Group Reflection

What did your group gain from this peer review process?

We notice that from the other group, we are lacking some important point. Bibliography is one of them. We notice that even if we have collected so many information, we do not have the main source of where we got the information from. We need to check that up and also need to settle the problem. We also did not include the personal role of each members of the group, but we also need to check this up with the teacher, Miss Suzy, since she did not mention it to the group in our class (we only found out about it after the other teacher, Miss Gita, from the other class mention it to us) 

Also, our group partner, the other group that we have to discuss the outcomes with (Stephanie's group) mention something about our use of words. They said that we have included so many things but also because of it we have also use so many words that when we counted the page, it exceed 40 pages (53 pages). The other group said that it is ironic the fact that we are the environment group and yet use so many pages (papers) but in my opinion, the examiner will use a disk, practically use electronic (computer) to check / mark it. But even if that is true, it will still be a bit of disadvantage if our group project will be check last and since the words it self exceed 5000 words (about 9000 words) the examiner will be tired of all the reading, they would lose interest in it. So we are working on making the words a bit less in case it is the situation.

What were the strengths and areas for development of your project?

Strength: We manage include so many strong information, prove.

Weakness: We have too many words. 

How will your group move forward now?  

We will be discussing whether to cut down some of the stuff, create a formal bibliography, talk to Ms. Suzy about the group/ individual activity list and finally discuss about our individual element. 

Group Evaluation

Group Evaluation
It is time to review your ‘mock’ project’ as a group.  You will need to discuss and answer these questions on your group wiki/blog/webpage.

The Project

1.     What area of study did you choose?  Why?  (Rationale)          

     Sustainability, because we think that the world needs to be more greener, and the least we could do is to start from school, hoping it would spread between school then if possible the news could spread more than just between us, the students.

2.     What did your groups hope to achieve?  What was your proposed outcome?
Our group outcome was to teach the primary students about the consequences of peak oil and the alternative sources that might be able to replace crude oil in the future.

3.     How could you critically evaluate the success of your outcome?

     At first, we were too idealistic to educate primary students of the alternate resource of peak oil. But then we realized that we can’t because it would disrupt our lessons and their lessons. We then thought about making a presentation slides for the teachers/other schools to teach the students.

4.   What were your specific group roles and responsibilities?  How did you organise this?  Was the allocation effective?

TEACHING Part of our Project:

Names	Task	given date	Dateline	Estimated time to finish	max dateline
Kai Song	Alternative sources	17/10	not yet	not yet	not yet
Ann	Consequences video	17/10	-	-	Half month November
Danial	Consequences video	17/10	-	-	Half month November
Ezwan	Proposal	14/10	16/10 night	17/10	18/10
Nadiah	Proposal	14/10	16/10 night	17/10	18/10

Besides actually teaching, we also decided to carry out other initiatives/activities. This is split into 3 parts (Teaching, Recycling Bins, & Activities):

Teaching- Kai Song

- Proposal to Mr. David

- Research on the consequences

- Make a video for the introduction (Danial And Ann)

- Research on 3 alternative sources- Wind, HEP and Solar power

- Think of activities/ models so that our teaching would not be boring

Recycling bins-  (Danial & Nadiah)

- Talk to MR. Evans/ student council.  

- Collaborate with them

Setting up a booth during an activity day-   Ann the Ninja, Ezwan

- Decide on a day before the End of term 1

- Talk to the teacher in charge

- Money

- What are we selling

- Permission? Proposal? - have to be very detail for approval

The names allocated for each part are just responsible for planning. At the end of the day, everyone will be contributing to each section.  We approached this by asking each individual what they wanted to do.

5.   Did your project have enough scope for every group member to play an active, full time part in the group work?  How could you improve this?

Initially we were unsure and the workload was a bit uneven. However, after spending a whole lesson on planning we managed to allocate each member to a job.

6.  Was the workload manageable in the time frame given?

Datelines were hard to keep as we do not have enough time to finish it. But we tried our  best to submit the work on time, though we could use some more extra time so that our work could be much more better and organise.

