"Setup"

Pella Externship Days 16-17 The last 2 days have been aimed at a 2nd version of the Optimization Program.  The first few attempts at running the simulation showed me that there was some debugging to do.  I've incorporated the new constraints and variables, but the big breakthrough came with a different approach to the regression equations.  Instead of using many equations to relate one variable at a time to the outcome (which produced some extremely erratic solutions), I tried out the Data Analysis program in excel.  The program allows for multiple variables to be combined to predict a specific outcome.  I'm still a little concerned about the correlation, but I got the relationship from a 10% or less accuracy rate to 80% or better predictability. My "Ah-ha" teacher moment came today as I started on a User Guide for my program.  In a conversation with Mike yesterday, he asked that I put together some instructions to accompany the program.  That way anyone trying to use the program would have a general understanding of how it was structured and how to utilize it.  I spent some time today trying to remember and document what I was thinking as I designed the opt. tool.  It was difficult at first, but as I got rolling with it I realized how valuable it was, not just for the user, but for myself and my understanding of the relationships involved. I use written reflection in the classroom often, but it is good to be on the other side of it once in a while.