Welcome back!
As usual, we have a joke for our loyal reader(s)…
Q: What do you call a fly without wings? (keep reading to find the answer)
Past weekly objectives & achievements
This week was an important one for us! We collaborated to produce a final draft of our project proposal and settled our survey questions, ensuring that they would encompass our overall objectives and inquiry questions. It can be difficult coordinating so many writers, but we communicated effectively and feel great with the results (see our final proposal attached below).
Our objectives for the weeks since our first blog post were to create a first draft of our proposal, bring it to the in-class review session, and work together to make any recommended changes. Collaborating effectively was crucial to complete all the required components of our proposal: the report, an outline of the survey questions, our project timeline, and a budget. Unlike group projects in the past, each section of the proposal ended up receiving input from all members of the group! This made it easy to ensure that each member’s concerns were heard and resolved, which was one of our goals upon commencing with writing our proposal. In the end, we were left with a polished proposal for this inSECTeresting community project! Take a look for yourself…
Click here to read the EntomophaGirls’ Project Proposal
Before we began developing this proposal, and even before our first blog post, we experienced what we consider to be the greatest challenge in this project so far. We’d like to take a minute to talk about this, because it reminded us of some really important lessons for successful group work.
Our greatest challenge so far: Developing a project idea!
With several commonalities in terms of goals and interests, our group members had created assumptions about the ease with which we would settle on a project idea. However, when we found ourselves in the midst of developing a project for this course, we quickly began to realize that although our differences brought many unique perspectives to the table, they also created an overwhelming dilemma. We couldn’t seem to narrow in on an idea and our brainstorming session was all over the place. Suddenly, when it was time to share our progress with the class, we were worried that we had fallen behind and our confidence dropped even further. To our relief, we discovered that our group wasn’t the only one struggling to find an idea. After sharing some of the diverse ideas we had been discussing and getting a little feedback, our confidence increased and a solid idea emerged shortly after.
How we responded: Embracing an abundance of alternatives
It was important for us to realize that our initial struggle and frustration at deciding on a project idea was all just a part of the process. Although we were encouraged to concentrate on our similarities, what ultimately led us to the creative outcome we had been seeking was embracing our divergent thinking (Milliken et al., 2003). Milliken et al. (2003) emphasize that having an abundance of ideas and information and being willing to consider multiple alternatives before settling on a course of action are critical components to a group’s creative process. The decision to focus our project on entomophagy (the practice of eating insects) only materialized once we accepted the need to assimilate all of our different ideas, including the ideas and suggestions from other groups, rather than just pick our favourite idea from the lists of suggestions we created individually. Overall, while it may have been challenging to get there, we chose a promising topic that utilizes many of our diverse skills while also satisfying most of our common interests.
Moving forward: Collaborating for creativity
Our initial frustrations may have been assuaged if we had been aware of the path to guide us to our destination. This could have allowed us to focus all of our energy on the development process, rather than on frustrated emotions that hindered our creativity. Moving forward, we will remember that one of the keys to success in this group project is to listen to all of our different “hunches” and “allow those hunches to come together and turn into something bigger than the sum of their parts” (Johnson, 2010). We incorporated this awareness in the development of our project proposal when we set out to create a final product which integrated all of our different ideas and concerns. At the start of our group work, we also agreed that open communication, listening, and respect are important factors to success in group work. Nurturing this type of relationship among our group should make integrating our skills and ideas that much easier.
Upcoming weekly objectives & strategies for achievement
In the coming two weeks, we will make all necessary preparations for the community surveys, which will begin on February 27th! This will include creating consent forms, a welcome poster, and food samples that will be given out as thank-you’s for participation. To ensure the survey itself goes smoothly, we also need to do test-runs of the survey with our friends and family. This will help us determine the timing of the survey, whether the responses will answer our inquiry questions, and whether the audio recording device works well outdoors. Adjustments will be made to the survey and methodology as needed. Lastly, to ensure the cricket food samples work out, we will bake a test batch for each sample and taste them ourselves. This way we can make any necessary modifications to the recipes before purchasing all the ingredients.
Collaboration, teamwork, and continued communication will help us to complete all of these tasks in a timely manner. We have a detailed project timeline in our proposal that we are using to delegate tasks amongst the group. We are each expected to report back to the group if a dilemma is reached or once a task is completed. The group will then provide feedback on the results and work together to make any necessary additions or modifications. However, we’re all excited to try out the food samples, so that part will be carried out as a group. We’ll let you know next time how they tasted!
And hopefully you didn’t forget about….
Q: What do you call a fly without wings?
A: A walk!
References
Johnson, S. [RiverheadBooks]. (2010, September 17). Where good ideas come from [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NugRZGDbPFU
Milliken, F. J., Bartel, C. A., & Kurtzberg, T. R. (2003). Diversity and creativity in work groups: A dynamic perspective on the affective and cognitive processes that link diversity and performance. In P. B. Paulus & B. A. Nijstad (Eds.), Group creativity: Innovation through collaboration (pp. 32-62). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.