7.     How effective were your minutes and agendas?  How did they help you?  How could you improve them?

     Well, some of us did not check our minutes and agenda. Therefore we submitted it on facebook. We found this more effective because it was accessible by EVERYONE instead of having to open up a google document for EACH AND EVERY LESSON. We did tried to use wikispaces, but it was only use to submit finished worked.  For our real group project, we plan to use yAM.
The Perspectives

1.   How did you gather information and opinions/viewpoints from a personal, national/local and global perspective?  

    First, we did individual researches for a few weeks in class.  Then we each created a Vlog to summarise our personal perspective on peak oil.   Later, we merged all our ideas together in one lesson and started our mock group project together.  We went through a couple of websites as provided in Knowledge Net as a group and extracted the important information, mainly on the consequences of peak oil.  We compiled all our information in a fish bone diagram as it’s an easy way to categorise personal, national, global and future perspective.  However, I find that the ratio of those perspective were 1: 3: 6: 5.  Therefore, I think we should have an equal part of every perspective in our real group project instead of focusing too much on one of the perspectives.  

2.     How did/ could you ensure you consider all these perspectives in your project?

          We had made a few suggestions to ensure what we could consider in our project. For example;          we had discussed whether or not we are going to include a specific thing we were going to do for the ‘mock’ project and distributed tasks to each member of our group on what we were going to do. We mainly tried to organise our perspectives by recognising what each task has been completed and evaluate on it.

      3.     Would your outcome need to be accompanied by some additional explanation or

  evaluation?

  Yes.  This is because when we reflect back on our outcome, we just focused on the   

  consequences in the video (Global perspective) and alternative sources (Future

  perspective).  Therefore, I think it’s necessary to have additional information to

  show the examiner that we did consider about personal and national perspective.

  Perhaps an interview with NGOs or governmental officers about the peak oil

 in Malaysia might work out well.  For personal perspective, we believe that it

 might be possible if we add a Q& A session at the end of our teaching plan so

that we could share our personal perspective and discuss with the children their personal perspective.  

4.     How could you make sure you include cross-cultural views?

Our team members are from different schools.  Ezwan from India, Danial from Australia, Jia Ann from Sri Cempaka, Nadiah from Nigeria and I was from a national school.  Therefore, I think the easiest way is to get friends from the respective schools to get views from them.  Besides them, it’s also possible to get cross-cultural views from the Ms. Suzy’s contacts.  

Mock Project Self Evaluation

The Group Work

1.What have I contributed to the group project?

I haven't contribute in a lot fro the group project but I do con tribute in some for example, giving some information to writ in the fish bone diagram and also some of the meeting with the teacher. One of my most  contribution was in writing the proposal for out group to teach the the primary school kids about our topic which is about peak oil, working together hand in hand with Ezwan, who is also in the group. Other than that,  I also contributed in the Group Evaluation by giving them, the people I was suppose to work together with, some ideas I have in mind about some of the stuff that we have done in class.

2.What would I do differently next time?  Why?

I would work out about how much of a job I could take in so that I could take as much job as possible and help the team to finish the work faster and if possible make the work much more easier. I could also do some more research about the topic to help me with the work given.

3.What have I learnt about working together?

I have many thing and facts about working together. I've learn the fact that it is as it sounds like, you have to work together in order to achieve something; the goal that has been set by us, the team members. Other than the most obvious thing, I have also learned that it is important for us to understand and also mostly good that we agree to each other; checking in their view about the proposal that you wanted to do instead of just doing it on your own in order for them to also have the chance to contribute in the project. It is very important, in a group of people, to have trust in each others work, and we all can achieve their trust by doing our own job. It doesn't need to be perfect, it just that the fact that you are showing that you are trying your best to achieve the set goal. 

4.What has been good/challenging about working as part of a group?

It is hard for me to say that it has been easy working in the group of people for I do not have a good sense of being part of the team. I have always prefer work alone individually with out having any problems with the works that I am not good at. But although it is hard, it has also show that working together is much more fun and much more interesting because there are so much that I need to learn and there will always be this person, one of them from the group, that will always help me with my work, telling me what I did good and what I have to improve more in the future. 

