For most of my life, I always liked working alone. I wasn’t really good in a group, because I didn’t really work well with others. When I worked with multiple people in a group, I would act too bossy to them sometimes, or would only do what other people told me to do at other times. Along with not being a good teammate, I was also very shy and quiet, so I couldn’t express my opinions to the group and I couldn’t help if two members of the group were arguing or being too loud. Anyway, our projects would end up in disaster because of our poor teamwork, but now, in this year, I actually think I’ve gotten better at working with other people. This year in Science, I think I’ve grown in Collaboration.

            Although I probably grew in Collaboration in other classes as well as Science, I think I grew in Collaboration with Science the most. I mostly grew in Collaboration though the projects that we did in Science. Those projects are the Plate Tectonics Project and the Body Systems Project.

            The Plate Tectonics Project was a project we did in Language Arts and Science in 1st Semester. The point of our project was to teach 5th through 7th Graders about the topic we were learning, which was Plate Tectonics. Plate Tectonics is the theory that giant plates (giant landmasses) move across the earth to reuse and recycle the crust of the Earth through a process called subduction. Along with that, we learned about what plate boundaries are, what the different types are,  what the processes of those plate boundaries are and the different crusts (surface earth or land, such as plates) of those plate boundaries to help us better understand what Plate Tectonics is. We intentionally learned about the plate boundaries in 1st Quarter to lead into our project in 2nd Quarter. Our project was meant for us to teach Plate Tectonics, but more specifically to teach about a certain plate boundary. Since I haven’t mentioned this earlier, a plate boundary is a place where a process of plate tectonics occurs. For example, there are convergent boundaries where two plates move into each other (crust is subducted), there are divergent boundaries where two plates move away from each other (crust is “made”) and there are transform fault boundaries where plates move beside each other (crust is conserved). There’s a lot to say about plate tectonics, but I won’t get too deep into it. After we learned about all the plate boundaries, our project would be to make models of a specific plate boundary we were assigned to. My group was assigned to the Transform Fault Boundary Location at the Alpine Fault in New Zealand. We first started our project by drawing outlines of how we planned to make our model. We had to use specific materials to make our model, like foam and duct tape. Then, we would begin to make our model based upon some peer feedback. Finally, after we made the model, we would write an explanation of our model to explain how our model works and what parts of it represent. Anyway, my first artifact is my Plate Tectonics Work Day of 11/5/15. In this artifact, you see that my group had to change our design pretty drastically. In this part of the process, we were near the end of the project. We were working on our final model, so having to change our design drastically at the end would take a lot of time and effort to do. The reason why we had to change our model is because we were trying to show uplift for the Alpine Fault, but we had flaws in our design on how to show it. By the way, uplift is a process at Transform Fault Boundaries where one of the plates that are moving beside each other is less dense enough to slide over the other denser plate, creating mountains, but not creating subduction. Our flaw was that to show uplift, we were planning to have the crust slide through holes that go through the mantle (non-surface earth, such as magma or the center). The problem with this is that we had to have our model be as scientifically accurate as possible, so showing giant holes in the mantle would be scientifically inaccurate for our model. We fixed this by changing the designs so the holes wouldn’t go all the way through, and therefore would be hidden, but the problem with that plan is that we had very little time to actually follow out our plan. So, we decided to sit down for a while and plan on what to do. First, we talked about what ways we could show uplift. We had brainstormed at the beginning of the project ways we could do this, but those ideas also had flaws in it like our first idea. So, we brainstormed with each other ways on how we could show uplift without it either being too hard to make or that was scientifically inaccurate, yet with no avail. But, this conversation still helped us because we realized that the idea we made to fix our problem (despite taking some time) was the best idea we had for showing uplift. So, we decided to keep our new idea despite the changes we had made to the model, but we knew that we had to work hard as a team to get everything done. This is the point where I think I grew in Collaboration. It’s hard to show or talk about Collaboration, but I think I grew in Collaboration after this event. After we made our decision, we got quickly to work. Since we had to a lot to get done, we worked on different jobs. For example, I glued the pieces together and helped tape one of the pieces of crust. Along with that, I helped my teammates get their jobs done so that we could work on one thing together. Eventually, we got most of our jobs were done and we got a good part of our model done. So, I grew in Collaboration by focusing on the work I was supposed to do in my group and working with my teammates to help finish their jobs when our jobs were done.

