Group Projects

[Semjaza]

This thread is about group projects in school. I'm wondering what people think about them and how they usually wind up going.

Personally, I tend to dread group projects. There's always some person who screws it up for everyone else in the group. Some teachers are understanding of this and some are not, but even if they are understanding you're often stuck with a semi-completed project or presentation.

I have this class called Mythology and Pop-Culture as an elective. Basically it's just myth applied to today's literature and film, as well as company use and such. The teacher assigned a project where we had to present a myth and teach it to the class in a creative way. After a bunch of arguing over lame ideas, our group settled on doing a puppet show about Jason and the Argonauts.

Of course, no one could come up with a good way to split the work until I suggested we just take a couple characters each (you know, the common sense idea? lol). We were all set, I made my puppets and was happy with them. Of course, the day of class, only two people in my group are there.

Class starts, another couple come in. We have five out of our seven people, but the two that didn't come were in charge of the main characters. We had no idea what to do about this, but luckily another group was doing a puppet show about the same myth (no clue how that happened).

They too were missing people. In fact, only two out of their six or so people even showed up. Luckily they had the characters we needed and we wound up with a decent show.

Anyway, that's just my most recent example. I've talked to other people about these things and generally it just winds up being a complain-fest. If I'm going to mess up my own grade over what I do, that's my problem... but I would never not show up to a class or not do something if I knew it would affect another person's grade. The fact that this still happens in college disgusts me.

(I just realized this is only like my third thread in this section. Anyway...)

[kabapu]

group projects suck!

we do a ****load of them at my school. usualy though, i end up working alone, and generally doing better than most groups. I don't think that students should be made to work in groups.

anyone care to elaborate?

[COLOR=DarkRed]Edit: I had to edit your post due to inappropriate language. Keep on eye on that. Thanks! Panda[/COLOR]

[Dragon Warrior]

Now that I'm further into high school (JUnior year), I haven't really been assigned group projects. ONly one class does that now and that's my Broadcasting class.

[b]And it's fun.[/b]

It's all about making movies and havin' a good time, I tell you. Since I want to be an actor, doing the assignments given is not a problem and we often have a blast making humorous stuff about whatever is assigned. I even have a video with over an hour of short films I've made with my friends. It's so wonderful that we now make films after school with each other just for the sake of having fun doing it. Not to mention, I like to do the editing and directing of the films as well.

Group projects rock ;^D

[Retribution]

You see, usually group project rock, but sometimes they suck. I'll explain myself...

In the early years of school (elementary/junior high), the projects assigned were stupid, pointless, and time consuming. To make matters worse, the teacher would pick our groups, inevitable screwing over me and the rest of the hard workers in the group. And this wouldn't be a problem if everyone in the group got an individual grade based upon how much work we did, but that wasn't the case. We get graded on what the final project looks like, and we all got the same grade. I hated those. Because I'm the type of person who will work hard to get [i]my[/i] grade. Not the stupid, sleeping stoner in the back of the class' grade.

But in highschool, the teachers don't assign as many group projects. Actually, only my literature classes assigned me group projects, and those were fun because we got to assemble our own groups. All my friends are [relatively] hard workers, so we got the good grade we deserved.

I'll give group projects a [B]6 out of 10.[/B] Heh, now I feel like a videogame rater-person.

[Heaven's Cloud]

[color=indigo]I have always found group projects bothersome, especially at the college level. My first time around I was fortunate enough to be involved in a major that required very few group projects, history is a very solitary subject I guess, lol. I did have the occasional group project in my elective and required non-specific classes, and something always went drastically wrong. I remember that I had to make a video in one class and, out of a group of eight people, three of us participated in the project.

This time around, working on my Advertising degree, I have had (and probably will continue to have) a plethora of group projects. It has been really bothersome lately, because I am so busy it is hard to schedule times to do school work that don?t coincide with weekends. None of my classmates seem to like doing work on Saturdays or Sundays. It always seems to get done, though I (and usually one or two other people) always end up doing 98% of the class work. One thing I?ve learned is to never split assignments up into pieces and distribute them, then you end up in a situation like Semjaza?s, which rarely turns out so smooth. [/color]

[Semjaza]

[I think you really wind up despising group projects when they involve your [i]entire[/i] class. I had one called Professional Practices that involved the twenty-five or so kids that were in my class all working together to put together a short film and everything around it.

I was in locations, but somehow wound up in charge of that section. Other people did directing, cameras, designs, costumes, etc. Obviously the point of the class was for us all to see how hard a large project like this is, particularly with our lack of experience. It did a good job at that.

