Self Reflection: Group Projects.

For the past couple of weeks, we have been doing a mock group project, focusing on the subject "Peak Oil" and what would happen. For this group project, we worked on the focus area of the "Future Aspects" of Peak Oil. It was an interesting topic and we had all decided, after discussing with one another, on that particular area.

During this time, we were discussing almost every lesson, trying to work out what we wanted to do with all the information gathered, with the direction that we wanted to go after learning about the area we had chosen, before taking a step in developing an idea, we would discuss it and come to a compromise about what we should do. We managed to get all our work done within the time frame given and that gave us the chance to discuss what we wanted to do in the lesson times. Previously, we wouldn't discuss as often, mostly we would come up with an agreement in 5minutes and then go off in our own directions. Now, we are making sure that everyone knows what they're doing, we're talking about the ideas given, giving more ideas, developing those ideas, coming to an agreement and then talk about what we could do for our group project, come up with more ideas and develop them as well. We would be constantly talking, and when we are outside of class, we would discuss on Facebook, or on Skype, where if we have any inquires, we would ask each other and get their opinions on the matter.

But, we had some faults that we would forget; sometimes we would forget every lesson. One, was that we would discussing our ideas and plans and we would forget to include Jake in our discussions. Sometimes we managed to have a full group discussion where everyone in our group was present and was contributing to the discussion which was good. But on the days that we were missing a couple of people from our group, it became harder and the remaining group members would continue the discussions but we would leave Jake out because he wasn't putting any effort to stay in the conversations. Personally, I feel that is our fault for not giving him an opportunity to come into the conversation and for forgetting that he needs to be in this conversation. But at the same time, we(meaning the rest of the group) cannot be responsible for making sure that Jake is constantly contributing to the discussions. He has to make an effort as well. And it doesn't help that whenever we try to include him in our discussions, he says stuff like "You guys talk and then tell me what you want me to do." It doesn't help because we're asking for his opinion. It makes our job harder when he says stuff like that and then we all get irritated at him and leave him out of the discussion.

Besides that, we would get sidetracked very often. We would be focusing on our group project, and we would be discussing and developing ideas. All of a sudden, we hear something from a different group and we start talking about it as well, even though it has no connection to our own group project, and then we just start talking about random stuff that seems to be triggered by a memory of a different conversation. And then after we finish laughing we would realize that we had become extremely distracted and then we would go back to focusing on the actual group project. Honestly, I have to say that we wasted a lot of time, talking about stuff like that, going off topic. It wasn't so bad because we managed to get the necessary things done, but when you think about it, you realize that you could have done all that work in a shorter period of time.

Those are the two main concerns that I have noticed during the past couple of weeks. The other things that we could probably improve on is how we manage the work needed to be completed. We could probably change the way we set out the homework. Instead of getting everyone to do the same piece of homework, we could assign that particular piece of homework to certain people and get the rest to do something else that is productive as well. That way, we could have moved faster in completing our group project.

Overall, I would say that we have done a good job. We managed to work well as a group, minus the problems that we saw. It was a fun topic but now, I am happy that we're going to be starting our actual group project. We have learnt a lot about ourselves as individuals and as a group and we can take all those experiences and apply them to our actual group project which could help us. Having the mock group project was good because we could see what our strengths were as a group and also we could see what our weaknesses were as well. Now we can start our actual group project with full awareness of what we can do and what we need to do.

GP reflection 17.10.11

We've just finished creating our Wikispace. We have updated and organized our Agendas so that they can be located more easily.
We are trying to marrow down our focus point, trying to find a main focus area and to expand on it.
We have also come up with more ideas and we are trying to expand on them and see where they might take us next :)

Wiki website: Peakoilaroundtheworld

Another reflection!! 07.10.11

For our group, we are going to focus on the future aspects of the Peak Oil Debate. What might happen when oil runs out? What would our global economy look like? How the different governments might handle this issue when it comes. It's an interesting aspect because anything can happen. There are a lot of questions, "what if's" scenarios that can happen, and because it is an important subject to think about. We need to become more aware and we need to become more conscious about how much oil we're using, and how much we should be using. All in all, it is an interesting subject and it would be interesting to see what ideas we come out with for the future.

