Group Dynamics

Our group met seven times at Memorial Union to work on the Chem 210 Final Project. We chose Memorial Union because we were able to borrow laptop computers, which we used in every session. The time we spent studying varied from 1 hour to 11 hours. On average, the session lasted an hour and a half. The day before the final project was due we spent 11 hours working to finish the web page. Even though we had several scheduled times to meet, several group members decided not to attend. Because of this circumstance, a few members felt they contributed more to the project. We considered 5 different articles from 5 different newspapers before selecting our final choice. Because certain members decided not to attend the TA lab sessions, the group did not become acquainted until the week before the final project. The group never studied together until after the group project. We believe that since this lab session was not built into our schedule at the beginning of the semester, we were forced to work with people who had similar schedules as ours. Moreover, we felt there may have been students who would have been better partners but we were unable to work with them due to time conflicts. There are several benefits to collaborative learning, however the contribution that students want to contribute is essential for it to be effective. We believe collaborative learning would be more beneficial in the future if assignments were made earlier in the semester. This would force students to benefit on a personal level early in the semester, rather than during the group project at the end of the semester.