So in management class we had to make a contraption out of straws and tape to prevent an egg from breaking. As the teacher began to tell us of his whole idea, I had realized I left my cell phone in the computer lab, and as some of you remember, I ran out like a bullet to try to find it. (And I did :) ). When I rejoined my group, I was a little behind but lucky for me I had a wonderful group that brought me up to speed.
Right away my group members told me the goal was to have an egg drop 10 feet without breaking. They have spoken to the professor, who said the egg does not have to free fall all the way to the ground from the 10 feet height. So basically, we had a goal, and did the research to see if there were alternate ways to approach this problem. They have calculator 16 straws would equal to over 10 feet and we can get that by cutting the straws vertically. So, we applied the most we could out of our resources to stretch them into what we needed. We would have the egg free fall about 9 ½ feet while tied to that amount of straw and then it would stop before hitting the ground, from there it would only have to handle a drop of a few inches.
We drew out the plan and designated someone to hunt for the scissors. When we did not get them, first we started taking out keys and all sharp objects in an attempt to cut them in case we did not get the scissors. This was our alternative strategy if scissors were unobtainable. Thankfully, we got them quick enough and everyone went to work.
Without having to be told, each person just started doing what he or she could to help the cause. I was taping the straws together; another person was cutting them while others were working on getting the egg secured to the straws. No jobs were allocated, things just happened. In addition, what was strange was there was really no leader, but everyone managed to get along just fine as equals.
Then I was chosen to drop the egg because I was the only girl and all the boys insisted that they were taller. Thankfully, it went good and our egg did not break. What I think was the best part of our work was that the actual execution of dropping the egg was the easiest part. Unlike other groups who worried and tried to drop the egg from as low as possible, our group went on the table completely confident that the egg would not break. We planned and prepared, thought was tough an stressful, in the end we knew we couldn’t fail. I think this is most important in planning. All the work should be done in the planning phase so when time comes to execute it goes flawless and worriless.
Right away my group members told me the goal was to have an egg drop 10 feet without breaking. They have spoken to the professor, who said the egg does not have to free fall all the way to the ground from the 10 feet height. So basically, we had a goal, and did the research to see if there were alternate ways to approach this problem. They have calculator 16 straws would equal to over 10 feet and we can get that by cutting the straws vertically. So, we applied the most we could out of our resources to stretch them into what we needed. We would have the egg free fall about 9 ½ feet while tied to that amount of straw and then it would stop before hitting the ground, from there it would only have to handle a drop of a few inches.
We drew out the plan and designated someone to hunt for the scissors. When we did not get them, first we started taking out keys and all sharp objects in an attempt to cut them in case we did not get the scissors. This was our alternative strategy if scissors were unobtainable. Thankfully, we got them quick enough and everyone went to work.
Without having to be told, each person just started doing what he or she could to help the cause. I was taping the straws together; another person was cutting them while others were working on getting the egg secured to the straws. No jobs were allocated, things just happened. In addition, what was strange was there was really no leader, but everyone managed to get along just fine as equals.
Then I was chosen to drop the egg because I was the only girl and all the boys insisted that they were taller. Thankfully, it went good and our egg did not break. What I think was the best part of our work was that the actual execution of dropping the egg was the easiest part. Unlike other groups who worried and tried to drop the egg from as low as possible, our group went on the table completely confident that the egg would not break. We planned and prepared, thought was tough an stressful, in the end we knew we couldn’t fail. I think this is most important in planning. All the work should be done in the planning phase so when time comes to execute it goes flawless and worriless.
5 comments:
The best people to work with in a group are the people who care enough to care about each member. It was good that you had a group that would bring you up to speed and inform you on what is to be done and didn't treat you bad because you left. It's also good that your group worked together. Everyone knew the task at hand and was able to delegate tasks themselves to help speed the process. You had a plan and a backup plan and the confidence that your plan would succeed. That's the perfect combination and if every team was able to function the way yours did, i'm sure we'd have alot better results not only with surviving eggs but within businesses in general.
Hey, do you still remember the other groups were boo-ing our contraption? Lol. We proved them wrong. Good handling there for the egg. I think you played the most important role there. God forbid if something happened to the egg. Hope to work together again in the near future.
I was very impressed by your contraption. You guys were very smart to ask the professor and clarify the rules of the assignment. Yes, the class thought you were "cheating" but you guys thought "outside the box" and thus earned 5 extra points!
I support what you say about planning. Planning really is the foundation of a group activity, or any activity of that matter. It's significant that the planning process receives the most attention. However, I'm also a supporter of improvisation. I think that being able to improvise when needed is really important and could help the team a great deal. But don't get me wrong, like I said, planning is definitely, hands down, the foundation of an activity. Without a plan, there's nothing.
Your project was clever and smart. Even though the rest of the class thought you guys cheated, I felt your team did not. It was something different than the other groups project. I looked at it as cutting the corners, or beating people to the punch. Something we need to do to get by in life.
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