Decision Making

In class, the professor had given us an option that if we all could come to 100% agreement on what should be done about the low scores on the test, than he would do it. However, it isnt as easy it seemed. There were people that got 100s and didn't want anything to do with it while there were others who got 40s and wanted a lot to be done, so you can just imagine the variety of ideas thrown out. But, the first step we had to accomplish was electing a leader. We were thankful that Bailey immediately rose up to the task and coordinated everything. Through out this whole process. a strong leadership is needed to get some successful results.

The ways that I used to come to decision that was agreeable with everyone were: Compromise, Accomodation and Collaboration. I used these 3 methods because nothing can be done without them. If everyone were stubborn and just stuck to their point of view, than nothing would get done. So, in order to reach some type of decision, everybody had to compromise, evaluate their situations, think about what their classmates are going through and from what angle they are coming from, and at the same time, see if they ideas thrown out are feasible and if the professor would actually implement it. Everybody had to cooperate and look at the idea from the point of view of the aggregate, instead of only thinking about themselves. Therefore, we all had to work together and hammer out a decision that would appease everybody and do good for the whole class, the people with As and the people that failed.

I cannot think any other way to handle this situation than the way it was handled. As I illustrated above, you cannot just choose one method and hope that it will work out. What I learned from this activity is that when trying to resolve a conflict, you have to implement more than one method to get the end desired result.

Eggs-cellent Way to learn

I think my group failed because of a few reasons. First of all, the design. We had good ideas for the design, as in we knew what type of design would prevent our egg from breaking, however, the constraints that we had, mainly time and materials, is what impeded our path to success. Due to these constraints, and keeping them in mind, we did the best we could and sadly, it didn't work out the way we thought it would.

Our group went through all of the steps in the Planning Process. We did define our goals and what we were trying to achieve, we identified our resources and the materials that were available to us, we had a back up/alternative design that we would use if at some point we didnt like it or didn't think it would work, we kind of a had a tactical plan as in we knew the steps that we had to take and in which order, and we implemented it accordingly and were able to evaluate our results in the end, when our device did not work. :(

Regarding my team's performance, I personally don't think there was anything lacking. We gave it our best and sadly it didnt work out. As I mentioned before, we didn't fail because we skipped one of the planning process steps. We followed all of them, since they made logical sense. However, where we did fail was the actual design of the device and the materials we had at our disposal. Other than that, our team was great and very cooperative with each other.

Culture Shock

Hey everyone,

I am Indian and one of the major differences that I have observed between my culture and American culture is with the concept of marriage. In our culture, it is perfectly normal to have an arranged marriage. In fact, we have been having this custom, or tradition or whatever you want to call it, for as long as I can remember. And the interesting thing about it is that couples usually have very peaceful, loving lives. I have witnessed and experienced first hand the results and effects of arranged marriage, and even though this idea is very foreign to a lot of Americans, even downright ridiculous, I have recently realized that it is one of the best ways to lead a happy and successful life. One thing I want to mention is that divorces are much greater in America than in India and this is due to the fact that people get married thinking that they are in love with their significant other but than after a few years, get divorced because of some issue or the other. However, you will not see this happening a lot in my culture. Yes, nowadays, more and more people are getting divorces and stuff in India but it is definitely no where near to the rate it is in America. I definitely believe in a person's right to choose and stuff, and arranged marriage doesn't mean that you are robbed of all rights. You do choose what person you want to marry, you talk to them, get to know them, and all that stuff, so in a sense, it is quasi-dating. I hope this has cleared some of the misconceptions that I have found a lot of my non Indian friends share. If you have any comments or anything, please state it and I'll be glad to discuss it.