These were always annoying / awful for me, and everyone I've talked to IRL feels similarly. But surely there are people who really liked group projects in middle school / high school. Did you like them? Why or why not?
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How did you feel about group projects in middle school and high school?
- Thread starter Deleted member 19844
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OP
OP
Yes! The best was when projects could be split up into individual components that we could each focus on.
The only good thing is they prepare you for the godawful task of going group projects later in life.
I always ended up doing all the work. It was kinda my fault cuz I was a control freak but also my partners faults cuz they were lazy af
yeah same here, I can't remember ever doing a group project until I went to college.
I never had a problem with them. The reality is that you're probably going to work in groups and with other people in industry. Better get used to the ups and downs sooner than later
In college we had a group project to do a debate on a constitutional law topic and one of the people in the opposing side tried to screw is over when we chose the topic by framing it in such a way that all he had to do was argue stare decisis instead of rearguing the initial case. At least I feel like he was being sneaky and it annoyed my at the time.
Debate time comes and he completely freezes up and doesn't really get anything out of his mouth. I enjoyed that a bit.
Debate time comes and he completely freezes up and doesn't really get anything out of his mouth. I enjoyed that a bit.
OP
OP
I'm definitely interested in hearing why if you'd be willing to share.
they were fine. i have a huge tendency to procrastinate if it only hurts myself, so not wanting to let the team down actually made me put in effort and do good work. i had so many group projects in university, and only once thought that not all group mates pulled their weight
OP
OP
At the time, hated them. Now I recognize that they're important to get individuals used to working in a group setting. Being able to identify group weakness, who will drag their feet, and delegating tasks in a meaningful way will make you a better employee / business owner wherever you end up.
It is essential that kids learn as early as possible exactly how lazy, stupid, and disappointing most people around them are at any given time. A hard working kid will realize early that they have different work ethics than their peers. The leaders in middle school class projects will be the leaders of tomorrow.
I usually did most of the work but thinking back I only remember the good groups (mostly science labs)
I always tried to group up with the kids that didn't give a shit over the kids that wanted to take advantage of me doing all the work and it worked out well
You were my favorite kind of group member
I was more than happy to do all the other work if I didn't have to present
I always tried to group up with the kids that didn't give a shit over the kids that wanted to take advantage of me doing all the work and it worked out well
You were my favorite kind of group member
I was more than happy to do all the other work if I didn't have to present
one time in high school, we had to do a group presentation on some book. I was extremely anti social and my teacher paired me with other anti social people in the class. We planned it so one of us would skip class each day so we didn't have to do the presentation. We waited to all show up till we had completely moved onto a different subject not even related. And then the teacher made us still present like a week and a half after everyone else had already done it lol. It was a trainwreck because we didnt have anything planned for a presentation
I enjoy working with others. It is a skill that has served me well both in school and in my career. More often than not group work presents an opportunity to see things from a different perspectives and forces you to listen, learn to compromise or at the very least learn to read people. Obviously it is less enjoyable when other group members are not into it but generally speaking people are highly opinionated and it doesn't take much to get even the biggest introvert to open up and share what they think. Also, I looked at group projects no different than team building activities in sports. Furthermore, it keeps me from slacking off because I don't want to let others down.
In high school I was in a bunch of AP classes but among those classmates, and it was pretty much the same gaggle of kids in every class, I was generally considered the dumbest. So when it came to schoolyard pickins it was basically the same in reverse that those kids probably got in gym class: some group would get "stuck with me" and be all disappointed. They were also very well off, at least to me, so had lots of free time to devote to random get togethers to work on whatever project. When I couldn't attend one owing to having to work or something, this of course reinforced their view that I was a bum; and the rushed work I was able to do reinforced their view that I was stupid. So yeah I hated them and they were always a big knock on my self esteem.
I never had an issue with them. Sometimes I did all the work, other times I coasted, but I seemed to always get top grades in group projects.
I would end up doing them with the teacher since no one would pick me to be in their group when they were self assigned. It made it easier though because she would just give me all the answers lol
lol this is me. Ngl I was a bad team member more than I'd like to admit, but if you need someone to talk for 5+ minutes I'm your man
I can't remember doing any memorable group projects in middle school or high school. I did a ton at university while I was getting my CS degree though. Most of the time I was in a group where people (generally) pulled their weight, but the last group project I was in was probably split 60/35/5 between three of us (I was the 35%, not the 60%). Both of us had to pick up the slack from the 5% person, and I was already taking 5 other classes that semester so that wasn't very fun.
Not a big fan. They train slackers who inevitably have a future in management that all it takes to get a team project done is to pile all the work on the overachiever(s) in the group.
They were generally okay in MS and HS because there was a good chance one of your friends were in your group, or at least classmates that you're pretty well acquainted with. In college though, group projects suck because it's a bunch of random people you usually aren't familiar with and everyone is kind of doing their own thing. It's a totally different vibe doing group projects in college. I had a group project in a criminal justice course where one dude ignored the rest of us and tried to show up on the presentation date without putting in any work at all. We told the professor about him and the dude flopped hard during the presentation because he didn't know what he was supposed to do, meanwhile the rest of us got A's. It was hilarious, but it could've also gone terribly if we hadn't told the professor ahead of time. So yeah, group projects can suck in general if you have people like that who don't put in the work and drag down the rest of the group.