Sustainability Progress Reflection 2

"People with goals succeed because they know where they are going." - Earl Nightingale  

Today, we received the mark scheme for the Group Project. I really like it because now we know what exactly is expected of us, we won't be groping around in the dark anymore.

In terms of the group element, I learnt that the Project Plan contributes a large portion (half) to the total mark. I think that because of this we should really spend more time on planning and make sure we meet all of the criteria. This refutes my initial assumption about finishing the plan by the end of next week. I understood the time frame element of the plan better. It must realistic and appropriate. Miss Gita said that your time frame proposal should acknowledge when things could change because of events out of your control. I now feel more confident in tackling the proposal of timeframes. 

In terms of the individual element, I learnt all of is basically evaluation and reflection. I realised that when evaluating, I am expected to provide evidence and explanation of my learning and contemplation of my learning. In the evaluation of the group project plan and process, I became aware that I would also need to give "well-considered" suggestions for improvement of the project, plan or focus. 

"Goals in writing are dreams with deadlines." - Brian Tracy

Sustainability Progress Reflection 1

"He who fails to plan, plans to fail."

During the lessons, we started transcribing our planning to a formal document. Miss Gita suggested a deadline of 3 weeks, but my target is to finish it within 2 weeks. However, in hindsight, it might take longer because with the exception of myself everyone else in the group has and will have time constraints this week. Mia was absent on Tuesday and Jia Yi and Wen Wen will be in Langkawi tomorrow. Anyway, since I distributed the writing of the plan to everyone, I asked them to at least spend some time reading what the others wrote and determining if they agree or not. We will then discuss it. Theoretically, by Monday afternoon, we will have an agreed and edited version of the plan (with the exception of the proposed time frame part).

In terms of research and information, I was the only one who completed the set homework (a preliminary research about solar panels in general). To compensate, everyone chose a specific type of photovoltaic cell to research for homework due on Monday. Meanwhile, I will be looking at the uses of photovoltaic panels in Malaysia. During our regular Wednesday lunch time meeting, we also decided that we would send out a survey about Nexus as a green school by next week. I hope that with schedules back to normal next week, our collaboration will be more productive.

"Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean." - Ryunosuke Satoro

Peak Oil Self - Reflection

"The brightest light moving away from us, unless it be reflected, is darkness to us."

1. What have I contributed to the group project?

As the group leader, I have striven to efficiently and effectively organise our group work evenly and to assign work to the strengths of each member. In terms of contribution to the outcome, I wrote the part of the script for the video.

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

I would motivate others in my group to do their work. I will constantly keep in mind to not be overbearing and to encourage my other members to contribute. 

3. What have I learnt about working together?

I learnt that as a group we need to be aware of the time we spend on discussions as we tend to get carried away and we need to constantly remind each other not to get distracted or go off tangent. Generally, our communication seems to be fine but we had a slight bump during the mock project so I'm making a conscious effort to ensure that I state things clearly in the future. 

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

Outside of class time, hardly ever meet together. All whole group discussions are limited to those lessons. Therefore, we work at a slower pace because it is hard to find a convenient time to meet. 

5. What have I learnt about;

• deciding on and planning a project?

I have learnt that deciding on a focus while pretty straight forward, took longer than strictly necessary. I didn’t learn anything new about planning a project but I discovered more effective ways of doing so. 

• planning and producing research?

I learnt that as a group, it is a good idea to do an initial, general research before deciding on the aspects of interest for each member to concentrate on. 

• reading and presenting my ideas?

I haven’t actually learnt anything new about this. I merely had to articulate my thoughts into written words that I shared with the group. If anyone need clarification or a summery, I would just orally respond. 

• time management?

I learnt that as a group, we will need to keep that in mind because we all are easily distracted. However, Miss Gita has suggested some ideas that we might implement to ensure that we do not waste precious time.

6. What would you do differently to develop these skills?
I would make "check points" to ensure that keep on track with our work and time. I would also be firmer with Jia Yi and Wen Wen because they tend to get distracted together. 

7. How did I approach my individual contribution?

I approached it with my strengths and interest in mind. I chose to contribute with a piece of writing about an aspect that interested me. 