It's hard to want to rely on people to do what's specified in their job title after a class like that. People don't show up or they come back after a long abscence and expect to be in charge. People give misinformation, wrong times are given, others don't follow through. Or you can do your job and then those above you don't really check out what you did, causing further problems. I had many issues where I'd bring my locations in, people wouldn't look at them and then I'd be asked why I didn't find any places yet.

Not all group projects are bad, but I'd say most of the ones I've been involved with have been.

[Manic Webb]

I've had my own experiences with group projects. Some were good. Some were bad. One turned out so bad, I wanted to strangle someone for compromising my grade.

During my junior year, my English class was reading [u]The Great Gatsby[/u] by F. Scott Fitzgerald. We were also covering a lot of stuff concerning the 1920s in general, just to get a feel of what kind of environment the book took place in. My teacher gave the class a project where we had to write a 12-article newspaper, separated in groups of 2 or 3 people. Each article would cover some major event that happened throughout the 1920s. I had only one partner-- a b***h named Marcela. The plan was simple. We picked out our 12 articles, and agreed to write 6 each. She gave me her email address so we could talk about it from home. When she stopped showing up for class the week before the project was due, I tried emailing her. She never answered.

The due date came where we had to present our newspapers. She didn't show up. I had half a newspaper to give to the teacher. What's worse, is that I was the only person in the class without a complete project. And this project was worth a [i]very[/i] large percent of our grades. I was so upset, I gave her the "evil eye" when she finally showed up for class, later that week. That's okay, though. I got my revenge. I managed to convince the teacher to grade my 6 articles of the newspaper individually, which got me an A-, and her a flat F. She repeated Junior-level English the next year. Yes, I'm just that evil, but there was no way I was repeating English for her mistakes.

[Panda]

Group projects for me were always a mixed bag. I have been in groups that really did a great job and made the experience a great time. For example in my AP English class we decided to write a song about "Animal Farm" and set it to the music of "Ode to Joy". Myself and 4 other members who played instruments did the music and the other members in the group sang the song. We had a great time doing it since out group had those who were musically inclined.

On the otherside of that there was a group project in Physiology where there were members who didn't want to help with the necropsy of a cat. It's understandable in this case with people having issues, but that just increased the work load for the other members of the group.

I guess if you care about your grade the fear of slackers in the group project causes more stress. If you are on the other end, the one who doesn't care, you have a chance to actually get a good grade for once. If anything it does give you the real life experience of the working world. There are always going to be slackers in the work place and working on group projects gives you a small taste of that world.

[Morpheus]

I like group projects, mostly because my teachers will let me choose partners. I guess they have realized that people work better when they know who they are working with. I'll choose a few friends and we get the project done early and "work" a few more hours. It gets to be a lot of fun.

I can't think of a bad experience working in groups. If someone won't pull their weight then I'll usually make them do the parts I don't like as much. Such as construction.

I really enjoy groups in Spanish. It's always the same people, and we always come in last place. It's so hilarious! But we tell everyone that we are like the Cleveland Cavaliers: We suck for years and then we get Labron James.

[future girl]

[size=1]Since I've started college in January I've yet to be assigned a group project which is relieving. In highschool I usually ended up doing most of the work and in the end, like it's already been mentioned, half the people show up and none of them have done any work. One of the things that bothered me the most is when you get to pick your own partners because you know you have to pick your friends and while I love my friends, as far as school work is involved they're not very dependable. Dependability in and of itself is another factor that annoys me. Your grading is for the most part based on other's people involvement so it really doesn't matter if you work your *** off. If someone in the group decides not to, then that's it and your grade is ruined. That and there's also this looming responcibility on your shoulders that if you slack off everyone will be pissed at you. I just don't like being responcible for other people's sucess, nor do I like them being responcible for mine. I've had some group efforts turn out really well [one of them involving a beatnik puppet that looks just like Tony], but it's rare and it's too high stress for my liking.[/size]

[Lady Asphyxia]