What have I learnt doing the project?

1.What have I learnt about;

a. deciding on and planning a project?

The thing about deciding and planning is that you need to understand the topic it self before you can start. Deciding may be hard, may be easy depending the choice you had in hand. Planning is a bit to the hard side because we are lacking works that are available for all of us to do. 

b. planning and producing research?

For planning I learned that it could be a bit hard because research is not one of my strongest side. I need to learn more about researching; about how to do it more specifically to one topic instead of running to or change to a bit of off topic, something else instead.

c. reading and presenting my ideas?

This job is quite an easy work for me for I am the kind of person who's ideas comes offhandedly without me having to think about it. But because of my not much of confidence about my self, it is hard for me to read it out loud to my group member. I can only do it if it is really necessary, for example if none of the team member can answer the question asked by the teacher, then that is the time where I could jump in and give my service of answering the question my self. 

d. time management?

I have not yet master this part of job. I can do my work perfectly fine but thinking about submitting it in time is quite hard for me to do since my time management have't reach the official standard for a normal student. I need to learn about it more in the future in order for me to finish and submit my work in time, maybe earlier if possible.

2.What would you do differently to develop these skills?

I would read more and try to have more jobs to do so that I could have the chance to see my improvement individually for each job. I would also have some kind of a schedule to help me to manage my time more perfectly too.

3.How did I approach my individual contribution?

I am not sure if I did enough for this part but so far, most of the things that I have to do individually is good enough like doing this blog. i just need to do it more in the future, updating it with all of the thing I have done in class, listing about what I've done in it and also about what I have learn throughout those lesson I had.

4.What are the most valuable points I have learnt?  Why?

The most valuable point I have learned is that, if I can't trust or be trust (by) my team member, none of us can separate the work equally between us. This is because, if I didn't do my work good enough or fast enough, the team will cast me (or one of us that has not been a good team worker) aside and will try their best to give me (or the person) the most easy job that could be done by everybody even those in the lower grade, making it hard for them to say that 'This is what I've done' or 'my strongest ability is...' in which going to give them trouble in terms of their individual contribution.  

Gantt Chart

In our previous class, we have been thought about Gantt Chart by the ICT department again for the second time but this time in more detail than in the first class we had with them. After we finish the lesson with the IT department, we all receive a homework assessment about it in an easy three questions which is:

• What is a Gantt Chart?
• Why should we use them?
• Your top tips for using a Gantt Chart.

Without using any open information from the internet, I will try and do my best to answer all of the questions above with my understanding that I have gain from both of the class we had.

What is a Gantt Chart?

• A Gantt Chart is like it sounds like a chart where you can see a form of record about who is doing what or what can be done in which particular time or also what is happening in what time of the year which can be said it to be similar to a timeline-like kind of graph. It is basically a form of document that could help you to divide your time more accurately without you having to take any unnecessary time that could add more in the time you have in time and it can also give you information about the past and the present things that are happening around you.  

Why should we use them?

• Like it had been listed above, it is all about us dividing our time rationally, making our job easier in term of handing it in time, not over-due it when it is unnecessary for us to do so. A group project is the best example of why we should use it. In there, using the Gantt Chart, you can divide each people for their personal job. If the member of the group is bigger than three or four people, the Gantt Chart can be use to differentiate each person job in a more simpler way than using a normal chart since it can be included with the due time of the work and it also tells us when to start the work if it is a must for you to wait for another person to finish the first task first. 

 

Your top tips for using a Gantt Chart.

