • “Super good idea to interview an aphasia researcher to find out what is standing in the way of a solution to this problem.  Can’t wait to hear how it goes in your next post!  And totally stealing this interview technique for our team! Thanks for the inspiration.”

Examples of bad comments that won’t count:
  • “First”
  • “That’s so cool. food for thought!”
  • “I like your team name.”
  • Also, copying another person’s comment (or posting something very similar) will not count.
Missed live class today?
To catch up, make sure you check in with your moonshot group (assigned via canvas) to find out what you missed and how you can contribute to the assignment.