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During Term 2 and 3, me, Emily Harwood and Joseph Harrison participated in ‘The Utopia Project’ during HASS, English and Innovat[ED]. In this project, after reading the giver, we were tasked to create a sustainable utopia, while factoring in the UNN Global Goals and Liveability Factors and at the end of the project, we were to present to the parents about a utopia. during this project I improved on many skills, these skills are empathy, collaboration and problem-solving.
COLLABORATION
During this project, collaboration has been key to completing any task, so I’ve had much time to practise to skill. One time I’ve improved this skill is when Joseph and I had to collaborate when Emily was away to fix problems within our community and make decisions so we didn’t fall behind. Another time I have improved this skill is when Joseph, Emily and I all split up the tasks based off skills when building so that the work we did came out better because we were an expert in that certain task. Emily had skills in building with paper, so she was tasked to make the house model. I was better at drawing, so was tasked to draw the community hubs. Joseph was best at making diagrams, so he was tasked with making a diagram of our energy system. overall because we used our skills to our advantage, problem solved and collaborated, our community model has turned out better.
PROBLEM-SOLVING
One skill that relates to collaboration heavily, is problem-solving. Throughout this project, I’ve had to use this skill when making decisions or helping a teammate with a problem they have. One of the main times I’ve used this skill, was when our team had to decide how to make our model. our team thought through this challenge, by coming up with different ideas. we started with the idea of doing it in Minecraft, but that was not allowed, so instead, we ended up trying CoSpaces, but none of us liked it, so we came together undecided would be best for us to just build our model physically. Overall this project has taught me to experiment and problem solve, so I can create my best work.
EMPATHY
One of the skills I’ve always had to use when doing pretty much anything in this project, his empathy. I’ve learned that empathy is a very important thing to consider when making decisions. I learned this when our group was talking to Professor Tanya Fitzgerald when getting an accreditation for affordable and clean energy. when we were talking to her we talked about how we would reroute a River to our power plant, but when she code us that we need to make sure that the River doesn’t house any wildlife or is important to any aboriginals that lived there before we did. After this experience, I’ve realised that we need to consider everybody’s point of view before making a decision. Empathy is also a very important skill to have when giving out workloads in a group project. our group had used empathy when we were giving out workloads to do at home when we fell behind because we make sure not to give the people who had a lot of homework more work and give the people who had finished most of their homework the things to do. that is good because then we didn’t have people bringing in the work late making us fall more behind.
PUBLIC SPEAKING
Time had come and it was getting closer to the end of the project, so we had to practise or speech and public speaking. Before I practised I found that I would get more nervous in front of crowds and people I had to try and impress, but after our group got to present in front of the class, I feel like I’ve improved a lot because I face my fears of presenting in front of crowds and my nerves of presenting in front of parents aren’t as bad. I’ve also improved my body language when presenting. I’ve approved because I was taught about how different body language can give off different impressions. so now when I present in front of people, I can make them feel welcomed and acknowledged when I’m speaking. I’ve also learned to not make the people I am presenting to uncomfortable by staring but still looking at them by sometimes breaking eye contact. overall I’ve improved my body language and speaking a lot, now preparing me for when I have to present in future.
Overall all, throughout this project, I had an amazing time and have improved on many skills. those skills were my public speaking, empathy, problem-solving and collaboration skills. And when it came to the end of the project I had enjoyed presenting it to the parents and answering any questions they had. I look forward to using these skills next time I am in a group project or have any project similar to this.