• Using a Gantt Chart can be difficult at times since you have to understand how the technology or how the system works before you can proceed to the next step for example, how do you create a starting point of date and also how you can put the due date of that particular project but for me and my team, being the new technology generation we are, it is quite easy to operate. Despite all the complication, Gantt Chart is a good way to help us in terms of timing ourself up to the due date and also how to learn about working in a team. For the job to be easy for you to use, it is good if you read the information about it either online or doing it by reading. If you are using it individually, it is good if you divide all those works you had in times of how much the importance it is which is in one way or you can also divide it in the number of orders you have to do it in. For a group project, there are ways in which you can divide each people by colours so do that you can see the things that you should do and also in advantage, when you have to do it. If the one particular cases, there are times where you have to wait for the person before you to finish their part before you can start yours, the Gantt Chart can also show the percentages they are in, in order for you to prepare your job after them. Also in advantage, the Gantt Chart can tell you which job can be done at the same time so that the time you have in hand can be reduce by at least a tad much so that you can spend the extra time of starting a new project or any other things that could be done in an advance, since you have already finish the said project.

   

GP reflection

In our last class for GP, we all had guests from the IT department. We all has been thought of how to use a gantt chart.

In the class, they explain the uses of the gantt chart and also how useful it is to divide time equally (more reliably/sensibly) without wasting any unnecessary time, making it shorter than it normally is. He firstly show us how the gantt chart looks like, by using the victorian time and the world war and also to make it more interesting he also added the day/year the basketball has been invented.

To make us understand how it works, one of the IT team member use an example of "How to bake a cake", and we all took part in it.

To start the activity, he first ask us what we need to do to make the cake for example, preparing the ingredients and some of the necessary step to take to make the cake. He then ask us in order of our seat (random students sometimes) about how long it will take to do each of the listed step.

After done with all the timing, he then show us how to make and use the gantt chart. He divided the timing differently by their order and also divided the timing if necessary.    

After we finish with the discussion with the gantt chart, we then all divided jobs between us for the holiday homework.

Reflection in the Group Project

On the last class we had, we only had the chance to go to the interview with Mr. Griffist. In that interview, we talk about out intention and why we want to do it. We also tell him about some of our plan that we had made before hand.

We explain to him that we wanted an audience preferably at the year group of 4-6.

Kai Song did almost all the talking, which is good because most of us is out of ideas about what to talk/ask about and that we do not want any time to be wested because of lack of topic. For the recording, It was partly Miss Suzy and me since she have to go back to the class.

We could have prepared some questions and spread it to all of the members so that it wouldn't look like as if only some of us cares about the project. We could come up with more questions if there are more time for us to prepare it.

GP reflection

In today's lesson we manage to discuss about the big issues happening with the oil leak that we heard from the news that has been played in the class, with everybody in the other groups. We had a small conversation about what we understand about what the topic really about then we discuss on the action that could be made about the topic. We spend for about 5-10 minutes more about our chosen action (which include about us telling the kids in year between 4-6 about what is happening and also explaining a little about it) in which we have to discuss it with Miss Suzy. She said that the idea was good and that we talk a little about how to make it so it would somehow connected to our actual group project.

After that small talk, Miss Suzy said that we have to ask the primary teacher about the plan made for the primary kids, to make sure it is possible for us to actually do it and that to ask which year group can we use (year 4-6) to show our project to.

In order for us to make the plan possible, Miss Suzy said that we have to make a letter to some of the teacher that is in charge of the primary student which is Mr. Griffiths/ Mr. Symond, talking about our plan.

We all agreed to leave the letter matter to both Kai Song and Jia Ann while me, Danial and Ezwan in charge of finding the renewable / alternative sources that we could use for our presentation. We all came up with some which is (written below) and that we split some for each of us (listed below) with me in charge for the wind energy.

Hydro-electric power - Kai Song

Solar Power - Danial

Wind Energy

Wave Energy

Geothermal

Tidal Energy - Ezwan

Nuclear Power - Ann

Biomass

We ignored some of the sources and just take in what we think is the most important sources. We then discuss about how we would make it so that we could make a 'fun' presentation that could make all the children sit-and-listen instead of moving or running around, not listening to us. After all the discussion, we make a decision that we all have to think about it and we have to make a blog about our plan for the presentation.

I've done with my plan and I have already publish it. You can read through my blog to see my plan for my presentation.