SciTech Final Essay

Science and Technology, also known as SciTech, is a class in the Liberal Arts and Science Academy that all students are required to take their freshman year. This class forces the students to cooperate with others, manage their time correctly, and think “outside the box”. The freshmen taking the class in the fall semester were the first students of the 2013-2014 school year to experience the thrills and pressures of the rather intimidating class. At around the end of the first six weeks of school, the students were introduced to a “final challenge”, which is what the whole class is centered around. The challenge given to them was to get a toroid, or “donut”, onto one of three pegs that are mounted on a table. Each peg is at a different height, and each has a different “no-setup zone” in which the students cannot start their device in. In order to complete the challenge and/or pass the class, each group needed a strong team, different roles that are given to each member, the ability to resolve conflicts, and the ability to work together to complete tasks effectively.

In order to succeed, a group must have team members with strong, personal qualities. One of these qualities would be encouraging group members to stay on task and work more efficiently. During the “ramp lab”, which was our first formal lab, “my group members motivated me to work fast, since we were kind of behind compared to the other groups” (logbook 9/19). This trait pulled us through the lab and was the difference between a passing and failing grade. Another trait that is observed in a strong team member would be the ability to focus and stay on task without being distracted by outside influences. While working on the rubber band lab, “I kind of dr...

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... in the “real word”, would look very bleak. I have experienced this firsthand by taking the SciTech course. My group-mates and I argued frequently, and we disagreed on many things, but in the end, I have come to realize that without a group, it would have been absurd to even try to complete all of the assignments and “projects” that were given to us during the school year. Though SciTech has placed extensive amounts of stress on me, it has taught me many things that I would have never learned if I had gone to a regular high school for my freshman. I have enjoyed working with my group members, and I thank all of the SciTech instructors for their time and effort developing and shaping the class into a very demanding, but also helpful, class that has given me at least one thing to take away into the rest of high school, college, and life.

Works Cited

logbook