Last week, we had our group 4 project, a two-day project integrated physics, chemistry (though we did not have one), biology and computer science. I again, learnt to cooperate with my teammates and had a good journey with my mates who take natural science and have a complete perspective on how to design and conduct an experiment.
As a team, self-motivation sometimes will help us to achieve the goal. As the only computer science student in the club, I know how important I am. And everyone else in the group are all important, because we are identical and cannot be replaced. Each of us have different and valuable skills: physics, chemistry and biology students know how to conduct an experiment, and they have certain skills in their field. They know how to get the most accurate data and how to properly make use of the tools in the lab. I, on the other hand, have the knowledge on computer science, know how to abstract and decompose the process of the experiment to make the process more logical, scientific. So, as a computer science student, I know that I have to show what I can do to my teammates and try to make the project as ideal, as good as possible. Knowing what I am valuable, I cannot be replaced is the motivation that I have during the three days. Sometimes I wanted to do less things or give up only because I do not have they science training as they do, but being the only computer science student kept me moving forwards. Therefore, I finished my work, revised the flowchart, which is the most important part of my job. It was a big progress to me.
Teamwork and collaboration cannot be ignored in the project either. As I said, each of use have different skills, and the lack of anyone in the team might lead to incompleteness of the whole project. Naturally, the four of us was separated into two small groups: Jenny and Lillian the HL science guys were in charge of the principles and design of the experiment, while Angela and I were in charge of the appearance, materials and structure of the project. Jenny and Lillian were the bones of the project, while Angela and I were the skin. Together, we did a complete project and show the best of what we can to the audience. We made some mistakes during the project, and our product was not perfect neither, but I kind of reflect that part of the blame is on me, on everyone. If any of us can notice the mistake, the process would be more smooth.
The last thing is what I’m doing right now, the reflection. It’s a skill that worth knowing. It forces us to think and remember what we did during the past days, so that we would not learning nothing in two days. Even though sometimes I may feel that I did everything I could, there is always potential for improvement.
JIHONG ZHAO 