Project studio: the system comes together
420-302-VA · WEEK 12 · FALL 2026

Stage 6 of 6 · The studio itself · and the hand-in

The studio & hand-in

Unstructured work time evaporates; structured work time compounds. The studio borrows its structure from working studios everywhere: a stand-up to aim, long protected build blocks, one checkpoint to re-aim, and demonstrations to close. The teacher circulates the whole way; the queue on the board decides who is next.

The three hours, structured

The studio session from 14:30 to 17:30 as one horizontal bar divided into six blocks: theory, the three skills, about fifty minutes; stand-up, ten minutes; build block one, forty five minutes with the note teacher circulates, queue on the board; checkpoint, ten minutes, every pair states green or blocked; build block two, forty minutes; and D2 demos plus exit ticket, forty five minutes, marked in green. 14:3015:2015:3016:1516:2516:4517:30 Theorythe three skills Stand-up Build 1queue on the board Checkpoint Build 2protected time D2 demos+ exit ticket The teacher circulates through both build blocks: raise a hand for the queue, or get visited by rounds. The checkpoint is one sentence per pair, standing: green, or blocked on what. Blocked pairs jump the queue. Protect the build blocks: no new theory, no detours. Everything else this hub taught serves these 85 minutes.
14:30 to 17:30, spent on purpose. The shape repeats in Weeks 14 and 15's work time, so learn it once. Demos are at the end by design: a hard deadline inside the session is what turns "almost" into "walks".

The ten-minute stand-up

Standing, timer on, three answers each, no discussion until both have spoken: what is done since last session (demonstrable, not "worked on"), what is next (today's one rung or join, named), what is blocked (and by what, precisely). Discussion happens after, and only about blockers. The format is lifted straight from industry practice because its two virtues transfer intact: it synchronizes a pair in minutes, and it makes drift visible early, a partner whose "done" has not changed in two sessions is a conversation today, not a surprise at D4. Write the three answers as one line in the journal; five stand-ups from now, that log is your D-milestone progress narrative, already drafted.

D2: demonstration and evidence

The last forty minutes are demonstrations, pair by pair, the three-step shape from the skeleton page: cause something real, show the value travel, name the contracts. Three minutes each, the brief on Omnivox governs the grading. What the repo must hold by end of day, the evidence that the demo was not a mirage:

  1. The skeleton, tagged. Everything the demo ran, committed and pushed, with a tag or a clearly named commit: git tag d2-skeleton and git push --tags. A marker, or future you, can now stand exactly where the demo stood.
  2. The contracts. docs/topics.md current: every topic, payload and route the skeleton uses, exact spelling, per Week 9's habit.
  3. The analysis. The D2 document per the brief, in docs/, including the requirement rows your verification table can already check against the skeleton.
  4. The journal line. Today's stand-up and what the studio unblocked; thirty seconds, future evidence of method.

If the skeleton does not walk by 16:45

Demonstrate what does, and name the broken contract out loud, with the half-split evidence that locates it. A pair that says "value reaches the broker, dies at the bridge, probe says the route returns null" is demonstrating the course's actual skills over a partial system; the brief's grading handles partial credit, and the diagnosis is the strongest part of any such demo. What earns nothing is a demo postponed to "it worked at home".

Leave with a plan for the half-width week

Ten minutes before you pack: the pair opens the rung list from Week 11 and re-ranks it against what the studio taught. One constraint dominates, and it was announced on day one of the project: Week 13 is half-width, the final examination and D3 share Monday, November 30. So the plan leaving this room is: D3's rung chosen tiny but real (one thickness, demonstrable, nothing that touches two contracts at once), exam study placed in the week, and the heavier rungs queued for Week 14, where D4's 15 % deserves them. The pairs who do this in ten minutes tonight are the pairs who are calm on the 30th; the maths of the milestone weights has not moved since Week 11's timeline figure, and it will not.

Exit checklist

Next week

Week 13 · Nov 30

Final examination & D3: one day, two proofs

The final exam (15 %) in the first part of class, then D3's tiny-but-real rung demonstrated. Half-width by design; everything about today's plan assumed it.

Week 14 · Dec 7

D4 build week: the table turns green

15 %, the project's biggest single grade: the system substantially complete, rungs climbed, verification table filling with green. The studio rhythm returns with the stakes raised.