[font=Verdana][size=1]Group Projects as a whole aren't really my cup of tea. That's not to say I'm against Group Projects, in fact, I enjoy myself. I'm really quite social and working in a group gives me a chance to develop my teamwork skills and communication. The problem is, however, that other people also enjoy themselves...a little [i]too[/i] much. It can get really frustrating when a group member spends their entire time talking, laughing and bludging.[/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=1][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=1]I had an experience last year in Drama which wasn't so pleasant. The girl I ended up partnered with wasn't really all that interested in, y'know, getting a decent grade. She spent most of her time bludging. We read through the script about 4 per week, when we should have been able to get through it 3 and a half to 4 times [i]per lesson. [/i]Despite that, I was willing to go on and keep going. We'd have to put some extra effort in on the day, but we could still net ourselves a B, at least. The girl didn't even show up on the day. Perhaps she was sick, like her friend said, but I was sick too and it wasn't fair just to leave me stranded -- [i]especially[/i] because that day was almost my only chance to [i]do[/i] the assessment, because I was leaving for England on the Friday. In the end, we did get it done out of class time, but the girl didn't know her lines, and that threw me off. Then the prompt corrected me [i]everytime I made a mistake[/i], even if it was just one word. It was a bit of a shambles.[/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=1][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=1]I've learnt, though. Groupwork, you need some direction from someone, and I'm happy to be the one giving it, even if it makes me less popular with whoever I'm working with. [/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=1][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=1]Once everyone in the group realises that we will all pull our weight, it's a lot more relaxed. And by Year 12, here, most people realise that not doing any work will stuff up their Exit score, so they all haul arse. [/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=1][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=1]So I think that Group work is stupid in younger grades. Even if you can handle it, other members in the group generally aren't mature enough to do so. At the same time, I think the point of groupwork is also to teach people about interaction. After all, while you may work independantly when you get a career, you'll also have to interact within a group to meet your teams goals. And I think that's what Groupwork is trying to prepare you for, in a twisted kind of way. ^.^[/size][/font]

[eleanor]

[color=darkslateblue] My opinion about group projects usually depends on what the subject and type of project it is. Sometimes I have a blast with group projects, and sometimes I feel like attacking my partners and mauling them to the ground. Usually I just get ticked off if the other person doesn't work, or works in a very crappish way that doesn't achieve much. Just recently, we had a project in my literature class, and we were in the computer lab doing research, and I got furious at my partner because all she was doing was typing in the same keywords into Google, clicking completely ridiculous links, and randomly highlighting phrases and trying to make me laugh. Worst part was that she was my best friend.

But on the other hand, I had a group project once where we did a commercial on Catcher in the Rye and I had a bunch of fun and got a good grade to beat.

But yeah...usually when I'm paired with someone I don't know or trust, I take control and do most of the work just for the sake of my grades. Personally, I don't mind the work because I handle big workloads pretty well for the most part. So basically, I can't have a real dislike for the person I'm working with, because I never get to know if they're a trustworthy person since I usually just take the work and do it. So that being said, I can't be angry for letting them get the good grade as well or anything. If they are a good worker, they can carry a good grade by themself. If they're a crappy student who doesn't care, I don't care if they fail the class.

But then again, at the same times, I hate people who complain to the teachers about the members in their group after the teachers have made it clear you can't switch. I mean, seriously. Suck it up and just do the freaking work if you're so concerned.[/color]

[Hevn]

[SIZE=1][COLOR=Purple]I find it hard to cope with people in group projects.[B] [COLOR=Plum]Ideas, schedules, work attitudes, and loads of other things clash[/COLOR][/B]. This is applicable whether or not the members of the group are or aren't your friends. It's difficult to work with people you don't know well since you need to give some sort of effort to give way and understand each other plus, you won't know when they'll screw things up.

It's also difficult to work with people you know or consider as friends. Thing is, friends tend to forget about 'business' and treat each other as friends so there'd be some sort of special consideration when it comes to members not working and stuff. Some friends take advantage and do no work and you'll see yourself torn between work and friendship. Which is it? Dump the friend cause he's not contributing anything or keep the friend for the sake of your friendship?

So yeah, I'm currently stuck with a thesis I'm doing with a group and experiencing how hard it is to have a freeloader you consider as a friend. But I've also worked with a great group once. It's fun because they're my friends and it's amazing how we work so well and did equal amount of tasks.

Somehow, it's a challenge for me to work with a group. I know that I should learn how to deal with a group of people because almost all jobs in my field require working with at least one person.[/COLOR][/SIZE]

[Juu]

[size=1]I always end up doing most of the project myself, but because I choose to. For some reason, I feel this desperate need to do it myself and not risk having a lower score thanks to someone else. But if I'm positive that they're much better than me in a certain area, I let them do it. But usually, I get too easily frustrated to explain so aslkdaskj. And to fill in any uncomfortable pausing during presentations, I end up talking most, unless it's with Celia.

I don't fancy group projects, though, unless we can split up research to one part of the group and artsy bits to another. I loathe the researching process, but it's a ton of fun designing the stuff and presenting. However, if it's one of those things where we each have to research and put it all together as a team, thennnn I don't like. Just frustrating - especially if I'm stuck in a group with someone as stubborn as me. Which isn't likely.[/size]

[TheShinje]

[size=1][color=Teal][b]I generally[/b] disliked our school group projects, While most of them were relatively easy and I had a lot of fun doin them (much better than just writinng note afte rnote in a book :animeswea), for alot of them, I was partnered with a whino who would complain and moan about the project, turning even the msot basic tasks into a big ordeal. Seriously, actually doing the damn project would take less effort than their moanign and groaning, lol.

