Current Lab

The point of this Science assignment was to conduct a lab to see if adding lightbulbs in series, and parallel will affect the current of the circuit. My group- me, Faaris, Karry, and Peter, used the core competency Communication.

Communication is an important aspect to any group project, as you must work as a team. Part of communications is collaborating to plan, carry out and review activities. Communications helps people work together towards a common goal. Our strategy was to assign roles/jobs for people to do, so we can each focus on one aspect. Our first step was giving everyone an opportunity to show their strengths. For example mine was writing supporting statements, and Faaris was good at creating the Sway template. I think communication is very important because it’s how you connect with people, and by talking, we can figure out our strengths. So we can take part in the aspects we are good at making our project outcome the best it can be.

However, it is a group project, so we can’t just do individual things. But communication also comes into play to help with this. Giving, receiving, and acting on feedback is a very important skill. One that benefits people in many ways, and is important to learn at a young age. Especially for younger kids, acting on feedback also means not being defensive around criticism. Working on what you can do better to improve, instead of thinking this is all you can do. Remember: you can always improve something.
As we do our individual aspects, we can present them to the other people in our groups. By showing what we have done to the other people in our group, they can give feedback, or add other ideas or opinions to contribute. This is also good so that everyone is on the same page, part of the group.

Something that ties into giving feedback is being an active listener. Its important to support the person speaking. Meaning common curtesy (eye contact, no distractions in hand, no talking to others) and asking questions. Which can also help the person edit their work to answer those questions. I think it is a really great idea to ask someone else for their opinion, because they may spot something you’ve missed. Everyone notices different things, so I would suggest asking multiple people. Being an active listener is respecting the speaker. It can give them confidence when presenting, and lets them know that you really care about their topic.

Overall, I think our group did quite well. We learned a lot about current and each other.
For future experiments, I think we should focus on Social Responsibility. Mainly being able recognize when I need to ask for help, and considering alternatives, although Communication helped with that. We should make sure everyone in the group knows how to use the materials in the lab. This can help us save time, so we don’t rush while conducting the experiment, which could lead to incorrect results. This can also give everyone practice on identifying the materials and demonstrating them in action, which can be useful for tests or quizzes.