Group 4 project is a whole new and exciting experience for me since I am not a science student and these pure lab days are precious. Group 4 project is an opportunity for our art student to enjoy the joy and sorrow of science experiments.
Part 1: self-motivation and perseverance
As all science experiments, things deviate hugely from what we have planned and I get frustrated from time to time. On action day 1, I changed the design of the paper boat three times in total. We wanted to use the foam board since it is water proof and easy to cut on planning day. However, after we cut several model paper boats, we found out it didn’t work when putting the paper boat in actual water. Then Bryan and I quickly thought about using tapes to cover printed paper in order to reduce the weight of the boat and make it water-resistant. We spent one or two hours to design the boat electronically, print them out, and cut them in certain sizes. Unfortunately, it still didn’t work and sank in the water. Paper ships were core material in our experiment and we cannot begin the experimenting stage unless we found the right material for the boat. We didn’t know how to deal with this for a moment and our mind got stuck somehow. However, we didn’t give up. We found a MIT lab video online and watched it carefully: in the video those university students simply used milk box to make a water proof boat. Our team encouraged each other and we would keep trying no matter the boat three fail or not. Luckily, the third boat floated well on water and showed the phenomenon we expected. From this event, our team successfully show the importance of self-motivation and perseverance in a team setting for the following reasons.
Above all, we didn’t give up and kept designing and trying new shapes and materials for the boat. It’s worth mentioning that we didn’t plan to give up if the boat three could not work as well. We four were fully determined and decided to achieve our goals by all means. Secondly, we encouraged each other when one method didn’t work. Bryan and I worked together and inspired each other in boat designing by sharing our ideas unreservedly. Lilian and Jenny measured surface tension of different solutions and our two sub-divisions exchanged our ideas hourly. Lilian and Jenny gave Bryan and I full trust and they believed that we could make the floating boat. Our successful designing was a combination of we never-say-die spirits and encouragements from each other.
Part 2: teamwork and collaboration
Team spirits are always shown in small details. For example, when we carried the heavy water tank from washroom to biology classroom, Lillian, Bryan, and I take turns and encourage each other along the way. One main reason that our team worked really efficiency in these 3 days is the division of labor. Lilian and Jenny are “science” student and Bryan and I are more art students, which lead to different tasks. For example, Lilian and Jenny were responsible for measuring the surface tension and Bryan and I were doing the boat design in the preparation stage. It’s worth mentioning that in the main experiment part we four worked together to conduct the experiment and record data. In the data analysis part, Jenny and I were physics specialists so we analyzed data using Logger pro and Lillian did this as well. Bryan and I also made posters and videos.
Part 3: reflecting
We learned from our failures in these experiments and reflected ourselves timely instead of reflecting ourselves only in the blogpost. For example, when we design the boat, Bryan and I concluded that we need light material from boat 1 and water-proof material from boat 2 —-thus we made boat 3 successfully. In the data analysis part, we noticed that our results were different from our expectations, revealing inaccuracy when conducting the experiment. For example, the size of the hand cut boat were not controlled correctly; the soap water was not ensured saturated; the scale on the foam board were too blur to read accurately; the video we record was not in a good shooting angle and caused trouble in analysis; and so on.
Overall, the group 4 project is an opportunity for me to develop my ability to self-motivation, perseverance, collaboration, and reflecting.
FengrouHai 