Topic 4

Initially, our group work was quite organized. We agreed on the topic of illiteracy on day 1 after a class discussion. From then onwards, I took charge and brainstormed sub-topics and delegated them for us to research individually; [Team member] searched about the causes of the issue whereas I focused on the consequences. This method was effective as we could gather a considerable amount of information in a short period of time without any uncertainty as to who would research what. It was also useful as we realized early on that our issue was much more complex than we had thought and targeting specifically female illiteracy would allow for more focused, nuanced perspectives, and thus more interesting solutions. As for communication, most of our in-person meetings were in school rather than outside of school due to COVID risks. However, in between classes we talked and called frequently on WhatsApp which was sufficient enough to let us clarify our perspectives and keep track of each other's individual progress on our presentations.

However, the third COVID wave and closure of schools greatly hindered our productivity. Not only were we both irregular during online classes but there were many instances where I received late responses or none at all. In fact, the majority of the time I was the one who reached out, which became more frustrating as time passed as it felt like I was the only one contributing. For example, when it came to differentiating our solutions, it was me that suggested both of our perspectives instead of [Team member] speaking up as he was having trouble coming up with his own ideas. Although taking the initiative at the start was a strength of mine, eventually, it was me that ended up carrying the burden of most of our research, which led to many all-nighters and thus lower quality work. To avoid similar situations again I should be more assertive when it comes to the completion of work and not compromise my own well-being for others' unreliability. This would not only improve our efficiency but also give us some well-needed motivation.

While working on our final team solution, one of our team’s strengths was we were thoughtfully able to compromise whenever our ideas clashed. Thus, we had almost no arguments and work was slow but smooth. For example, despite the improved safety of bicycles that I talked about, [Team member] insisted that my solution wasn’t effective as girls riding bikes alone are still vulnerable and could be harmed. Eventually, we both agreed that the situation might not ever be 100% safe and I introduced a modification in which girls in a community would map the safest route to school and then travel in groups which is less risky than going alone. Another concern I raised was regarding the scope of [Team member]’s solution, which was from a religious lens and focused on raising awareness about female education to eliminate regressive attitudes- why should this only be limited to masjids and Islamic TV channels? I suggested that different means of raising awareness such as social media, radio, and other TV channels could reach a wider audience over a longer period of time which is more effective, and thus we included it as part of our team solution. Finally, we added another change regarding the implementation of our solutions, which was to prioritize cities with the lowest literacy rates first to make a bigger impact where it's most needed.

Before my research, I assumed that barriers to female education were merely due to a lack of funding and conservative mindsets in some parts of the world- however, after finishing the project I have a much clearer understanding of how complex this issue really is. Not only have I learned about how factors such as distance to school, menstruation, textbook bias, and even something as seemingly insignificant as household chores affect girls’ lives, but I have also realized how all these issues are interlinked and lead back to negative attitudes toward girls going to school. Perhaps this is one of the reasons I was quite skeptical about [Team member]’s solution at first. I thought it would take generations to even make a dent in a mindset as deeply ingrained as this one. However, evidence regarding similar successful solutions in the past in his presentation gladly proved me wrong and I am now hopeful for a more enlightened Pakistan. As for further research, we could find the literacy rates for each city, as well as age demographics (dropout rates and enrollment per grade). For this, we could consult government archives, UNESCO data, or the most recent consensus. This data would help us implement our solution more efficiently as we could know whether to target primary or secondary school children and which cities to prioritize.

The teamwork went fine. All of us made sure that each one of us knew what was expected from them and attended the zoom meetings. We learned our personal team roles by the Belbin test, due to this we can now recognize our strengths and become more tolerant of our weaknesses. we tested our team fit in a practical team building exercise.

When the introduction was finalized and the project was clear we were ready to brainstorm about the project in brainstorm sessions. During these sessions we were invited to join breakout rooms where we were given time to brainstorm. We chose our objectives, what are the goals and end product, divided team roles and appointed a scrum master. [Teacher] was our scrum master and made sure we did everything as we planned. 

After brainstorming we chose three perspectives who were related to each other, had enough valid sources and were most related to the nuclear energy debate. We chose a topic that was both interesting and controversial making the subject debatable and relevant for this project. After doing quick research on different topics that meet our acquirements we decided that the nuclear energy debate fitted the best. The tasks were divided and each one of us chose a perspective. By choosing perspective, we assured that each one of us was interested and motivated in the subject. My personal perspective was the economical aspect., it is very relatable to the economics lessons I have been following for over three years so my knowledge I have built up was very useful for further research on the perspective. We helped each other out on the perspectives as we brainstormed on the topics during the sessions so we all were aware of each perspective.

[Teacher] was our scrum master and made sure we did everything as we planned. He was in control of the time management and did a good job. Some members of the team were further than the others and were almost finished whilst the other members were still at the start of their transcript. To prevent this inconsistency within our time management in the future, we will have to re-evaluate personal progress within the group.

The best solutions after researching each perspective were presented and evaluated. All the proposed solutions were compared and so we have concluded, nuclear energy must always be safe for the environment, environmental damage must be minimized at all costs and it has to satisfy three requirements; accessibility, availability and acceptability and it must be better for the climate. Thus being renewable, ecological and non-air polluting. This can be achieved by securing safety regulations and waste disposal management. The environmental and political aspect both agreed on the solution that human work should be replaced by machines for extra safety and to be sure no mistakes are made in the construction process. The placement of nuclear power plants should be far away from society to prevent disastrous situations.

My interest and knowledge about nuclear energy, on a local and global scale, has increased. The research on the environmental, political and economical aspects changed the way I look at nuclear energy. At first, my belief was that it was extremely harmful for the environment and a very dangerous energy source, this due to things I heard in my city, Maastricht. people said that the local power plant, Tihange, is a threat to the environment of Maastricht and this formed my negative belief on nuclear energy. However, after this project I learned that nuclear energy has a great potential and is actually a good alternative energy supply that is better for the environment than fossil fuels. Environmental regulations like nuclear waste management must be made and further research on nuclear energy should be done to use nuclear energy to its optimum and replace fossil energy.