Student Presenter(s): Angad Jassal, Mike Gillespie, Alyssa Murtha, and Eric Zhao
Faculty Mentor: Nicole Calma-Rodin
School/College: Arts and Sciences, Old Westbury

This report focuses on investigating whether group work should be implemented more in education to reduce anxiety levels among students. Anxiety is a major problem for students in the classroom. According to a study done by Sato Koichi on the topic of learning languages, a student's fear of making a mistake prevents them from participating in the classroom and anxiety is negatively correlated to classroom performance (Koichi, 2003). In the current study, the participants are tasked with building a boat out of classroom materials within a time limit, while working alone or in a group. Their goal is to craft a boat that can hold as many pennies as possible, whilst keeping the boat afloat. We will be measuring participants’ anxiety level after their experience via a survey, to assess whether the participants who worked in groups differed from those who worked individually. The predicted outcome of the experiment would be that those working in groups would feel less anxious than those working individually. If working in groups reduces anxiety, more group work should be implemented into the classroom. This can motivate students to tackle challenging tasks and have a positive effect on learning. This research is relevant to society at large, as it can help teachers determine the methods they should use when assigning work.