So coming into class on the 27th, I was really at a loss as to what to expect since just days before, we were told of an in-class assignment to be conducted that was not to be missed. Needless to say, I was interested and looked forward to seeing just what the professor had in store for us. Just then, I took note of what was sitting on the desk: a package of drinking straws, a carton of eggs and a roll of masking tape. The first thought that shot through my head was ‘I think I’ve seen this before and from what I didn’t miss, things got interesting yet messy’. I had an idea as to what was going to be going on because just years back, I caught some children’s show on TV where students were instructed to build somewhat of an outer-shell of an egg so that, when dropped from a height, it would be the straw protection-device that was banged up rather than the egg itself. Immediately, when I had seen the set-up we’d be working with to build, what I assumed would be what I saw on TV that day, I started thinking back to what kind of design actually kept the egg safe and sound with those students and hoped my memory was fresh enough to draw it up on paper and then actually execute it.
After we were shown a quick little diagram of what it means to plan and then bring something from being on paper to life, the overall concept of this activity was explained and the group and I got to work. If at all, the group effort mattered more than the overall outcome because if we could’ve put several brains with several ways of creating and thinking together, we were bound to come up with something efficient and effective eventually. We collaboratively knew that the single purpose was to protect the egg yet still keep it remotely visible to ensure we wouldn’t be trying to cheat our way to a victoriously-alive egg. So we each started by just throwing ideas around in regards to what would keep the egg centered so that our little contraption was what suffered a blow from the ground while the egg sat comfortably inside.
Clearly we knew what we wanted and how we wanted to get there yet now it was only a matter of getting there without any little bumps along the way. As told to do so, we’d assigned tasks to each of the group members, selecting a leader, somebody to draw up a sketch of what it was we had in mind for our protection device and then for somebody to actually drop the egg as we all kept our fingers crossed our egg, that we named Pebbles instead of, say, Omelet, wouldn’t plunge to its death. Assigning titles to group members didn’t really make as much of a prominent difference as maybe it would’ve been in some other scenario because nobody really took the time to lead among others as we all contributed equally to what we felt would be best, taking turns drawing up a little sketch that the “sketcher” then drew up on a separate sheet of paper as our end-goal of what our creation would be, fool-proof and guaranteed to work. We were each able to kind of, picture the straws and amount of tape we had to make use with and came with this, sort of, mental image as to how the egg would settle in and if we could actually bring this plan to life.
It all seemed well and great, we were all genuinely confident about our design, which started off as a cube with straws acting like the fencing, an itsy bitsy barricade, around the egg while it was cradled in the very middle by pieces of taped straws. Ready to start building, a member of our group through another idea out there that we could’ve used as a backup plan but since we had already come up with what we felt was a surefire source of success, we put that on the backburner and started building our little boxed contraption. It wasn’t until we had gotten about half-way through, maybe even less, that we realized time was running out and we were getting nowhere fast. Just then, with probably like a minute or so left to spare before time was up, we quickly switched over to the second-best thing we could’ve done, keeping the egg enclosed in something shaped like a barrel made out of the straws. At first when the idea came up, we the majority of us were kind of turned off by it just because it didn’t seem like something that would fully keep the egg in one piece without something or other cracking or breaking with the impact possibly being stronger on such a design than had we gone with something cube-ish. Rationalization had gone down the drain and we were working against time by that point; taping and snipping the straws away as quickly as we could and hoping that the egg would, in fact, be as visible as it should’ve been, we had eventually made something out of the contraption and went up to try out the ultimate test. Unfortunately, we’d gotten disqualified since Pebbles wasn’t as exposed to the world as she should’ve been. Regardless, we were given a chance and in due time, Pebbles had a life well-but-short-lived as the egg fell to the ground and broke instantly.
