From spending time with friends to one person doing all the work, group projects bring about mixed feelings from students, but even so, there are both positives and negatives to the topic.
Group projects are important in communicating and collaborating with others. However, it can be a struggle when the group members aren’t talking or agreeing on decisions for the project. “Sometimes, there is miscommunication and it messes up a lot, so it’s important to know how to communicate with other people,” freshman Semra Doğanay said.
Another concern that is brought up when participating in group projects is efficiency. Even though there are multiple people working on the assignment, someone can fall back or procrastinate, which leads to the project being incomplete. When doing a solo project you’re not responsible for others.
There are also times when the project workload is distributed unequally, usually with one person doing all the work and the other members taking credit for it. “It can be annoying when the group just doesn’t do anything and I have to do all the work,” freshman Marie Tevosyan said.
Students can get put in groups with peers they don’t like or don’t work well with, which causes them to dislike group projects. If group members don’t get along, it can lead to the assignment not being done as well. “I think it’s important for students to feel comfortable with who is in their group with them as they’re more likely to share the amount of work needed to be done,” honors biology and honors forensics teacher Miranda Custer said.
On the contrary, working alone can feel overwhelming, especially with big projects. Being in a group for a project can lessen the load because the work is split up among different people. “It’s nice how you’re not alone. You have people around you to help you and stuff,” Tevosyan said.
Working in a group brings about different points of view and perspectives from different people. Students share their own ideas and it can be a good thing, as students learn from one another. “My favorite project to assign is to biology students at the end of the school year where they choose a topic related to climate change and they have to debate against another group of students,” Custer said.
Group projects can be especially fun when one has friends to work on it with. It makes tough classes more exciting and it can be easier to work with someone you know and get along with. “I love spending time with friends and it also means that I don’t have to do as much work,” freshman Andrew Robinson said.
As much as people might not like group projects, it can be an important part of life and future workplace. Group projects can teach communication skills and how to work with people who can be difficult. “Learning how to work with other individuals to solve a problem, whether you like your group or not, is an important life skill to learn for life after high school so I think they’re extremely valuable,” Custer said.
