Initial Ideas

The first section of the production log that you will need to complete as a student embarking upon the EPQ process is the record of initial ideas. The first t Now don't worry, we don't expect you to have your final title in its meticulous format just at t What we'really looking for here is for you to potentially outline your passion for your subject area, justify why you three of the most common types of title for the extended project product is a statement, a hypothesis or a question. Any of those are normally very suitable for an EPQ project. Now ideally before you actually complete this first stage in the record initial ideas you will have actually spoken to your supervisor already, you will have checked In my time as an EPQ Centre Coordinator I have had students submit record initial ideas w I've also had EPQs about the Holodomor and the Holocaust so You should be infectious, you should really be looking to make your supervisor and your moderator really invest in your project and make them excited about reading on through your production log and also looking at the essay and presentation w The next section w In t Maybe you could just let us know about some of the websites what were the strengths of that website? Did that website take you on to further reading? Maybe into a scientific journal or maybe into a book that you've now invested in? Let us know about the resources that you've used so far and also take the opportunity to reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of all of the resources that you have used. In addition you should also set out your roadmap for w Potentially in t Maybe you need access to scientific journals that are locked and you don't have access to. Maybe you need to contact a university to be able to access a certain type of resource. Maybe you don't understand the language in the jargon in a journal w Let us know any barriers that you're facing in t Also let us know w Don't forget that in all stages of the production log is marked listically w Primary research is not a mandatory component of the EPQ process. If you do decide that you want to use primary research and create a survey, a questionnaire, do an interview or run focus groups, what you will need to do is potentially just Once you've completed the first two parts of the record initial ideas you will then meet with your supervisor and your supervisor will give you feedback on the progress of your production log and your initial planning and also the feasibility of your extended project. One of the biggest mistakes w I have so many students arrive to their record of initial ideas meeting and say oh No there is no part that a supervisor should fill in t You need to write in the third section, you need to s The supervisor will write in the part B of the project proposal but they do not write in the record of initial ideas. Now the feedback that you get will be very specific to your school and obviously the way that the EPQ is run in your center but generic feedback which you might expect at this stage of the project is to use planning tools More feedback might include things They might also tell you to use things Your supervisor may have worked with students who have completed similar projects before and may be able to give you some ideas of the challenges that they faced and encourage you to reflect on how you could overcome those problems if you were to face them yourself. In addition they may be able to signpost you to some relevant resources. One of the most common mistakes I see at t Normally when students are outlining their initial resources they talk about things One of the other common t Again what you have to remember is that the marks for the extended project can be awarded across any of the three components and in fact your production log is going to be one of the most significant pieces of evidence to determine your final extended project grade. So it's really important that you maintain your production log over time, you take real care in developing your ideas and clarifying your thoughts in extended pros w Another piece of feedback w You may have had one or two or maybe three talk content sessions by the time you complete your Record of Digital Ideas. What did you learn in those talk content sessions? What were the skills that your supervisor or center coordinator was trying to equip you with? Again don't just reflect on the feedback that you get in the Record of Digital Ideas meeting, reflect on the talk content feedback as well because those strategies and the acquisition of those skills from those sessions is going to be really invaluable in making sure that you evidence the independent learning and those skills required to get the best possible grade in your EPQ. The supervisor might also ask you to join an online program such as that offered by the University of Southampton or University of Bath. These programs can run alongside the talk content sessions and can allow you to develop skills that help with your EPQ. I would definitely recommend the talk content support mechanism provided by the University of Southampton. It's available free for all students on future learning and it can really help you to support your talk content sessions and develop those individual skills w Now in t I can'tell you what to put in section four. Neither can your supervisor. What we need to see here is a development of AO3 w You need to show that you are capable of making independent decisions. So if your teacher or supervisor has given you feedback about specific models you may use to manage your time, you may wish to reflect on how they've supported your EPQ, whether they were relevant, whether you've decided to use them. In your talk content sessions you're going to be given loads of models, loads of different feedback. You don't need to take all of it. You actually just need to take the bits w If you do decide to create a timetable or a mind map or an urgent and important matrix as a result of the meeting with your supervisor you may want to paste that into t A lot of students actually put their urgent and important matrix or mind map as an appendix and they just apply lots of extra material to AQA when it goes to external moderation. AQA actually don't want to receive loads of additional materials. The production log is where you should put evidence of all of the planning resources w So if you do use any of those models or any of those strategies include evidence of them in here. Maybe take a screenshot and paste it in. But again the content of t We can'tell you what to put in t You've got to show that you have the independent decision-making skills to overcome the problem which maybe your supervisor has outlined in their feedback which is s Now the great t And it's really enjoyable for us as supervisors and centre coordinators to actually look at your whole learning journey and the whole process. What AQA are looking for is to see that you've gone from an initial idea in t We're looking to see the whole journey outlined in your production log so please do include as much detail as possible. I hope you have found today'session on the Record of Digital Ideas to be useful and I hope that has answered some of the questions you may have about t In the next video we're going to be looking at the candidate proposal section of the production log and you can see that in my production log series playlist. If you have enjoyed the video please Let me know what topic your EPQ is on. I would love to hear from you. If you do have any other questions however please don't hesitate to Have a great day and best of luck with your EPQ.