Our group was well organized from the beginning of the egg-cellent activity to the end. The goal was to build a three dimensional looking triangular contraption using materials provided (1 egg, 2ft tape and 8 straws). We drew a sketch of our figure to keep in mind and stay within the guidelines.
The twenty five minutes was the most important of this activity, more important than the ten minutes to actually build the egg contraption. This is so because we used this time wisely to plan every detail of our project inch by inch. We believed that excellent planning is more imperative and would guarantee great results. The ten minutes was just enough to realize our goal. The planning phase was thorough allowing little room for marginal error.
The group treated this activity as a real life situation and so we had a plan B if our major plan was undermined. We took into consideration a lot of constraints for instance, “what if the tape was not enough” the idea was that we were going to place the straws one inside each other to avoid using tape, which allowed us to have sufficient tape to reinforce and secure the most important part of the project (the egg). Another constraint that we bear in mind was, “whether we should cut the straws or leave them as is” we decided that less is more and that using just eight straws will save time.
Constructing the triangular three dimensional looking figure was the most efficient way in keeping our egg from cracking and accomplishing our goal. For our plan to be executed in the best possible fashion every student was allocated a role. We chose a leader who then delegated a specific simple role to each student.
Student 1- construct the front triangle
Student 2 – construct the back triangle
Student 3 – cut the tape into pieces
Student 4 – protect the egg from breaking
Student 5 – assemble all parts to complete our project
Student 6 – keep group abreast of time
Our leader was in front of the class with our plan in his hand on time. Although our egg did crack our planning process was very thorough allowing our execution phase to run smoothly without doubts and even without having to modify our plan. We stuck with our plan A and completed our three dimensional triangular egg contraption.
As in our book with the example of Oprah Winfrey and any other company thorough planning almost always promise great outcomes and if the plan needs to be modified identifying the problem in a critical time and working around the problem is fundamental to being successful.
I agree that the 25 minutes, planning, was the most important part of the activity. The 25 minutes had to be used wisely and since 25 minutes is not a long period of time, you have to plan in a concise manner. Additionally, I liked that your group assigned a role to each of the members. That was a good idea in controlling the planning process and to make sure that everyone was involved in some type of way.
ReplyDeleteI believe this way was a much more organized way because tasks were delegated to people in order to maximize time. Again that was another thing our group failed to accomplished. Even though your egg still broke the process was still solid.
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