Collaboration
Semester 1: Eight Stages of Genocide Project
Reflection: Before beginning this assignment, our class was divided up into groups and each group was required to choose a genocide that they were interested in researching. We were then required to present the information based on the Eight Stages of Genocide of our chosen topic. Our genocide was the Partition of India. While working on this project, I was able to work on the skills of equally dividing up portions of work concerning the Eight Stages of Genocide of the Partition of India and effectively researching and completing my assigned aspects of the Partition. I was also able to collaborate with my group members to edit each other's work and create a presentable and knowledgeable project. In order to do this project we had to learn about a specific genocide and research how each of the Eight Stages of Genocide corresponded within it. Through this project I learned a lot about the Partition of India, and was able to voice my ideas to my peers and work together to make each slide of the project satisfactory and present the proper information. We ran ideas off of each other, checked each other's information, and peer-edited each other's work. My group went through this process to not only make sure that the overall project was decent, but to also ascertain that each group member were confident in the work that they completed. Although I feel that I accomplished a lot by completing this project, I believe that there are some skills I could still improve upon. A few of these skills include being more helpful in the criticism that I give to my peers and being able to think up more ways that I can contribute to my own portion of the project, as well as the overall outcome of it. I would like to give criticism that focuses on the good and poor parts of the project and think up ideas that would allow them to work through their problems. In order to improve upon these skills, I will need to practice putting myself in my group members' shoes to see how they would view their own work to then give feedback that would be both kind and beneficial. I will also think about ways that I would want my work to be criticized and do so for my group members accordingly.
Artifact 1: Eight Stages of Genocide Project
Semester 2: Health Tobacco Presentation
Reflection: Please note that this assignment was one of four from another class, not Global Studies. This particular project was from a Health course. For this project, our teacher divided the class into 3 groups (Alcohol, Tobacco, and Drugs) and, as a group, we were assigned the necessities that each topic would have to research. These included information on the definition, types, and dangers of the topic. I was placed into a group regarding tobacco. A few members of my group, myself included, took charge and divided up the requirements so each member would have an equal amount to research and we could collaborate to accomplish a task without feeling overwhelmed. In order to incorporate creativity into the skit that we used to convey our information, we decided to use interactive activities such as the straw breathing, tar jar, balloon deflation, and pig's-lung demonstrations. Also, each member of our group incorporated their independent research into our skit and starred in it if they so wished. Throughout working on this assignment, we were able to use collaboration in our project by dividing and conquering the research we must do and running ideas off of each other. It's not easy managing a large project with a large group, but with effective use of collaboration, I was able to listen to my groups' concerns and, with other members, work them out so the project was by all of us. At the end of our presentation, we also graded our group members based on their participation in the group. I, personally, felt that I was able to adequately manage my groups' needs as well as my own and was able to integrate each of my divided groups' research into a skit that everyone was able to be a part of. Each of my group members worked together to complete this ultimate goal and you can tell from just looking at the slides of the presentation below that each members's personality was effectively shown. One of my group members created a worksheet to follow along with during the presentation, and our conclusion was created entirely from two other group members. I also made sure to co-lead with everyone else, since I was simply one of nine members of this presentation, and I couldn't have done it all on my own. When looking at collaboration in the future, I hope to be able to learn how to calm arguments between my group members and assure they don't arise in the first place, since many conflicting people means many conflicting viewpoints, and being a mediator is a basic skill of life that's extremely helpful to have. In order to achieve this goal, I intend to see a situation through my group members' eyes and tell myself that nobody likes someone who takes over a whole project and doesn't give everyone a shot at helping, so I will not be that kind of person.
Artifact 2: Health Tobacco Presentation