<p>This semester is my first semester in a lab course. As weeks pass, and experiments are conducted, I'm feeling more and more exasperated by the fact that I just might be the most competent person in my group. Now, I do not mean to come off as arrogant, but it really is frustrating when something you've said at the beginning of the experiment is disregarded, your lab group proceeds to handle the experiment the wrong way, and in the end say "Hey, you were right!" over and over again. Here are just two scenarios:</p>
<p>Scenario 1: In this lab we were working with simple circuits. Nice and easy plug and chug equations. We were finding the total resistance of a circuit and used the well known equation 1/R1 + 1/R2+...+ 1/Rn = 1/RTotal. When it came down to solve this, the members of my group insisted that the sum of these numbers was the total resistance of the circuit. I insisted back that the sum was in fact not the total resistance and that we must solve for it. I tried to explain it algebraically, but I got nowhere. In the end, our TA had to come over and host an algebra lesson.</p>
<p>Scenario 2: One day, our lab required the use of a computer program. Of our group, another girl and I were the only two who knew how to use the program. I was the only one, of those who knew the program, willing to use it. By the time the girl and I got the data, another girl in our group started entering in the data in the program. She insisted being the one who entered in the data. I, not wanting to waste anymore time, tried to tell her what to do, but it wasn't working. She didn't know where the keys were or how to navigate the program. In the end, I had to aggressively talk her out of the chair so that I could enter in the data.</p>
<p>Many times my labs leave me more frustrated than anything. I'm a leader at heart. If I find myself fit to do so, I will. If someone is more qualified, I step back. But...I don't see anyone else more qualified in my group. I just encounter bullheadedness matched with a lack of experimental procedures and familiarity with concepts. They don't seem to understand the effects of not being accurate with gathered numbers (i.e. dropping significant figures and rounding off numbers to varying decimal places)...not understand the importance of weighing the actual tools your using in the experiment if your results are dependent on weight (i.e. calorimeters and thermo experiments). I don't want to strong arm the lab. Team work is important. I don't appreciate it when I am unable to participate or am left behind without understanding something and would hate to do that to someone else, but I don't want to keep wasting time with triple thinking things that should require little to no thought. </p>
<p>No...you cannot weigh ice in a can...wait a couple minutes, pour it in to another can leaving water in the original container, use the mass previously collected, and expect it to be the same.
No...a capacitor's voltage is not supposed to be going up once you unplug it from it's energy source.
No...the data you collect that varies on an independent variable does not go on the x-axis of a graph. </p>
<p>Eh...perhaps, groups just aren't my "thing"...</p>