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

I learnt that we take a really long time to plan. This is important because now that we have identified one of our weakness, we can work to ensure that it does not become crippling. I also learnt that we, as a group we are easily distracted. Now, we just have to work to remember that. 

"Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself." - Leo Tolstoy

Peak Oil Group Reflection

"People of the world don't look at themselves, and so they blame one another." - Mevlana Rumi

1. What area of study did you choose? Why?

Our area of study was the future. Our project focus was "What would happen if oil ran out today?" We chose it because it was appealing to all of us especially me (Jacelyn) because I watched a documentary. Then, I intrigued the rest of the group by recommending the said documentary. We also decided to do it because we wanted to do something that did not involve money and a lot of time.

2. What did your groups hope to achieve? What was your proposed outcome?

We hoped to discourage people from living excessively and encourage them to live sustainably; with our main focus being the use of plastic bags. We planned to achieve this by creating a video and presentation to be shown to all secondary learners during an assembly.

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

We would have had a discussion; sent out a survey and use the feedback to consolidate our evaluation.

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

Jacelyn - Shaper, wrote video script.

Jia Yi - Secretary, IT expert, to create video.

Mia - Informal transcriber, wrote and edited script.

Wen Wen - Odd-jobber, found videos, pictures, and edited script.

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?

We had enough scope for everyone to play an active role in the group work. We all contributed ideas equally. The distribution was pretty ideal so there isn't much room for improvements.

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

It was manageable, some tasks were finished ahead of schedule, others were delayed. 

Improvements: Set a timer to help us keep track of time, since we take ages to make decisions because of the discussion involved. 

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

Our agendas were not extremely effective or helpful, except to remind us of what we did in the previous lesson. I (Jacelyn) personally, haven't even seen them. We didn't take minutes as such but we took notes of ideas and decisions made during the meeting. Sometimes, flow of conversation was also recorded. We found our notes we found more useful especially in our reflections and in distinguishing the exact dates things occurred. 

Improvements: Make our agendas like our notes and have both minutes and notes. 

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

We researched on the Internet. We used our personal experiences to decide on the best form of communication to our target audience. (our age group)

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

He made a fish bone diagram that encompassed the perspectives. Improvement: Checklist.

10. Would your outcome need to be accompanied by some additional explanation or elaboration?

A little bit. We would have needed to explain how our final outcome links with our focus; explaining the thought process.

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

Compare our target audience (secondary learners) in different schools (National, Chinese, Tamil, International).

"Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From quiet reflection will come even more effective action." - Peter F. Drucker

Peak Oil Progress Update 5

"Democracy means government by discussion, but it is only effective if you can stop people talking." - Clement Attlee

After much talking, discussion, evaluation and our daily dose of debate, our group have decided to pack up our plans for the mock project and move on. We shall take the skills and knowledge we learnt from this mock project to begin anew our real project. We decided to stop here because we feel that the mock project no longer has much to offer us in terms of developing our skills and it will merely take up valuable time we need for our real, sustainability project. While we feel that it is a waste of effort in terms of what we have completed in the mock project, we think the deadline of January / February is too close to delay our real project. So we close a chapter of our lives, turn the page and begin a new one.

"Begin today. Declare outloud to the universe that you are willing to let go of struggle and eager to learn through joy." - Sarah Ban Breathnach

Gantt Charts

"Time equals life; therefore, waste your time and waste of your life, or master your time and master your life." - Alan Lakein

What is a Gantt Chart? 

A Gantt Chart is analogous to a horizontal bar chart. The x axis is a timeline upon which bars representing specific tasks are layered and linked. It is a visual method of representing any particular project or work schedule.

Why should we use them?

We should use them because they are a great organisational tool. In addition, because it is a time management tool, it allows for 1) multitasking, 2) optimal use of time and 3) efficient management of resources.  

Tips For Using Gantt Charts

1. Distribute workload of the group evenly

2. Colour code tasks to signify different people

3. Keep the chart simple and easy to understand, 

4. Limit the tasks to less than 30 activities for greater reliability

5. Allow slack in the time schedule for unforeseen events

6. Those who have completed their task should be encouraged to refer to the chart and 
assist those who have incomplete tasks

"The common man is not concerned about the passage of time, the man of talent is driven by it" - Shoppenhauer