Critical Thinking Activity - Writing a Process

At Intel's® Education Initiative site they describe the process of suiting up to work in a cleanroom.
Read the list of steps involved in entering a computer cleanroom. They list 43 steps. It can take
new employees 40 minutes to go through the process!

Consider an activity you do regularly.
You will be surprised by the complexity involved and yet how easily you do it.

Describe the steps you go through to do one of these activities:

Getting ready to go to school. Putting on a shoe & tying it. Making a sandwich.

Use a word processing document to do this project. Write the steps in order, just like they did on the bunny suit web page.

1. Enter each step of the process without entering a step number. (This will make it easier to set and edit the order later.)

After each new step - Return. Enter each step on a new line in the document.

2. To number the list - Word - Highlight the text. Go Format > Bullets and Numbering.

In the dialog box choose - Numbering. Select the numbering format that is best suited for this project. (You decide)

3. Save.

4. Carefully examine the list.

Is it in order? Are all the steps included?

Critique it by asking - If you gave your list to another person, who followed it exactly as written, would they be successful?

5. To add a new step - Click at the end of the line above where you want to enter the new step. Return. Enter the new step.

To reorder the list - highlight the text of the out of order step and drag it to the correct location.

It both cases - Notice that the steps have been renumbered by the computer. Sweet! If you had numbered the list as you entered it, you would have to renumber each step. UGH!

“A computer does not substitute for judgment any more than a pencil substitutes for literacy.
But writing without a pencil is no particular advantage.” Robert S. McNamara

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