The Egg Drop Contest

In this class activity my group had to carefully plan how best to utilize 9 straws and masking tape to create a structure that would protect an egg being dropped from 10 feet high.

Step 1: We acknowledged that we had 25 minutes to plan what we were going to do. This step probably took the most out of our 25 minutes. We started brainstorming ideas on how to protect the egg. After considering various shapes and designs we settled on forming a mattress-like barrier object to place on the bottom of the egg.

Step 2: Since we did not have the actual straws in our possession yet we had to estimate the dimensions of the straws. We figured that we would use about 3-4 straws in forming the barrier. We also estimated that we could get about 3 layers out of these straws. We used a balled up piece of paper to simulate the egg's dimensions.

Step 3: Once we finished designing the barrier we had to come up with potential scenarios that would foil our design. One thing we considered was that the egg might roll after landing and so the sides needed to have some protection too. So we added something in our design to make up for that.

Step 4: We did not really assign specific job roles to our team members, everyone was allowed to contribute in whichever way.

Step 5: After we planned for 25 minutes we had 10 minutes to implement our design. This phase was really hectic as the 10 minutes seemed to go by so fast. We were able to finish before the deadline, and our group was the first to go. Our egg cracked, unfortunately. Whomever dropped the egg said that the egg survived initially but bounced and hit a weakspot.

Afterthoughts: I think our group did a good good overall. Our design might have succeeded 3 times out of 5, but we will never know. One thing we could have improved on was Step 4. We should have assigned specific roles to our members. That would have saved us time in the implementation part.

Experience In Japan

I was born in New York City and have lived here all my life. The first time I ever left this country was when I was 17. I was accepted into a foreign exchange program to go to Okinawa, Japan. You could say that I experienced culture shock, but in a good way. The fact that everything was so different just made me even more interested and observant. Japan's culture is very different from ours. One thing I noticed when I was going to the high school over there was that there was a big sense of unity among the students. For example, all the students wear school uniforms. Another thing is that they take care of the school by themselves. Students will stay after class to sweep the floors, mop, clean the bathrooms and etc. Even I had to partake in these duties some days.
There were also smaller differences that I had to learn, like general manners that were different. For example, you always see people eating on the run in New York. In Japan it is considered disrespectful to eat while walking, you should only eat while sitting down. I just had to learn these little differences over time. I enjoyed my experience in Japan, and I would like to visit other countries and learn how they differ from America too.

First Post

My name is Asif Baig. I am a junior at Baruch College, starting my third semester here. I am in the Zicklin School of Business majoring in Computer Information Systems. This Management class seems interesting so far and I am anxious to learn more about this subject.