Decision making

After we got our test back, most of us weren't satisfied with our grades, and the Prof. suggested that if we come up with some sort of solution to increase our grades, and reach 100% agreement within the classroom, then he would do whatever it is that we come up with, given that we only have until 7:05. Our class is pretty big, and I was doubtful that we can come up with such a solution that everyone would agree to. So one of our classmate went up to the board while many people shouted out suggestions. Some were saying the prof. should drop the lowest grade, some were saying he should change the test format. I was really frustrated that people were shouting random things and the person upfront is not doing a good job. Everybody is making it sound like that we can only have one change, instead of a combination of changes. Therefore I couldn't take it anymore, and I shouted out "why can't we do a combination of things, instead of just dropping the lowest grade?!" I guess some people heard me, but it wasn't much help, and at that point I was really irritated and thought that we weren't going to reach to any agreement, so I just sat there along with many people to see how it would turn out. I wasn't the only one either, one person even got so frustrated that he was about to leave, until the prof. told him if he leaves he won't benefit from any decision we make. Finally, another guy went up to the board and took over. He was so much better than the other guy, he actually asked us if we wanted this or if we don't agree to that. It's much better since there's no point to just write down different things that we want, but not actually seeing if it's going to work. Finally few minutes before the class ends, we agreed to terms we came up with, and I'm pretty excited to go to McDonalds for some "well done fries!"

Egg-Dropping

Last week, we were given a project to do in class. The task is to build some sort of shield around an egg with six straws and two feet of tape so the egg won't break when it's dropped. It's pretty difficult task since the straws are too thin to protect it the egg. So we were put into groups. There were five people in my group, and we immediately started to jot down different ideas on a piece of paper. At first we thought of the form of a rocket ship where there will be legs supporting the egg when it's dropped. But we soon realized that it wouldn't work if the egg is tilted. so we started planning to build a "bird nest" with straws that would cup the egg and make spikes around the "nest" with straws as well so 50% of the egg would show and it would give the give some cushion when it lands.

When the timer started, two people took charge of the wrapping process because the egg so too delicate to be passed around. The first person immediately connecting 4 straws together to make one long straw in order to wrap it around the egg to form the "nest". Then another person put tape on the straw as the first person wrapped it around the egg. After the "nest" was done, we started to put the two leftover straws to form spikes. Unfortunately, we couldn't get a scissor to cut the straws into spikes, we needed a plan B. So we just taped the straws around the nest so it looks like there are logs around the egg. Even though our egg had a terrible end, it was fun and excited to plan and put it all together.