A theme assignment is a multistep problem you will solve over several days while working with other students. You will present your results and conclusions in a report that expresses the opinions of all members of the group. Below are some suggestions that should help make your group more productive.

1. All members of the group are responsible for all parts of the report. It is not appropriate to divide the problem into different parts and have each group member work on only one or two parts. You are studying core material of the course and it is important that each member of the group understand all the material.

2. While you should not divide up parts, you may divide up tasks, and rotate the assignments from one theme to the next. For example, one student may be in charge of computations; that person would not do all the computations, but would collect computations from all the group members, determine which are correct and submit results for the final paper. Or, one student might lead the discussions of the group and another could take minutes of the discussions.

3. Your two main resources when working on a theme are your book and your group. If you cannot understand something you read in the book or cannot figure out how to do a particular part of a theme, the first people you should ask for help are the other members of your group. If, after working together, you cannot resolve the issue, then you should come talk to me.

4. For each theme, you should select one member to write that theme so the entire report reads as a single document. All other members of the group are proofreaders for that theme. They should read the drafts of the reports for the clarity of explanation, grammar and spelling. These are all important parts of your report. I will be glad to review your report, after all members of the group have proofread it and the paper has been corrected. The task of writing should be rotated among the group members from one theme to the next.