We considered many different factors through our design process. Most notably, we ran the three materials that had been identified through the Grants screening process through a decision matrix. This allowed us to discover that low-carbon steel was indeed the best choice for our application, providing the best combination of local availability, ease of maintenance, and durability. This group-made decision matrix received 100% during grading.
In a Project 1 milestone, my teammates and I had to select which material to use to construct our wind turbine. We had to go through an entire material selection process and use tools like decision matrices. I was feeling nervous heading into the event as we had done poorly on one of the previous milestones and wanted a better mark.
One thing I did during the event was to try and ensure others contributed more together to the product as last time, the work was done mostly individually, and my part was the least competent. This was the right approach, as it ensured that there were 4 people that were involved in the details of each part, which ensured that the work met 4 different sets of high standards. I had some concerns that some of my teammates would struggle to make their voice heard as contributions felt a bit unbalanced previously. However, working through the worksheet more as a team meant that everyone could own their contributions, and everyone made helpful contributions to the worksheet. Others also seemed to be more engaged and willing to contribute when one or two people didn’t dominate the discussion.
I remember that in high school, when I worked on teams where I was clearly the secondary contributor, I felt disengaged and didn’t get along well with the lead contributor. I think this is related as I was now on the other side of the situation and perhaps understood from experience why things weren’t going so well. I think this made me prepared to be able to communicate well with others and sort out how to work evenly together. This leads to equal responsibility which is an important element of teamwork. I think this whole moment also helps me see that the point of teamwork is not to have one person take the lead in completing work, or to split one worksheet into as many parts as there are people, but rather to have everyone work together on the same part of the worksheet simultaneously.
These new insights are important to me as I can use them to ensure that I get good marks on worksheets. This is as the entire worksheet will have been gone through in detail by the entire group and everyone will know it’s of good quality. These insights are also important as they ensure work done by everybody in a group and no one is stressed or disengaged.
One strategy that I can use in the future is to talk more instead of simply staring at the computer screen and zoning out typing stuff onto the worksheet. I think zoning out and typing stuff into the worksheet is something I’ve done previously instead of listening, and this is something I think I should change. I will obviously know if my strategy worked effectively if marks on my milestones improve. However, I will also know it’s working if I feel like everyone’s contributing well and no one’s leaving the room stressed or bored.
The main benefit of my plan is ensuring everyone is equally involved in crafting the whole worksheet, creating a healthier approach to working together. Perhaps a challenge in my plan is that, to some extent, it requires buy-in from others who make prefer different approaches to teamwork that may not work so well.