Decision Making

Once Professor Kurpis gave us control of making a decision in which 100% of the class should agree on, someone immediately took on the leadership role. It was definitely necessary, especially with a class as large as ours. The leader was able to keep the class organized and she was also able to multitask. She not only got everyone's input but she also recorded everyone's ideas on the board to keep track. The process we went through to come up with our decision was effective, as long as everybody participated in it. The main problem i saw, was time. I felt that getting everyone's opinion individually, was too time consuming. This caused us to rush some of the ideas. So we rushed the final decision. I think the ideal way to go through the process, is to separate the class into several groups. Let each group come to a decision that each person in the group can agree on. Then after every group has come to an agreement, each group can present their ideas. Then the whole class can come to a decision based on every groups alternatives. Based on the way people handle conflict, I feel that I took on the compromising position. I also think that the class used the compromising method because some of the ideas were composed of two different ideas. This helped gain the satisfaction of those people that disagreed with one or the other. I think that method was ideal because each side was satisfied. I think that the compromising method is effective. Because when two people are in disagreement, compromising can help provide a solution that both sides can agree on.

Planning Process ( egg project )

Our groups egg contraption didn't hold up, which caused our egg to crack. Though we didn't achieve success with the outcome, I feel like we did a pretty good job of going through the steps of the planning process. The only thing we didn't have was a leader. But everyone in the group gave their input. We were able to visualize our ideas and draw our design. We went through the first phase of planning, which was to define our objective and goals. Our goal was to develop a contraption that was going to secure the egg and allow for a clean landing. As for the 2nd step, which was to determine our resources, we had discussed exactly what we were going to do with the straws and tape as soon as we got them. We didn't want to waste any time. Someone also asked each one of us whether we had any strengths in physics. Which can be used to an advantage. We were also able to come up with a couple of other designs, just in case our initial design became unrealistic. We developed a tactical plan for our initial design. Which was to cut all our straws in half as soon as we got the scissors, in order to multiply the amount we can use to cushion the egg. After we got our resources, we all worked together in creating the contraption. Some cut the tape, another handled the egg, and another the straws. Though we failed our objective, which was to land the egg on the ground safely, our planning process was effective. We all worked well together and we stayed focused on our goal.