The best example of the whino comes from my Broadcasting class, producing a half-hour radio show became impossible because the guy I got partnered with thought a clash of style irreconcilable and walked off the assignment. I ended up hosting the show msyelf, and when the other shows all had partners, performing a great show, mine paled in comparison. What really annoyed me about that incident was the fact that I would have made compromises in the way I wanted the show to be, to keep things running smoothly, but he never engaged in any sort of creative process with me at all. [/color]
[/size]

[Godelsensei]

Almost every group project I have ever participated in has involved me getting pissed off.

I hate working in group projects, for the simple reason that I always end up with some nitpicky, brownosed perfectionist who is incapable of developing anything beyond the most fundamentally lame and boring ideas possible. Every one else does their work, fits it together nicely enough, and then that one person comes and gets mad because it isn't text-book boring or looks different than the example the teacher showed us, as means of suggestion or inspiration. They proceed to try and re-do everything themselves, then bring it in on the day the assignment is due, and create conflict by accusing every one else of doing nothing.

I call it work-mongering, but I'm sure you could find something outwardly nice to say about people like that.

[Delta]

[COLOR=#B33D79][SIZE=1]^ Yeah, and it [i]always[/i] turns up worse than before. They should've broke away from the group before you guys even got started and kept their inane project to themselves.

It's odd how people suddenly get "sick" when I call for a meeting.

Never did like group projects because, by sheer bad luck, my person tends to attract the laziest kids in class. The only thing they shared with us [i]slave[/i] is the air we breathed. And *gah* [i]they[/i] get the same grade!

Now that I'm in college, I despise group projects even more. Even if I'm grouped with extremely hard-working people, rarely do our schedules fit so we end up submitting really mediocre results. Pisses everybody off everytime.[/SIZE][/COLOR]

[Epitome]

[size=1][color=#003399]I like group projects, but only when I can choose my group. I am the type of person that thinks if you are with people you like or dont think you wont get along with, that you can accomplish much more.

Even though you may goof off a little, you still get things done. Recently, I had a Spanish project that required video, and we got 100%, even though the ideas we came up with were so... incomprehendible(sp?) in the sense that we had no idea where we got them.

But in a situation with some you dislike, the two or however many people there are that dont like each other, always seem to bring the group down. Either they are constantly bickering at each other, or they dont say anything because of what they think will happen if they say it.

But I in fact do like them, they are much fun most of the time.[/size][/color]

[Roxie Faye]

[color=#9933ff]Wow. It turns out [b]nobody[/b] likes group projects.

Whatever projects I've been involved in have always involved people who are decent and do their work, but it didn't stop me from being nervous.

One time, my partner and I worked separately and just did the presentation together, and that was the only time I wasn't worried because I knew he was an over-achiever and wouldn't screw anything up. I was actually worried I'd get us a bad grade, but we got an A, so it was all good. ^_^;

Oh wait, I [i]can[/i] mention a time when I had a crappy partner. She was a lazy b***h who seriously pissed me off, and did all ehr work at the last minute and didn't look as great. I had to work with her several times in this one class (along with other people who were normal), but luckily the teacher was understanding and such.

I've had two group projects this year, both that we did in class, so it was all finished.

And when I get a job, I'm specifically looking for one where there is no group collaboration. I seriously do NOT want to have to work with other people, as with my lucky, I'd get suck with an annoying a-hole. ~_~[/color]

[Guest Alchemist]

Group projects is all I ever due in my high school. I go to a Governor school(smart people) and I am taking Intro to Engineering, as afreshman. The purpose of the class is to sharpen our thinking skills and work better in groups. This does not work for me cause I am aniti-social, kinda like Heero Yuy. I just hate how people love to just talk and talk and talk. I just eventually tell them to shut up, but we still get A's on our projects, partely beacause I put in Martial Law.

[Pumpkin]

[SIZE=1]I despise group projects mostly because I always got stuck with people I either didn't get along with or people that did not want to do any work. They always ended up bad for me and I was lucky to even get a C. One group I had was me and acouple jocks and they actually asked me what grade I had in this class, and I anwsered B. They told me I won and made me do all of the work. Ugh, and it was tiresome too. In the end, it worked out, because I hate doing presentations. I usually try and make a deal that if your not going to do the written work, your going to do the presentation. But most the times, I've dreaded Group Projects because if you get stuck with someone you don't work well with, in highschool, they just ignore you and don't care if they get a bad grade by doing it. It's idiotic, and I don't like doing all the work, or having like said up above a perfectionist fixing all off our hard work. However, If you do group projects with friends, however undependable it may be, is alot of fun and makes it easier. It all depends on who you get stuck with. [/SIZE]