15.+Thinking+Interdependently

For my final Habit of Mind, I would like to bring into the picture how working with each of my classmates has been, over the course of the year. True development of a habit of mind would be exemplified by a learning, an improvement, and something permanent. I believe that not only did I learn how to work with my classmates, I developed my interpersonal skills throughout during this class. I was left with the fond memories of working with a lot of my peers, memories I would not have had I not taken the chance to improve my thinking interdependently. Throughout the year, I've worked with Zach, Alvin, Eric, Jaekyun, Maggie, Leonard, Jaeyoung, Leslie, Michael, Joyce and others in working on labs, and each time, my performance rose with the inclusion of another person. The synergy of working with others was not wasted, and thus, I improved.



The first lab of the year, I worked with two people I do not consider myself very close with: Maggie and Jaekyun. Though the two shared a couple of classes with me in the past, I believe I was taking a bit of a risk in working with others. However, this risk did end up paying off quite well, when I discovered their accommodation and innovation in science. Over the course of the semester, I began to also work with people at my table, such as Alvin, Eric and Zach, whom I had known beforehand. My performance beforehand with them also rose, especially because of my ability to work close with them in solving many issues presented to us. Eventually I got the opportunity to work with people I had not known almost at all at the beginning of the year. Often, they were the best lab partners. Leslie, Jaeyoung, Leonard, and Joyce to name a few people, all were extremely clever in executing labs. Labs such as the titration and heat apparatus lab, with Joyce and Jaeyoung and Leslie and Leonard, respectively, would not have gone as well as they had, had I not worked interdependently. Altogether, I felt like the need to communicate with peers and classmates was a skill I thoroughly improved on, because of the close integration of the final Habit of Mind, with my day to day Chemistry activities.