Reflection Questions: To be answered in thoughtful, clear, thorough

sentences.

1. Critical Thinking and Problem Solving: How well did your group use
critical thinking and problem solving skills? When a solution was not clear,
how effectively were you able to call upon your analytical and investigative
skills to help you solve the problem? Describe this challenge and how you
solved it using specific examples.

I believe our group had good problem solving skills. There were a lot of
challenges we faced during this project, but we almost always managed to
find ways to fix them. For example, we very quickly realized that we
wouldn’t be done in time for Inflate Day. At first we weren’t excatly sure
what to do, but we all discussed ideas and listened to each other’s
solutions so that we could choose the best one. We were able to easily
decide to come in early, and members with matching ILT met up to help
finish. We were then able to complete our inflatable on time. Another
example is calculations. When it appeared that some of our calculations on
our flat pattern were incorrect, we had another group member check behind
and help correct what needed to be corrected. Then, our calculations were
right and we didn’t receive any notes about miscalculations once our flat
pattern was turned in.

2. Collaboration Across Networks and Leading by Influence: How well did

your group provide and share resources with each other? Was your group
effective at identifying information you needed and seeking out resources
to gain that information? How did you help others both in your group and in
other groups succeed?

We did very well in sharing resources, both across groups and within
our group. When construction first started, there weren’t enough scissors,
and each group only had access to one pair. Within our group, we shared
our pair of scissors where they were needed for cutting, and didn’t argue
with one another when someone else needed them to cut something. We
did this with our marker as well. We also shared string across groups. The
string was used to cut circles, but there was only one ball of it and a lot of
groups that used circles. Since we knew we weren’t the only group that
needed the string, we pre-measured and cut the string pieces we needed,
which allowed us to pass off the ball of string to other groups as soon as
they asked for it. This way, we weren’t hogging a resource that was needed
by a lot of people. Lastly, when we had questions we always found
someone to answer them quickly. When beginning our scale model, we
didn’t know whether to cut our pieces directly from our flat pattern or to use
the card stock model of our sheeting. We immediately located a group that
had already started their scale model and were able to ask them which to
use (the card stock model). Little time was spent doing so since we knew to
ask someone who had started with the correct material.

3. Agility and Adaptability: How flexible were you to challenges or changes

that arose during the process? Describe these challenges and changes.
How did you respond and adapt to setbacks or when your course of action
changed?

We made a lot of changes to our plans and website, but we were able
to adapt to them without being set too far behind. One of the first of these
changes was to our flat pattern. We changed the height of our cake layers,
the size of our circles, the size of our candles, and the number of candles
on our cake. We had already calculated most of our measurements, so we
all helped each other recalculate circumferences and surface areas, and
we were able to get everything redone within the class period. We also had
to restart the website. When I first began creating the website, I used a site
that allowed me to edit on mobile. Unfortunately, the site wouldn’t let me
properly upload photos, so we decided to restart completely. I used Wix
instead and was able to upload photos, and got the website up to the
progress I had originally had within a class period so that we wouldn’t lose
as much time.
4. Initiative and Entrepreneurship: How self-directed was your group?
Describe those difficulties? How creative were you with your problem
solving and the process through which you completed this task? Describe
your group role (resource manager, quality control specialist, final product
manager, or project facilitator) and how you worked to fulfill that role.

Our group was fairly self directed. One of my responsibilities as Project

Facilitator was to make sure everyone was contributing and to help keep
member on task. Although a few people would occasionally get off track
talking or had trouble starting when class began, it wasn’t hard to do my
job. Prompting them to do something (such as asking “Can you help tape
this together?” or “Do you want to cut this?”) worked well, and they would
start the task. I also had to document our processes through photos each
day. To do this, I made sure I took a photo of something everyday, whether
it was something we had completed or photos of group members working
that could be included on the website. I also made a folder in Google Drive
that I uploaded the photos into to makes sure I wouldn’t lose them. And,
when I was taping etc. and couldn’t take photos myself, Jenaiah helped out
by taking a few, too.

5. Effective Oral and Written Communication: How clearly and effectively

were you able to transmit and present information in a meaningful and
understandable manner, both via your website and on Inflate/Exhibition
Day? How clearly do you feel your website conveys the intent of the project
and the process as well as what you learned?

On our website there are descriptions of our processes on every page,

listing everything from our mistakes and challenges to our successes and
explanations for design choices. It’s made to be very thorough, so that
anyone reading the website is able to understand the steps we went
through, even the ones that were set backs. On Inflate Day we also
discussed a bit beforehand about questions we might receive and how to
answer them, so that passerby who wanted to ask something would be
able to understand what happened during the project whether they read our
website or not.

6. Accessing and Analyzing Information: How did your group decide upon
your selected design? How effective was your group at utilizing
mathematical content in an effective manner?

Our group didn’t actually have many ideas before the one we decided
on. Madison and Jenaiah originally brought up the idea of doing a birthday
cake, and we all agreed. We thought it was a cute idea that would still be
complex enough, and would allow us to add in some details with paint.
When it comes to the math portion, we used every resource to our
advantage. We used notes we had taken in previous units to do a lot of the
calculations with a calculator, and used Google as a resource to look up
equations we didn’t know, like cylinder volume.

7. Curiosity and Imagination: How did your group’s curiosity and

imagination support and improve the quality of your work and the
effectiveness of your group’s process?

Our imagination helped a lot, especially in the building process. It wasn’t

hard for us to keep in mind and imagine our end product, which helped
keep us motivated and avoid arguing even when certain tasks would get
frustrating or monotonous. It also offered a lot in our website design. We
knew our birthday cake would likely have a pink theme, so we were able to
choose a similar design on the website. Our curiosity helped during the
building process, as well. We were open to experimenting with different
ways to attach things and hold up pieces we had cut to figure out efficient
ways to tape together pieces. By asking ourselves how to best get through
the process, we were able to do it faster.
8. Overall Reflection: What is one thing you enjoyed about this project? If
you were to start again, what would you change or do differently? What is
one piece of advice you would give the next group of students completing
this project?

I definitely enjoyed the website creation the most. Since I’m interested in
art and graphic design, it was a lot of fun to choose themes, color palettes,
fonts, and heading designs to make our website look both sleek and
modern, yet fun and eye-catching. I also had fun writing about our process
and discussing both our successes and failures. If we were to start again, I
think we would all agree to do less candles and then make them bigger.
We believe the reason they didn’t blow up correctly is because the
openings were too small, so I would want to go back and fix if we had the
chance. Concerning advice I’d give to students doing this project in the
future, I’d advise them to learn how to effectively manage their time, make
sure they stay on task at all times, and, most importantly, have as much fun
as they can. While the project can be stressful at times, it’s a very unique
project, and they should still have fun creating their inflatable and designing
their website