Despite the outcome, I felt that our group had worked wonderfully with each other, each member doing his/her job in bringing something new to the table and sharing their thoughts on what would be effective and what should’ve just been left behind and forgotten. Though, I felt that maybe the ideas we came up with sounded better and looked better when we’d mentally drew them up and looked great on paper but in the end, something other would’ve been better of an idea but no matter what, it was truly an experience to remember. All in all, we had a great objective, a great plan we’d follow through with to fulfill our goal even though it hadn’t worked out well as the egg didn’t live on.
After we were shown a quick little diagram of what it means to plan and then bring something from being on paper to life, the overall concept of this activity was explained and the group and I got to work. If at all, the group effort mattered more than the overall outcome because if we could’ve put several brains with several ways of creating and thinking together, we were bound to come up with something efficient and effective eventually. We collaboratively knew that the single purpose was to protect the egg yet still keep it remotely visible to ensure we wouldn’t be trying to cheat our way to a victoriously-alive egg. So we each started by just throwing ideas around in regards to what would keep the egg centered so that our little contraption was what suffered a blow from the ground while the egg sat comfortably inside.
Clearly we knew what we wanted and how we wanted to get there yet now it was only a matter of getting there without any little bumps along the way. As told to do so, we’d assigned tasks to each of the group members, selecting a leader, somebody to draw up a sketch of what it was we had in mind for our protection device and then for somebody to actually drop the egg as we all kept our fingers crossed our egg, that we named Pebbles instead of, say, Omelet, wouldn’t plunge to its death. Assigning titles to group members didn’t really make as much of a prominent difference as maybe it would’ve been in some other scenario because nobody really took the time to lead among others as we all contributed equally to what we felt would be best, taking turns drawing up a little sketch that the “sketcher” then drew up on a separate sheet of paper as our end-goal of what our creation would be, fool-proof and guaranteed to work. We were each able to kind of, picture the straws and amount of tape we had to make use with and came with this, sort of, mental image as to how the egg would settle in and if we could actually bring this plan to life.
It all seemed well and great, we were all genuinely confident about our design, which started off as a cube with straws acting like the fencing, an itsy bitsy barricade, around the egg while it was cradled in the very middle by pieces of taped straws. Ready to start building, a member of our group through another idea out there that we could’ve used as a backup plan but since we had already come up with what we felt was a surefire source of success, we put that on the backburner and started building our little boxed contraption. It wasn’t until we had gotten about half-way through, maybe even less, that we realized time was running out and we were getting nowhere fast. Just then, with probably like a minute or so left to spare before time was up, we quickly switched over to the second-best thing we could’ve done, keeping the egg enclosed in something shaped like a barrel made out of the straws. At first when the idea came up, we the majority of us were kind of turned off by it just because it didn’t seem like something that would fully keep the egg in one piece without something or other cracking or breaking with the impact possibly being stronger on such a design than had we gone with something cube-ish. Rationalization had gone down the drain and we were working against time by that point; taping and snipping the straws away as quickly as we could and hoping that the egg would, in fact, be as visible as it should’ve been, we had eventually made something out of the contraption and went up to try out the ultimate test. Unfortunately, we’d gotten disqualified since Pebbles wasn’t as exposed to the world as she should’ve been. Regardless, we were given a chance and in due time, Pebbles had a life well-but-short-lived as the egg fell to the ground and broke instantly.
Despite the outcome, I felt that our group had worked wonderfully with each other, each member doing his/her job in bringing something new to the table and sharing their thoughts on what would be effective and what should’ve just been left behind and forgotten. Though, I felt that maybe the ideas we came up with sounded better and looked better when we’d mentally drew them up and looked great on paper but in the end, something other would’ve been better of an idea but no matter what, it was truly an experience to remember. All in all, we had a great objective, a great plan we’d follow through with to fulfill our goal even though it hadn’t worked out well as the egg didn’t live on.
I seems alot of the groups had more or less the same problems when it came to folowing the planning process. Regardless, we all had fun and it was a good experience.
ReplyDeleteyou stated, time was the greatest problem we ran into. We would have definitely finished our boxed contraption if we just had enough time to build it. Success, however, wasn’t the only thing that mattered, though. We had a great time working together.
ReplyDelete