The Movie Project
Purpose
The purpose of our most recent project in biology was to explore and understand DNA and related scientific concepts. We were also trying to investigate what makes individuals unique. As a class, I feel that we did meet that purpose. We included five explanations of scientific concepts in our script, and the final movie draft had at least two of those. Personally, I do not feel like I met that purpose. I have some background knowledge on this topic from 7th grade biology, but I don’t feel like I really learned and retained any new information about our topic.
Warm Feedback
I think some aspects of this project were very strong, while others were less strong. As a class, our teamwork with planning and setting up for the exhibition was excellent. Additionally, our script was very detailed, we had a clear plot, and it was well written. I think the class did a good job contributing when they were asked, and everyone brought in the props that they committed to. Personally, I think that I did a good job communicating from group to group. I spent most of my time with the group that filmed everyday, but I think I talked to the editing group frequently and conveyed important information when necessary.
Areas for Growth
As I reflect back on this project and my frustrations with my classmates, I have come to the conclusion that I wasn’t being an effective leader. I volunteered for a position of leadership where I could encourage and support my peers, but I ended up feeling bossy and tyrannical. I think this mostly comes from my outlook on the project; my classmates knew that I thought we weren’t doing a good job, and that didn’t inspire them to do any better. Everyday, I thought that the biggest challenge was getting my classmates to take initiative and make beautiful work. Looking back, I think it was my mindset and actions that made this the biggest challenge for me. As a class, I think we all experienced a lack of motivation, which proved to be our biggest obstacle. I know that I also struggled with this, but I just tried to ignore it. In the future, I think that there needs to be a different accountability system, or perhaps a different way to engage students in the project. Maybe, this would lead to more motivation on all levels. Personally, I want to further develop my leadership skills. I shouldn’t be bossy or tyrannical, I should be supportive and inspiring. I thinking working on this will lead to less frustration and feeling of challenge with my classmates.
In this project, we were all collaborating to make our final movie. As a director, I collaborated on a daily basis with the actors, the filmmakers, and the editors. Almost every person in the class had a job that they did (mostly) daily, and all our jobs fit together to accomplish a common goal. The project was very collaboration based.
Looking forward: If you were to do this project again...
In Ally’s class, we read an article about group work and the dynamic that occurs when one or two students take over and do everyone else’s work. This comes from a feeling of distrust; you don’t trust your classmates to finish their work so you do it for them. This is not collaboration, it is a negative thing that leads to a disconnect between students. When we made our video, I think that this phenomenon occurred. Going into the project, I felt like I needed to be a director so I could make sure things got done. This came from a distrust in my peers, and subsequently hurt my approach to collaboration. Although I wanted to be in a position of leadership, I think I would feel like I collaborated better if I had chosen a different task. If we were to do this project again, I would try to be much more trusting of my classmates abilities, and give up my tendency to try to control the project.
Overall, I think this project was challenging because of the whole-class collaboration that was required; we learned new things about each other and practiced teamwork. This is something that I would keep the same about the project. Also, I liked the concept in general--it was fun to plan and make a movie. I think that it would’ve been cool to have the project at the beginning of first semester. It would be an awesome project to start school with, and it would help develop the bonds between students in a pod that are strengthened throughout the rest of the year. I think the main thing I would change about the project is the way that we learned our biology content. We were required to make meiosis/mitosis flip books, but that is almost all. I wish we would have done more lectures and other explorations of the content as a class before we started the movie creation. Then, we could draw on that knowledge to design an interesting plot and write the script.
The purpose of our most recent project in biology was to explore and understand DNA and related scientific concepts. We were also trying to investigate what makes individuals unique. As a class, I feel that we did meet that purpose. We included five explanations of scientific concepts in our script, and the final movie draft had at least two of those. Personally, I do not feel like I met that purpose. I have some background knowledge on this topic from 7th grade biology, but I don’t feel like I really learned and retained any new information about our topic.
Warm Feedback
I think some aspects of this project were very strong, while others were less strong. As a class, our teamwork with planning and setting up for the exhibition was excellent. Additionally, our script was very detailed, we had a clear plot, and it was well written. I think the class did a good job contributing when they were asked, and everyone brought in the props that they committed to. Personally, I think that I did a good job communicating from group to group. I spent most of my time with the group that filmed everyday, but I think I talked to the editing group frequently and conveyed important information when necessary.
Areas for Growth
As I reflect back on this project and my frustrations with my classmates, I have come to the conclusion that I wasn’t being an effective leader. I volunteered for a position of leadership where I could encourage and support my peers, but I ended up feeling bossy and tyrannical. I think this mostly comes from my outlook on the project; my classmates knew that I thought we weren’t doing a good job, and that didn’t inspire them to do any better. Everyday, I thought that the biggest challenge was getting my classmates to take initiative and make beautiful work. Looking back, I think it was my mindset and actions that made this the biggest challenge for me. As a class, I think we all experienced a lack of motivation, which proved to be our biggest obstacle. I know that I also struggled with this, but I just tried to ignore it. In the future, I think that there needs to be a different accountability system, or perhaps a different way to engage students in the project. Maybe, this would lead to more motivation on all levels. Personally, I want to further develop my leadership skills. I shouldn’t be bossy or tyrannical, I should be supportive and inspiring. I thinking working on this will lead to less frustration and feeling of challenge with my classmates.
In this project, we were all collaborating to make our final movie. As a director, I collaborated on a daily basis with the actors, the filmmakers, and the editors. Almost every person in the class had a job that they did (mostly) daily, and all our jobs fit together to accomplish a common goal. The project was very collaboration based.
Looking forward: If you were to do this project again...
In Ally’s class, we read an article about group work and the dynamic that occurs when one or two students take over and do everyone else’s work. This comes from a feeling of distrust; you don’t trust your classmates to finish their work so you do it for them. This is not collaboration, it is a negative thing that leads to a disconnect between students. When we made our video, I think that this phenomenon occurred. Going into the project, I felt like I needed to be a director so I could make sure things got done. This came from a distrust in my peers, and subsequently hurt my approach to collaboration. Although I wanted to be in a position of leadership, I think I would feel like I collaborated better if I had chosen a different task. If we were to do this project again, I would try to be much more trusting of my classmates abilities, and give up my tendency to try to control the project.
Overall, I think this project was challenging because of the whole-class collaboration that was required; we learned new things about each other and practiced teamwork. This is something that I would keep the same about the project. Also, I liked the concept in general--it was fun to plan and make a movie. I think that it would’ve been cool to have the project at the beginning of first semester. It would be an awesome project to start school with, and it would help develop the bonds between students in a pod that are strengthened throughout the rest of the year. I think the main thing I would change about the project is the way that we learned our biology content. We were required to make meiosis/mitosis flip books, but that is almost all. I wish we would have done more lectures and other explorations of the content as a class before we started the movie creation. Then, we could draw on that knowledge to design an interesting plot and write the script.