Engineers use the design process every day to help them identify problems that need to be solved and to create

amazing products and services.

TEAMS participants have the opportunity to use an electronic portfolio to help them to prepare for the upcoming 2013 TEAMS competition. The

Innovation Portal is a free electronic portfolio tool for students in all grade levels to organize and present research used in creating portfolios for school

projects, competitions and college applications. TSA TEAMS is encouraging the use of the portal as a way to make research for the Part 2 essay

competition scenario topics engaging and fun. Portal entries can be printed and used as a resource during the TEAMS competition. To encourage

participation in this readiness activity, teams that enter their portfolio using these instructions before their competition date and scoring 15 or more

total points (out of a possible 20 points) will receive eight 4”x8” removable bumper stickers with the TEAMS logo and the words “Future Engineer,” as

well as certificates.

What is in this Guide…

1) Getting Started – Creating a free Innovation Portal account.

2) Building an Entry -Example project and Student Guide with Judging Criteria.

3) Enter the portfolio / print as a competition resource - How to submit the finished project right from the

Innovation Portal to TSA TEAMS for judging and how to print the work out as a resource for answering the

questions at the TEAMS competition.

Estimated time for this competition readiness activity – 4 hours. Includes research, team collaboration and posting.

Competition Readiness Activity Guide

For TEAMS coaches and students

1) Register your team

http://teams.tsaweb.org/ 2) Use this Guide to Create and enter

your on-line portfolio 3) Watch for results in your coach email

1. The team coach goes to www.innovationportal.org and clicks on the “Register Now” button.

2. The team coach creates a free Innovation Portal account using their e-mail address.

3. Using the “Create Satellite Account” button, (under “Manage Members” for each respective portfolio), the team coach assigns a username and

password to each team member for each portfolio. Students can be added or dropped to each team as needed.

4. Students log-in using the coach assigned username/password and are taken directly to the assigned portfolio.

5. Students work as a team using the Innovation Portal functionality (the coach can monitor the progress of each team from a single dashboard

and from any computer).

6. When the portfolios are ready for submission, the coach will submit each portfolio to TSA.

7. Once a portfolio entry has been submitted for entry by the coach, no changes can be made.

How to create an Innovation Portal account

for the TEAMS Readiness Activity

Team 1 Portfolio Team 2 Portfolio Team etc. Portfolio

1. The coach creates their own Innovation Portal account and

then creates a portfolio for each of their teams. 2. Once the coach creates portfolios for each

team they click “Manage Members” for a given

portfolio and create an individual “satellite”

account for each team member for that project.

portfolio

3. Student team members log-in from the Innovation Portal homepage

(www.innovationportal.org) using the teacher assigned username and

password and begin building their portfolio as a team.

Getting

Started

See a “walk-through” You Tube video

tutorial on this at

The Portfolio Home page is the landing page for each portfolio. It acts like a cover page and is

where teams introduce themselves, create a title for their project and possibly even a summary of

background behind their project choice. This page is not assigned a point value.

Please note: The Innovation Portal was created to document the

entire breadth of a design project from initial concept to prototype

testing and analysis. It is an excellent look at the entire design

process. For the TEAMS competition however; we will only be using

the home page and the first four steps or “tabs” of the portfolio,

(Portfolio Home page and then elements A, B, C, &D) of the design

process to capture your idea. (Judges for this activity will only

consider score work submitted in Elements A through D.)

Video walk through tutorials on how to add text,

pictures, graphics, video and more can be found on

the Innovation Portal site on the “Building Basics”

link under the menu.

Building

an

Entry

Reflective Questions for Element A

What exactly is the problem?

How do we phrase it as an objective problem statement?

What is the background, context or setting of the problem?

Who in fact says that this is a problem worth solving and why should anyone believe them?

Element A Students enter the problem statement and include sources of information

showing the complexity and depth of the problem. Element A should include three sources

(text or graphic) and an original paragraph (no more than 500 words) that summarizes the

problem. Possible points: 5

Use the embedded element-by-

element descriptors and project

examples as guides to help build your

entry.

Some resources to help your team…

Building

an

Entry

Judging

Element A should include three sources (text or graphic)

and an original paragraph (no more than 500 words) that

summarizes the problem. Possible points: 5

Reflective Questions for Element B

What are all of the methods, products, or actions that are being used or have been developed to try and solve this problem and exactly why doesn’t each of them actually solve the problem?

How do I/we prove to others that I/we have done an extensive search for possible current solution attempts?

Who has helped me/us identify and state the shortcomings of the solutions attempts found and why should anyone believe them?

Element B Students record and analyze the benefits and short comings of ways people are trying to

address the problem now. (This also helps zero in on what your team’s solution should be able to

do). If no current products or strategies for solving the problem can be found, teams should detail

how they searched and why they think there are no solution attempts to be found.

Use the embedded element-by-

element descriptors and project

examples as guides to help build your

entry.

Some resources to help your team…

Building

an

Entry-

Judging

Element B – Students show and explain evidence of what

they learn through their research that is currently being

done to address the problem (no more than 500 words).

Possible points: 5

Element C Students prepare an ordered list of how their solution should be implemented to

help solve the problem they have defined. Engineers call these “design requirements.” The list

should be put in order from most important to least with some rationale of why the list is in

that order.

Reflective Questions for Element C

Now that I know what the problem statement is and why current solutions are not solving the problem well enough, what are the measurable things a new design would have to accomplish (in order of importance) to be seen as a real solution?

How did I/we determine each of these design requirements?

Building

an

Entry

Use the embedded element-by-element

descriptors and project examples as guides to

help build your entry.

Some resources to help your team…

Judging

Element C – Students list what their solution idea should

be able to do in order of importance (no more than 500

words). Possible points: 5

Element D Students prepare a summary of their brainstorming experience for creating their

solution and a detailed description of their final idea including their rationale of why it is a viable

(possible) solution.

Reflective Questions for Element D

What brainstorming or idea generations techniques did I/we use to help define possible solutions and how can we show that I/we kept all of the design requirements in mind throughout the entire process?

What was the best solution to try and why was it the best solution to try?

Building

an

Entry

To learn how to add video in an Innovation Portal Presentation see; “Resources and

Examples” then click the “Building Basics” link..

For functions like Animoto, Prezi and other web site based software, simply include the

presentation as a link on this page with some summary information for the judges.

For Powerpoint presentations simply upload them as a document and insert the document link

(see building basic, under Resources and Examples on the Innovation Portal.)

Judging

Element D – Students explain their solution idea and

describe how their solution will function (no more than

500 words). Possible points: 5

Entering

The

Challenge

When the team is ready to submit their project to the TEAMS competition

representatives, the coach who created the portfolio for the team needs to:

1. Log in to their coach account.

2. Open the team’s portfolio.

3. Click “Submit to Opportunities.”

4. Choose the “2013 Teams Competition Readiness Activity.”

5. Complete the “entry form information” including the “entry pass code” supplied by

TSA. (E-mail teams@tsaweb.org if you don’t know your passcode.)

Coaches: Make sure to monitor the email used to

create your Innovation Portal account and the TEAMS

main web site for results and other information about

the TEAMS competition.

http://teams.tsaweb.org/

Print your work as a resource for

use right at the TEAMS competition

Three Easy Steps

1) The team coach logs into the account.

2) From the coaches “Dashboard”, the coach opens the

portfolio.

3) Click “Print/Export” to either print out the document or to

print it “as a PDF file” to access later.