Research Subteam Wiki Pages: What to Write and Where to Write it
Always think about the structure and language you use. A phrase like "this semester we..." will be very confusing in 6 months. Instead try to use specific language like "in the Fall of 2006" or general language like "the team has also experimented with."
Attachments
Always attach your Mathcad sheets and Process Controller methods to your wiki space and put a link to them somewhere logical! For example, you should attach the Process Controller method to a methods section of your wiki, and link to the file in your write up of your methods. All data sets and Mathcad sheets should be attached and linked to in results sections.
Research Subteams' Main Wiki Pages
All research teams are required to update their wiki pages with information explaining their semester's work. Your main research page should be written following the format explained below.
What to Include on Your Main Page
Each subteam page should start with an h1 heading of the team name. This should be followed by an h2 heading of "Overview", which is essentially an abstract followed by the introduction and objectives. You should also include a picture next to your overview. Try to keep the entire overview to two short paragraphs.
Abstract
Write a brief abstract that summarizes your report. Remember that some readers will only read the abstract, so make sure it contains the most important information. Do not just add to the past abstract, update it or rewrite it to reflect the progress that has been made and the work that is being done currently.
Introduction and Objectives
Write a paragraph on the goals of your team project. Why did you decide to do this project? How does this project connect with the AguaClara goals? Introduce your approach to solving the problem you were working on by explaining what needs to be done to meet your goal. What did you hope to learn? How did you expect your work to guide the construction of water treatment plants or to improve drinking water quality in the Global South?
Below the overview each team should have links to their goals and meeting minutes pages.
What to Add as Child Pages Off of Your Main Page
Following the overview should be a section titled "Experimental Methods and Results". Here you should list links to each separate page, one page for each experiment. Each experimental page contains both the methods and results for that experiment. Under each link there should also be a brief description of the experiment.
Procedures
Add new experiments to your wiki as child pages of your main page.
Provide an overview of the methods that you used in your investigation. The best procedures give an overview of the method with an explanation of why you used those methods. When method development is part of your project, a detailed description of the methods should be included. Methods and procedures need to be detailed enough so that one of your classmates could duplicate your work. Remember to attach any Process Controller Methods and link to them on your wiki pages.
Results and Discussion
Results and discussion should be on the same page as procedures for each experiment. After you have thoroughly explained the procedure, you should then report and discuss your results. Make sure to attach data and Mathcad sheets, plus create a link to the files in the text of your wiki write up.
Present results in a clearly labeled format. Avoid tables unless that really is the best way to present the data. Graphs and tables should be presented in this section. The report text should refer to each figure and table. Graphs should be sized so that they are easily readable, but not so large that they take an entire page. Use a table to show relevant experimental parameters (such as measured flow rates, sample sizes, concentrations of reagents, etc.) in your report if appropriate.
Compare theoretical expectations with your results and discuss reasons for any observed deviations. If the results weren't as expected, suggest reasons why the laboratory results may have differed from theory and suggest improved techniques to obtain more accurate results or modifications to the theory to better describe the simulation.
Be sure to follow these editing guidelines and graphing procedures to get the best readability.
Conclusions
The conclusions section should not include any new observations, but is the place to summarize the results in a few sentences. Make sure you connect your conclusions to your objectives for doing the research. Conclusions should be placed directly after the results and discussion section for each experiment. Conclusions addressing results from multiple experiments should be added as a separate page off the subteam's main page, listed after all of the experiments.
Additional Information Section for Main Wiki Page
Your team will also need to create an additional information section. It may include a link to a list of relevant literature, or a link to a page with ideas for necessary training for future team members.
h1. "Subteam Name"
h2. Overview
h3. Abstract
The "team name" team performs laboratory research to...
h3. Introduction and Objectives
Currently the team is investigating...
"Team name" goals and meeting minutes.
h2. Experimental Methods and Results
* Brief explanation of experiment
* Brief explanation of experiment
h2. Additional Information
If your research subteam is closely related to other subteams and you share a wiki page with them
(For an example, see the Chemical Dose Controller teams)
Some research subteams share a parent page with other related teams. Those teams will have to communicate with one another to share responsibility for updating that parent page. Parent research pages should have an image that represents the way the subteams' projects fit together, and links to each of the individual subteam main pages. You should also include a brief up-to-date description of what each of the subteams does.
h1. "Parent Project"
h2. Overview
h2. Research Teams Involved
* Brief explanation of subteam research area
* Brief explanation of subteam research area
h2. Important Information
*Information on how to calibrate the equipment that both working groups use