            The Body Systems Project was a project we started in 3rd Quarter. The point of this project was to teach how and why the body got and used energy. To do this, we would decide on a medium to do on how to explain the project, but before we began the project, we had to learn about the content. We learned a lot from our new unit how the body worked. We went over the digestion system, the circulatory system and the respiratory system. We also learned a little bit of the functions of proteins and lipids (lipids are another name for fats), and the various caloric relationships. Caloric relationships are the three diets that a person can have: an isocaloric relationship where the amount of calories taken in is the same as you use up; a hypocaloric relationship is where the amount of calories taken in is less than the amount you use up; a hypercaloric relationship is where the amount of calories you take in is more than the amount you use up. After we learned the information, we decided whether to work alone or work as partners, and then would draw outlines to show all of the information. We would tend to draw the outlines after we would learn the content. For example, my group drew an outline of the digestion system talking about things from mechanical digestion to the small intestine right after we learned about the digestion system. Mechanical digestion is where you physically digest a food molecule (by either making it smaller or increasing its surface area) instead of chemically digesting the food. We used a rubric and the list of words we were supposed to have in our explanation as our guide. Finally, after some feedback sessions for the outlines, we would begin on the medium part of the project, which was a storybook for my group. Anyway, my second artifact is my Digestion System Outline. In this artifact, you can see that it has a lot of information on it, some from me and some from my partner, such as how I wrote information on the colon while my partner wrote information on the stomach. To those who don’t know, the colon, also known as the large intestine, is the organ in your body that absorbs all the water and salt from the waste products of your food. In this part of the process, we were just starting the project. We had a slight idea of what we were going to do, but we didn’t have any plans. So, we decided that before we can start on the actual outline, we had to make a plan on what we were going to do in the first place. Our original plan was to make a draft of our storybook as our outline, but the problem with that was that our idea of a storybook would take to long for the amount of time we had to make our outline. So we conversed for a little while in class on what to do to fix our problem, and we eventually settled on making our outline into a poster-like medium instead of making a storybook outline. The conversation we had was brief, but was still important. We started our conversation similarly to my past conversation about our Plate Tectonics Project. We first talked about what we had to do first. We figured out that however we showed the information didn’t matter, as long as we had the information itself. Then, our conversation broke apart as we tried to convince each other on what medium we should use to show our information. My partner was more leaned to showing a storyboard-like medium, and I was leaned more towards a poster-like medium. My partner said how we should show our information through a storyboard so that it could be like a first draft of our product. I said how we should do a poster since the entire point of the draft was to be an outline, so that we summarize all of the information of the body system. Eventually, we decided that as a draft, a poster would be a better medium, but we decided that if we would do a poster as a medium, we would have to work fast. Once we decided on what to do, we had little time left to do our outline. So, my partner and I used our time and effort to work on the outline together at the same time (which is why there are some parts of the outline made from my partner and some parts of the outline made from me). At the end, my partner and I were surprised to find that we had actually gotten our work done, even while others who were working the entire time didn’t. We felt that we had accomplished our goal, only to realize that we had extra time. We spent that extra time working ahead and making another outline similar to our storybook idea to get a feel of what we should do for our final project. When we finally got to the medium part, we had worked ahead enough to get a good idea of what to do for our medium. So, I grew in Collaboration by working with my partner to reach a goal, like with my last artifact, but also by conversing with my partner to plan our actions and by working ahead with my partner to make our future endeavor easier.

            I’m thankful that I grew in Collaboration this year. For most of my time here at the D.R.S.S. I didn’t know how to work well with others, so I think the growth I got from these Science projects really helped me learn to work in a group better. In the Plate Tectonics Project, I grew more by helping to finish my group’s goals after finishing my goals, in order for us to be ahead. In the Body Systems Project, I learned how to plan ahead with my partner and work on one goal together in order to finish a goal within the time limits, and to get ahead in our project. By growing in these skills, I think I will be more prepared for the future. In high school and college, I know Collaboration will be important in order to succeed in projects and other assignment needing a group to do. Even in jobs I know how working with others is an important part of completing your goal. I plan to be an animator or illustrator when I grow-up, so I know that you’ll need to work with multiple people in order to create your animation or illustration. By growing in Collaboration in Science this year, I think I’m more prepared for the future.