My experiences with groups have for the most part been pretty bad. Typically my groups consist of three to four people. There is always one person who never does any work and another who does terrible work.
I always end up having to either write their section of the report for them or correct all of their portion so that it even makes logical sense. The best case scenario for most groups I have ever been in is for me to have one other person to count on. At least then I know I won't have to do all of the work.
It is funny to me how engineering classes always stress group work. Every engineering class I have ever taken has required some sort of group project. I always draw the short straw when it comes to the people placed in my group. I do prefer to work alone in most cases but have no problem with some assistance from other people. Homework groups, study groups, and really any group where there is individual effort yet still group collaboration is good.
I do have a good feeling about my group in this class however. Previous group meetings with this group have been good and everyone seems very capable of pulling their weight with this assignment. Hope our project turns out good.
Our project is going to rock.
ReplyDeleteAnd this will definitely be better than the CES catapult project. That was a disaster waiting to happen. One of the girls in my group whined from 9 at night to 5 in the morning. Not fun.
Point being, our group this time is awesome.
Luckily, in my major (computer science) I've never really had a problem like that. Group projects always consisted of massive amounts of code that we had to work on together or else we'd fail. There was really no need to go back and do someone's part over because it either worked or didn't, and they knew that they needed to have it work.
ReplyDeleteI think this group project will be pretty interesting, to say the least.
I feel like our class is pretty much all on the same page on how much work we each need to do! Hopefully this group is better for you than previous groups!
ReplyDeleteI agree that the homework groups and study groups usually seem to work out well. I think that a lot of this has to do with the fact that people usually WANT to be in those groups, you know?
ReplyDeleteI don't think groups work out at all. It's not that the people don't do what they are supposed to, but that there is always somebody in the group that doesn't think it is done right. They feel that they have to do everything to get a good grade when the person that actually did that part probably did a good job
ReplyDeleteI think i agree with bw here. We all have our own standards of good work and we're most comfortable with the way we do things, even to the point of not recognizing good work in others.
ReplyDeleteI commented about this on someone else's blog, but I feel like every group project needs some kind of individual grade attached to it. Slackers always seem to get that A and not do anything.
ReplyDeleteHomework groups are definitely the more positive of group work settings in school. I for one cannot study in a group setting.
ReplyDeleteTim, i couldn't agree more! i have actually had a group member so slack that we turned in the project without their name on it and the professor made them do a project on their own.
I think group projects work out best when you are able to pick your groups yourself. Usually this way you can find somebody that you can work well with and as long as you have a partner that is willing to work it doesn't matter how large the group is.
ReplyDeleteI am i the same position as James with the computer science groups. For the most part everyone pulls their own weight because their section of code has to work, and they work with it until it does.
ReplyDeleteI was in Computer Engineering and remember thats dreadful catapult project.. We spent hours buildings ours and shot a balloon about 3 feet.
Another group, spent 20 dollars and bought a 3 man balloon launcher and shot the teacher over the wall with ease. I felt this to be pretty unfair. I guess they earned their A by paying 20 dollars... props to them for being intelligent though!