A productive collaboration within a biology class or a productive group project can sometimes be hard to do. Sometimes you have someone in the group who does not pull their weight or someone who is trying to micromanage the group. What you have to take from a group project is the differences in experience and what you learned from that group project. You can learn about yourself and how you work in ways you never thought of within a group project. I know in some of my earlier group projects I tried extremely hard to follow what other people said and I still try to do that, but sometimes I learned that I have to step up and take the reins. You cannot always be a follower within a group project you also have to learn how to stand up for your voice and your work without stepping on somebody else’s toes, in a way.
In the biology 330 presentations we looked at the global extinction of reptiles. In this presentation, there were about thirty slides and four of us worked on this presentation. Each one of us worked on about seven slides each. We broke down the list of extinct reptiles and we found thirty different reptiles to have one slide each for, if that makes sense. On these slides, we had the scientific name, the common name, the range or former range, the date of extinction, the causes of extinction, and Natural History/fun fact. This presentation required a lot of communication between the four group members because we needed thirty different reptiles which meant we needed to make sure that no one else in the group had that reptile before doing a slide on it. This group presentation was important because it taught how important communication is within a group presentation setting.
Biology 330 Global Extinction- Reptiles.pptx
The Botulism presentation for biology 364 was an interesting group project because I really did not know my group partner. This presentation word required a different type of level of communication because neither one of us have really worked with each other before, so working with somebody new always has its quarks. This presentation we are supposed to be about a toxin that could potentially harm a human being, so my partner and I had to find a toxin that was interesting to both of us. Originally for this group project, there were three of us in this group but one of the girls ended up dropping out pretty early in the project. So, it did not cause too many issues overall. This group presentation was supposed to be a general audience kind of presentation, so we were not supposed to get too wrapped up in scientific jargon. My group partner was not a science major, so this presentation was a little different than many of my other biology presentations. If I remember correctly my partner ended up being an education major so she was big on pretty slides and “small words”. That was fine because as a science major I really did not care how the slides were set up and having somebody who preferred using “smaller words” helped keep the scientific jargon to a minimum. This presentation was important in teaching me how to communicate with somebody in a group project setting that was not in the same discipline as me. It also taught me how to communicate well with other people in different disciplines.
An unproductive group project would be my biology 326 flocculation presentation/lab. While there is only two of us in the group, I am what I affectionately call a toddler mom. I am not saying my partner is incompetent what I am saying is I have to watch his every move to ensure that nothing goes wrong. My partner is what I would like to call a chatterbox, he has the attention span of a rat on crack. There is nothing wrong with being chatty or getting distracted, what causes issues is if I am not watching him, he could potentially flip test tubes over, put something in that he was not supposed to put into a tube, or mix yeast that was not supposed to be mixed together. I had to learn how to not only make sure that I do not get overwhelmed with having to watch his every move, but also how to manage not only my time but his as well. I was able to find a way to keep us from not getting lost in the protocol by creating a checklist and shortening the protocol into bullet points rather than having it in long sentence paragraph form. I am used to following directions from a more chattier lab partner, but in this instance, I had to be in charge of a chattier lab partner.
Flocculation Presentation Final.pdf
My many different types of group presentations throughout the years have taught me many different things. Some group presentations taught me how communication can be very valuable in a group project setting, while others taught me that over-communicating can sometimes cause a lot of issues. Over-communicating is what I kind of equate to micromanaging or backtracking on something that you once said, which can cause confusion within the group setting. Also, overcomplicating communication or information within a group project can cause confusion not only with what information is needed but also with the communication within the group. People not pulling their weight also cause issues within a group project. Having to pick up slack can be a blessing and a curse within a group project. Picking up the slack allows for growth, in a way, because you have to step up into a “leadership” type position within the group project. Stepping up into that “leadership” type position allows for you to find creative solutions to the issues at hand. This is why group projects are important because they have a lot of lessons to teach, and each group project is never the same.