Reflection#4

Self-motivation and perseverance are imperative in a team setting. Teamwork, as the name suggests,  is an activity in a team. All work should be exhibited in a team. Each individual represents the group.  

Both self-motivation and perseverance will promote progress. Chloe and I were responsible for making a poster. However, it was done on my computer and we had not finished before Friday. There was still a question left which is needed to be answered at the weekend. I had asked my group mates to finish the question as soon as possible. On Friday night, Kate and Chloe sent the link of reflection on Action Day 2 and the answer to that question to me. I thought I could not drag our group down, so I accomplished the reflection and answered the question as soon as possible. However, one of my group mates sent the answer until Saturday midnight which influenced the progress of the poster. Responsibility increases my self-motivation and keeps my perseverance. Because of responsibility, all of us persist in the experiment from the beginning to the end. I always believe that we can accomplish it which might help build my perseverance. 

All adults emphasize that teamwork and collaboration skills are significant in the future, especially when we start to work. Teamwork and collaboration are imperative to all individuals. Without collaboration, I might not finish all experiment, even poster, and video in only 4 days. For example, on the first Action Day, we faced some problems. It is almost impossible to squeeze an apple evenly. There will be only a few drops of apple juice. Be a team, we have more ideas and solutions. By discussion, we eventually found an appropriate means to get apple juice. We determined to use blender by mixing apple and water in one to one ratio. Teamwork and collaboration help people to solve problems more quickly. However, there might be problems when doing teamwork. There might be quarrels. During the experiment, when we decided whether to control the mass of apple or control the mass of water. However, one of my group mates decided to control the mass of apple. According to abstraction, it is easier to control the water. Eventually, I illustrate my method by computational thinking. Nevertheless, well collaboration can urge the progress of the project. 

Writing reflection made me recall the memory of what we have done the whole day. Reflecting encourages people to realize their problems which could help people to improve next time. For example, our group’s final video was not exported before the presentation. Actually, three of us were responsible for either poster or video, but one group mate did not do anything without saying any explanation. It might be one of the factors why we did not export the final video successfully. Work should be divided equally when doing teamwork. When there was a problem, we should not blame one student. All of us should be responsible for the mistake or the problem.

In conclusion, the group 4 project was a treasurable memory in my life. This might be the only opportunity that I could work with students of different subjects. Even though there were some regrets, I will remember the experience forever and remember the lessons I learned during the project. 

Reflection 3

I did not reach my personal target for today. Yesterday, my own personal goal for Action Day 2 was finishing recording all my video parts and accomplishing the poster. I only finished recording all my video parts but we have not finished the poster. We only accomplished most of it. During the afternoon, one of our group mate left which might drag down the overall process. Responsibility helped me to continue the work. The personal goal urged me to work harder. 

Of course, there are some interpersonal conflicts over last 2 days because this is a teamwork. The quarrel was to decide how to make apple juice when we found the original method did not work. Some suggested to squeeze apples with mortar. Eventually, we borrowed a blender and make the apple juice. We had conflicts when redesigning the procedures. Turvey thought we should control the mass of apples. However, I thought we should control the mass of water. Because it was more difficult to control mass of apples than water. We had a little quarrels. Even though the theory was the same, the methods might cause greater uncertainties. Eventually, we chose to control the mass of water. We also had a little conflict when recording the video. When recording the beginning of the video which was a group part, the only male in our group was not satisfied with the video only because he was not satisfied with his appearance. So we spent more time to do relatively useless work.

However, we had overcame all difficulties. Some conflicts were solved by discussion. Some conflicts are solved by the rule of the majority obeying the minority. I believe we could present a beautiful video and poster on Monday!

Reflection 2

My contributions were using computational thinking to improve our procedures, doing the experiment, accomplishing part of the video and making an electronic flowchart. During the morning, our group divided into two groups: Kate and Chloe; Turvey and me. Kate and Chloe examined the colorless of apples by Photoshop. Turvey and I were doing the experiment: measure the sweetness of the whole apple. Originally, our group decided to make apple juice directly. Nevertheless, when we actually did it, we found it was really difficult because there is very little juice by squeezing apples. Then we changed our method, we use a blender to make apple juice. There is another problem that water must be added when using the blender. Considering that the weight of each apple is different, I suggest adding the same ratio of water to control the variable. We had a little quarrel when deciding to control the water or control the weight of apple flesh. Eventually, we determined to control the mass of water. I used computational thinking to make the procedures more logical. When Chloe and Kate were determining RGB of apples, I peeled apples, cut apples, weighed water added to make apple juice.  

My energy level was at the top during the morning. As time passed, my energy level reduced. When the day ended, I felt really tired. The most motivated area was doing the experiment because it felt like I was involved and I have made some contributions to our group. Besides, I really liked to do experiments. The least motivated part might be making electronic flowchart because I was not familiar with the online application to make a flowchart. So I spent some time to learn how to use it. Because of unfamiliarity, I have done a simple thing for a long time which wasted time. However, I persevered by our group cohesive force. Because I did not want to do it tomorrow, this belief makes me persist in accomplishing making an electronic flowchart. I had a belief that I could finish it today which also helped me. My own personal goal for Action Day 2 is finishing recording all my video parts and accomplishing the poster. 

Group 4 Project #Planning Day#

Welcome!

Today is the first day of our group 4 Project. At the beginning, we had brainstorms. We wrote down all thoughts of myths we had on the whiteboard. Finally we chose our research question as that what is the correlation between apple skin color and the sweetness. Then we begun to write the flow chart of our experiment. After writing the basic scientific method, we discussed with different teachers and updated the experimental method. The picture shown below is the final flow chart of experimental method. 

 

Even though we have not begun our research, we can assume the implications of our investigation. It might not be really useful in computer science field. The photoshop method we use to measure the color could be an photoshop example in computer science field. However, it is of extreme use in people’s daily life. It could help consumers to select sweet apples. By this way, consumers could buy the apples they like. The method might be applied to people all over world who purchase the same species of apple because I am not sure whether the result could be useful for the other species of apples. 

My group mates are Chloe, Kate, and Turvey. I feel all of my group mates are hardworking and creative. During the brainstorm part, all of us contributed their thoughts. I am computer science student, so I could draw the flowchart and use computational to make sure the logics. Chloe, as a Physics student, could use her physics knowledge to measure the color of apples. Turvey, as a Chemistry student, mainly focuses on the measurement of sweetness. Kate, as a Biology student, could select apples. All of us can peel apples and juice apples. 

Of course, there were possible conflicts when choosing the research question. Nevertheless, we did not have quarrels. We discussed together and provided the opinions why the student agreed with the idea and why they did not. We listened to each other opinion carefully and finally we could reach an agreement. I believe we could resolve conflicts in the same way in the future. 

I believe we will have a precious memory and memorable experience. I really look forward to the group 4 project.