Project One Assessment

1) Overall Assessment: Process and our group goals for the

project
Chelsea and I feel that we completed this assignment to the best
of our ability with the information given to us. We have never created a
grant before, so this was completely new to our group, and we also
were unfamiliar with the subject matter. This caused us to struggle
with the project summary, description, part of the budget, and the
overall plan. Although we struggled, we did a lot of research and had a
giant learning curve in the topics of grant proposal writing and
integrated commercial building energy efficient technology. Our group
learned more about the project through documents that Dr. Wickliff
made accessible for the class via Moodle. We used these documents to
compile the budget, generate the charts for our proposal, and gave us
clarity on what the actual project description was.
Originally our group worked off of google docs, and
communicated through Group Me outside of class. The google docs
helped us see everything we added as a whole and in real time, and
comment on things that needed to be completed. But this also resulted
in us having to do a lot of edits once we eventually converted it back to
a Microsoft Word document. As for the Group Me messaging app, this
helped us talk to each other during the weekends and outside of class.
We used this a lot for specific assignments, goals, and even
inspirational messages to each other to boost morale.
We went through two different organizations that fund grants and
decided on using Wells Fargo after realizing that Duke Energy would
probably not fund our project. We fit the Wells Fargo requirements for
North Carolina, but one of the issues we encountered was that we
could not find their grant guidelines. This caused us to have to look up
NSF grant guidelines to get an idea of what the shell of the proposal
should look like, but it also gave us a lot of creative freedom to create
our own unique proposal.
Overall our group goals were to stay on time with project
requirements, do our work equally, and try our best to create a grant
when weve never made one before.

2) Audience members goals for this project

Our gap with Brentrup eluded to the fact that we got one chance
to talk with him in person before we really knew what the right
questions to ask were. If we had another talk with him after we started
on the grant itself and saw the information and clarity we lacked, then
that would have helped our group a lot. Although we received answers
to the first follow up questions, we did not receive any more in-depth
answers to the second follow up questions that were actually kind of
pertinent. I also believe there was a miscommunication of the projects
purpose. Initially I thought that the goal was to create a building
model, not generate information of the plug loads about the
commercial buildings. Again part of this miscommunication is due to
the fact that my group has never created a grant before, and that the
subject of the grant was unfamiliar to us. The unchartered territory
made for some interesting obstacles but I believe we did the best we
could with what we had, and what research we could find.
Our gap with Mona Azarbayjani basically boiled down to us only
receiving one document from her about architecture, and information
was only forwarded to us by Dr. Wickliff, not a direct content from our
group to her specifically. This lead up to us missing more architectural
information to put in the bulk of the summary and the proposal
description.
Their goal was to take something from all the proposals they
received to see if any of it can be utilized. In part they were making it a
mutually beneficial arrangement because it helped our class get real
life experience with a grant proposal
Dr. Wickliff: The goal for Doctor Wickliff is to make sure that the
students utilized the resources given to them regarding the project
with Dr. Brentrup and the university. To broaden our horizons and think
about grant and proposal writing in areas of the university.
NSF: There is a huge gap of information due to the lack of
communication between Dr. Brentrup and the English department. The
goal of the NSF or National Science Foundation would be to gain
awareness and scientific understanding of the project and its goals.
3) Editorial Suggestions from Peer Reviews
We had the bulk of our project done with minor grammatical
errors. There was a few formatting errors that the other group
members pointed out to us within the google docs comment section.
The second group helped with the formatting and really asked
questions in our project summary and description. Both groups
navigated throughout the proposal and left commentary asking
question
Both groups looked at the document on my computer because it
had a better retina display, which allowed them to accurately view the
graphics. The key result was we had some elements aligned improperly
and we also forgot to add page numbers and other simple mechanical

errors. From allowing the groups to leave their comments on the

google drive it helps all of us stay interactive and individually work on
the parts of the project that was assigned to us. It was very important
for the group to be able to highlight and show what needed work and
what they commended us on. It provided valuable communication
within the group and allowed us to effectively collaborate inside and
outside of the classroom space.
4) Our Group Performance Appraisals
(Katie Calabro)
I liked working with Chelsea and Garland this semester. They are
both intelligent, good workers that were easy to get along with and
split up our duties during the beginning. Originally I was taking 18
credit hours this semester and I felt bad that I came to this class every
Tuesday night practically brain dead because I had five classes back to
back. This caused me to feel guilty for not being as present as I could
be mentally for a lot of the group work we did. I did withdrawal from
one of the class which ended up making my life a lot easier and I was
able to be a lot better of a worker in this class and I believe I made up
for all the work I wasnt mentally present for after I withdrew from a
different class.
I did a lot of editing for this project. I formatted most of the
project when we started with a blank document. I found and put in the
graphics of Wells Fargo, chart 2.2, and the picture of a desk, and
thought up the idea of making our own logo. I completed the reference
page, formatted the titles, created the budget, typed up the summary,
and the table of contents. I also created the biographical sketch, and
the appendix.
Chelsea helped so much during this project by inputting the
information into the charts, and completing her sections on time and
being extremely available to meet up with and communicate with. She
did not argue with the items I assigned and really executed everything
to a higher standard.
Garland seemed to be a misleading group member because he
did his part in the daily group work and helped us a lot in the
beginning. The problem came when it was time to actual create the
grant, he just seemed to disappear. Chelsea and I met up and created
the entire grant, and the only thing Garland was able to contribute was
a couple (rough) paragraphs in the description section. Chelsea and I
sent him a very specific email to what parts he needed to complete
before class today and he only did two things on the list, and didnt

even do them up to par. The logo he made had to be cropped and was
blurry, and the page numbers he put on the pages werent right. He
also didnt show up to class today, which didnt help the situation at
all. I had to spend the first 25 minutes of class editing the grant and
fixing things that he was supposed to do, or did wrong.
(Chelsea Brown)
I am Chelsea I was a little frustrated with the miscommunication
with Dr. Brentrup and Dr. Wickliff regarding the information about the
project and its specific goals. We were told that the projects goal
initially was to generate a building model to build an energy efficient
building. Later after Dales presentation we were told something
different. That the project was to generate data on the usage of energy
in commercial buildings. This caused the group to be a little confused
on the projects purpose.
Katie did an amazing job at initiating the google chats and
google documents. She really help us come together and collaborate
on aspects of the project. She also did a majority of the editing of the
content within the project. She assisted me with adding graphics for
Wells Fargo, the pie charts, etc. She helped me see the project visually.
I was struggling to find a way to convert the data into a visual chart.
She was accessible helpful and the project manager. I did graphics,
help with some editing and dealt with the formatting of the proposal
itself. I was also a part of the brainstorming process.
Garland helped more with the logo that we created within the
proposal. He also helped with some formatting regarding the project
memos, the charts that we were assigned to do in class. He was more
tech savvy with the images and how to create a visually formatted
proposal. He helped with some of the brainstorming but lacked to help
with any editing procedures. Katie and I met in the library outside of
class to prevent from being overwhelmed with the long list of things
that needed to be done with the project. Garland did not show up
which left Katie and I were stuck with the remainder of the work. We
wanted everything to be done right. Garland was in touch via email
and group me. We sent him the edited document and gave him a list of
things that he should do before class.
Katie and I exhausted our time and our brains and thought that
we could rely on him to complete the remainder of the work. When we
got to class today he emailed us the completed work. We realized that
a majority of the work that we had asked him to do was not at all
completed. That left us with make the last adjustments in a short time
period.
(Garland Beamer)
Absent