One of the things I heard about studying in Sweden before coming was that Swedish Universities have a way of ensuring the students are engaged in projects that ensure they work in groups a lot. Is this true? Absolutely!
From the first week of lectures at KTH, we had to start creating groups for various seminars, laboratories, presentation and project. I have a group for laboratory and we chose ourselves again for another course in which we have to prepare for various seminar presentations. In the first period, I had to work together for a course that was solely based on presentation and report writing but in groups of two or three. In this second period, I have had to spend so much time with a particular group for a project that would be complete December 5th. For everyone in the programme, this last group has been the most demanding.
In the past two weeks, waking up and setting out to work in one of these teams has been the order of the day. I had a seminar, presentation, project deadline and the Armada event. The most interesting about these groups is the diversity. None of us knew each other before starting out and then, we all come together and achieve our set goal and the beautiful thing, I look back at all the meetings and see moments of pure laughter and fun!
Personally, I have learnt a lot of things from my various groups; ranging from technical skills to the lifestyle and culture of various countries. Also, the most intriguing thing which these group tasks have indirectly done for everyone in my programme is to build an accommodating and caring character in each person. Presently, everyone lives to see the next person be and do better. This translates to students helping each other understand their assignments so that they beat the never-ending deadlines. You see other students taking out time out of their busy schedule to ensure the next person understands a topic. This extends beyond the classroom as you see people planning weekend activities or helping out with other daily-life activities.
Below, are pictures from the three teams I mentioned in this post:
