Yesterday our physics class had an experiment. We were asked to build the tallest free standing structure we could, using just 5 sheets of newspaper and about 2 metres of tape. My group consisted of Joseph, Andrea, Chris, and myself. We realized the challenge at hand in the very beginning. It was quite difficult to come up with a plan that made sense to everybody. Brainstorming took up a lot of the time and that would later prove to be one of the main reasons for our downfall. We had many ideas, but after around fifteen minutes of decision making, we finally agreed upon the idea of stacking triangular prisms on top of each other. We quickly made the pieces and taped them together.We immediately realized a problem: although the structure was stable, it was not entirely symmetrical. In addition, it was almost impossible to make it symmetrical due to our planned structure. As we finished up the first phase, Mr. Chung gave us the idea of connecting three thin newspaper tubes together at the top of our existing structure. As we began creating the tubes, we realized that one of our remaining sheets of newspaper did not have the correct dimensions. With time quickly running out, we had no choice but to tape as much of it together as we could. In the end, our group unfortunately came last in the contest but we all learned a tremendous amount from the experience. We learned to work together as a team and to respect each other's decisions and thoughts. Furthermore, we realized that sometimes the best way to be a leader is to just listen. We knew that our structure failed due to a variety of reasons. First of all, our base was not strong enough and stable enough. Second of all, we spent too much time planning. Thirdly, our structure was not symmetrical and therefore it had a strong tendency to tip over. Finally, out overall planned structure just wasn't strong enough. Overall, we all had a great time and our experience could not be better epitomized by the well known quote: "it's not always about winning; it's about having fun."
Good reflection!
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