Despite the fact that our egg cracked, I believe our group gave a great effort to meeting our objective.After witnessing the outcome, I took a step back to see where we might have went wrong described as follows:
Step 1: This was given by Professor Kurpis. Our goal was to construct a contraption to protect and prevent a fragile egg from breaking after a 10 feet drop. We were all aware of a couple of time constraints: 25 minutes to plan and 10 minutes to build the device.
Step 2: The resources provided were 8 plastics straws, 2 feet of tape, and an egg. A pair of scissors was also provided but we never got our hands on it (we didn't think we needed it). When the clock started counting down, everyone in my group was hyped and ready to work. A few us went up to the desk to examine the size of the egg, the length and flexibility of the straws, an the material of the tape. One of the members of my group actually had seen this project done before with success but with more resources. 
Step 3: Each member of my group contributed to brainstorming ideas towards the development of the contraption. No leaders emerged in our group, but collectively we were able to come up with a plan by combining the best parts of our alternative strategies to come up with the final blueprint of our protection device. We drew out the device and with the agreement of each member, we were ready to move on. (Given the time limit, we did not have time to come up with a back-up plan.) 
Step 4: We assigned roles at the beginning of the second time constraint where we began to build the contraption. Two members were involved in structuring and shaping the straws, two other members were in charge of taping the contraption together, and one person had the responsibility of securing the egg while the other members built and taped around it leaving 50% of the egg visible. Here is where I think we went wrong. When our plan was put into action, it did not come out the way we pictured it. The structure was coming out weird and with time running out we just taped everything together. 
Step 5: We had the shortest member in our group volunteer to drop the egg. Unfortunately, the egg was dropped and cracked as it hit the trash bin. It turns out we went wrong during step 4 in the planning process. Although our contraption failed to do its job, as a group we grew stronger. I'm looking forward to working with my group again and the next project that we will take on will surely have a better outcome.
4 comments:
Reading your blog made me realize a couple of crucial mistakes we made. Getting the shortest member of the group to drop the egg? Ingenious. A shame we did not think about that. Pinpointing at exactly which step you faltered is a good idea, as you can focus on correcting that in the future. Was your group the other group that had the egg drop and break on the side of the trash bin? If so, we have something in common. I think it's great that even though your team did not succeed in the ultimately defined objective, you are not losing any enthusiasm in working on future projects.
Hmmm..... After reading all that, I think I realized that our group would've had the same problem as you. We only really worked on the one design that we all thought would work. We didn't have a Plan B neither but thankfully, our ONE and ONLY design worked otherwise it would've been right there with you all scrambled up. lols. I was the dropper for my group because we also thought that the shortest member should do it (Don't think that it mattered since all the classmates started yelling when I lowered it even a little bit. )
After reading your blog and reflecting back on our effort, I consider our egg lucky! Although our egg survived, I realize we only had one idea that ultimately and luckily worked out. I can imagine being in your position in Step 4, realizing that the idea in action just would not work. Looking at your steps, maybe the actual step you experienced a problem on was in Step 3, by not having enough time to come up with a back up plan. It seemed like you guys were very democratic in your ways, allowing each member to contribute to the group and having all members approve of the plan. Although your efforts failed, you realized the power of your group to work together in harmony and this will become more apparent in future projects. Great job!
The way you and your group went about your plan is very similar to that of my group. We also had no leader but rather several ideas thrown out that we all considered. We also took the time to examine the materials, which was pretty helpful. And we also had the shortest person drop the egg. All and all I can see that we had very similar experiences in that our groups got along and completed the task as a unit without a leader. Although, it is pretty unfortunate that your egg broke and you missed out on some free points. Better luck next time.
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