CoE Field Trip? Details, Details, Details...

This week proved that there are many specifics that we need to fine-tune in the Partnership program. One of the TAs, Tiberius, will be presenting his research this coming Monday, and thought it would be a good opportunity to invite his students to campus. He involved his teacher in the plans, who suggested making a field trip out of it - including getting a tour of the 3D lab. So within a short time period, we needed to obtain a 3D tour, secure bus transportation, and determine an additional activity to fit the time window that the students would be on campus. Tiberius was extremely instrumental in assembling the research presentation and the additional activity, which looks to be a tour of some labs in the FXB. I contacted the 3D lab director who agreed to conduct a tour for the students (thankfully he was available at such short notice). The sticky issue occurred with securing transportation. We could not use YHS buses because after the buses drop the high school students, they are still needed to transport middle/elem students. This realization occurred later than expected. So we were then responsible for securing a UM charter bus to transport the students. At this late stage of the game where Monday's UM charger transport schedules had already been finalized, this involved some expedited processing and pleading with UM transportation. UM transportation confirmed yesterday that a bus had been assigned to the field trip, so everything is finally settled. What we need to do in the future is to determine a to-do list/course of action/contacts along with expected lead times so that for future field trips we are able to better execute. I'm excited that things worked out for this visit and I look forward to the students visiting the CoE. This is an important component of the Partnership!