Fish-Bone Diagram

It looks really tiny

Reflecting and Sharing: Independent Projects. (Again)

When writing my independent project, I had a faint idea of what I wanted to write about. I wanted to do something that dealt with the mental effects of a prisoner while being on the Death Penalty. That was already a used idea so I tried to look at the differences it had with the different age groups. For example: Whether a prisoner at the age of 20 would become mentally unstable faster, would develop depression, and all the other mental illnesses, faster than a prisoner who was older. 

It was hard at first. I wanted to do a diary entry for my personal view. I wanted to get inside the head of the prisoner and get a feel of what they were going through. I found a video which showed me what prisoners were like when they were isolated. It gave me a glimpse of what a prisoner had to go through and it was quite shocking. 

From the previous project, dealing with the Death Penalty as well, I had a faint idea of what conditions were like while being in prisoner. But to get a video that looked at what happened and to see a person act, while in those certain situations, it gives a very vivid image of how to portray my character. 

To find situations and case studies that stated the age differences was very hard. I looked in many books and online sources and I could only find a handful. But this was a topic that I wanted to do so I decided to stick with it, no matter how hard it was. 

If I had the chance to do this project again, I would still be looking at the same focus, but I would have liked to have found some more videos and tv shows (since there are shows that show these kinds of things) which I think would have helped me more to develop my ideas.

Peak Oil Reflection 03.10.11

L.I

To explore and have awareness of an issue from a variety of view points

Over the weekend, we have been looking at Peak Oil through different view points: Personal, Nationally, Globally, and as a What If scenario for the future.

We had been given a bunch of links to help understand this issue and to look at what are some of the topics that are related to this issue. There were a couple of videos, 10-15 mins videos, which showed what the future could look like if oil suddenly disappeared.

We looked at those videos at school last week and continued watching at home.

We discussed one of the videos, talking about what it might be like if Oil was gone and we went through some scenarios of what the global economy might be like.

Overall, our group work is going well. We have to discuss more and bring more of our thoughts and opinions together but overall, it is going well for the first week of working as a group (After the summer break)

Review On "12 angry Men"

The movie "12 angry men" is a movie about 12 men deciding the fate of a 18 year old boy, who "murder" his own father. The movie starts with the most jury deciding that the boy is guilty, having just listened to the facts and evidence but haven't really paid attention to the actual story. With only one man who thinks the boy is innocent, the movies is spent with him proving his points and thus, one by one, the other members changing their mind; and agreeing that the boy is innocent.
I'd give the movie 4 out of 5 stars. Reason being is that it is a very good movie, showing how that one man has looked at all the points and tried to put them together but failed; thus his decision to the fate of the boy; and in turn, changing the opinions of the rest of the jury. I didn't like how the last person to agree that the boy was innocent was spent on just saying "Yes he is Guilty." But that was the point of his part.
My favourite parts were seeing the whole jury change their opinions when the guy presented his opinions and how certain events couldn't have been right. It shows that it is only when you start to listen and think about the facts given to you that your opinions start to change
Favourite characters was jury1 who lead the meeting and maintained ( most of the time) the "peace" in the room. Also there was the "Man in White"  (can' remember any names!) who for one, got these men to actually start thinking about the facts given to them, and (at the end of the movie) got the whole jury to change their votes and say that the boy is guilty.

As a  small reflection from something I noticed, if the man in white wasn't open-minded and was instead, like the rest, hot and bothered to a point that he didn't care about the boys life and was only thinking about himself; that boy would have been sent to the electric chair. In this world we don't have many people like that, who would listen throughly and try and place the evidence together and see whether the person convicted is innocent or just plain guilty. We seem to just accept the facts and evidence and that the lawyers must be right with the evidence that they have. Just thinking about all those innocent people who, over the years, didn't have anyone like that "Man in White". It shows that we all make mistakes but some maybe too great to turn them around. Yes there are people like that, we all would suppose; assume that there are. And I'm sure that we would say that we would all have acted like the "Man in White". Truth is that not many of us would have done that. Not without someone to says "No I don't agree." and definitely not in that say situation. Wonder what would have happened if the "Man in White" was in charged of deciding whether the person is guilty or not

Visit to Palace of Justice

The visit to the Palace of Justice was a good trip. We found out what kind of court the Palace of Justice was, which was a high court(the highest court there is). We saw the library(and found a cook book!). There were many records, some going back to the 1300’s.  It was very interesting to see how much resources they had on just one subject, but then they had lots of sub subjects for Law. 

Views on Death Penalty

My views on the Death Penalty

In my opinion, the death penalty is just a way to maintain the population and to keep the population of those sent to jail, kept to a certain amount. 

The death penalty should be abolished in all countries. People should be given a second chance, or even a third. Even though there are people who have commit unbelievable crimes, they should still have a chance to live. There are psychopaths and mass murders but before they were what they are today, they were good people. It is our responsibility to stop these people from becoming what they are today. It is our fault, that we have lead them go as far as they have and still put the blame on themselves. Though looking at the situation from an economical point of view, death penalty is greatly needed. Where would we place all these people who aren't wanted anymore? Who would go back to murdering people? And the space needed to hold all of these people. 
The thought is overwhelming. 
And so my decision remains un-decided, because of all the facts and issues we have to think about at the same time. 

Feedback

What is feedback and Why is it important?
Feedback are good and bad opinions from different people about any piece of work,creation, etc that you have done. It helps us when we are trying to improve on ourself. Without Feedback, we don't know what we are doing right and what we are doing wrong. We don't know whether we are following the same instructions as everyone else and when we don't see anything wrong with ourselves, we become stuck with our ways, and don't change. But with Feedback, we allow ourselves to change our ways and become more open minded to different opinions given by our peers, teachers, adults, etc.

Good Feedback	Bad feedback
Is Specific.	Doesn’t tell the person what to improve on.
Honest.	“It was Horrible!”
List their targets to improve in.	“I like politics too!”
“It was very factual! But you need to add more examples.”	“Interesting”

Presenting Data using different forms

Presenting the data

Advantages

Disadvantages

Poster:

catchy

Limited amount of space,

Report:

Unlimited space

Dull, boring, too wordy, no visuals 

Power point presentation:

Catchy, good amount of space

Time consuming

leaflet:

Interesting, catchy

Can be too wordy, limited amount of space.

5 ways to conserve water around the Bathroom

1) Switch the tap off when you're NOt using it.
Everyone says that that you should be switching off the tap when you're brushing you're teeth. Reality is that you should be switching off the tap whenever you're not using it. Eg: washing hands, washing dishes, a dripping tap, etc.

2) Shorter Shower Times

This seems to be completely impossible for girls and some guys :D but it is possible! Australia has this 3 minute shower where its only 3 minutes. This might be easier for some, harder for others, but whatever the case is, you are wasting water and time when you spend at least 20mins in the shower. Quit singing!!

3) Don't use a Rainforest Shower head.

Some people think that this type of shower heads are "cool" and they actually do look cool. Reality is that they waste a HELL of water. So just to make life easier and water bill's smaller: use low flow shower head. They use less water and they'll  give your water bill a break. 

4) Keep tab's on any leakages.
Keep an eye on the pipes. If there is a leak, then fix it straight away before wasting anymore water and so you're water bill doesn't go any higher than it already has.

I chose to present this using Power Point Presentation. 

Water: School, Home and Both

School:
 ·      Science experiments – use the amount needed

·      Art: for painting.

Home: 

·      Watering plants but not over- watering them

·      Washing up- use only as needed

·      Swimming

·      Washing a car – don’t wash it everyday 

Both: 

·      Drinking

·      Swimming

·      Washroom – don’t leave the tap on

·      Shower- don’t take hour-long showers

Water: My views

-Is one of the most important substances in the world.
-Without it, we would die.
-Water covers around 70% of the world.
-Even though water is needed to survive, we are still polluting the little resources we have left.
-Water can be harmful as well as beneficial to our survival.