School: Hwa Chong Instituition
    Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

4 students, ages 14,15 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on March 17, 2006. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): 2006

Classes and Teachers: Mrs Chan Shu Hwee, Wei Sheng, Bryan, Dominic, Khang Wen

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://www.hwachong.edu.sg

1. Description of Our Team

The future of our world is in jeopardy, with the rise of ever-growing threats, which constantly challenge our peace and security in this modern society of ours. This sentence is the one that has brought our team together and continues to hold us strong together, different in our character, in working on our project. Bryan (14), the idealist, motivates us with his enthusiasm and keeps us going in times of adversity. Wei Sheng (14), the diligent worker, believes in achieving higher standards, always there to lend a helping hand to us, ensuring work is done. Dominic (14) keeps the morale in the team high with his jovialness and provides a multitude of perspectives with his critical nature, giving our project substance with his analysis. Khang Wen(15), wise as he is, constantly brings up points to improve on and creates our websites with his proficiency in IT. Different as we may be, but we do realize that when we work hand in hand, capitalizing on each others' strengths and covering up our weaknesses, we can achieve big. Moreover, under the guidance of our teacher-mentor Mrs. Chan, whose vast knowledge is of no doubt our advantage in our project, we are definitely even more confident in achieving our project aims. Teamwork is our key to success and our workload delegation was meticulously planned. The intensive research was to be done by all group members as the different areas of our project have been identified. Other areas like the vetting of our own work, creating of the resource package were evenly spread out among our 4 members. This project has therefore been an effective platform which was able to tap on the strengths of our members and to address our main concerns.

2. Summary of Our Project

Art of Diplomacy. An art so impactful yet underestimated, an art so impregnable yet underused. Day by day, terrorism continues to invade into our lives through its violence and aggression, instilling fear and hysteria into the masses. Day by day, the art of diplomacy is neglected. What the world sees is terrorism as a threat that can only be stopped by employing violence. What we see is that terrorism can actually be solved through the art of diplomacy. This project investigates on three areas- peacekeeping, terrorism and weapons of mass destruction and how diplomacy has an impact on all of these. In this modern time, where international security is constantly under threat, it is important to understand how diplomacy ties in and help in these problems. This is the gist of our project. We Believe in Diplomacy, the concerns of our society are all solvable through diplomacy. Peacekeeping, as difficult to carry out as it seem, can be made easier to carry out through diplomacy, as violence is avoided through conducting international relations. Terrorism, something which has struck fear into the world, need not be elevated to such a serious stage, where the Iraq war took place. The art of diplomacy could have helped in reducing the devastating state the world is in as it continues in fighting against terrorism. As weapons of mass destruction continue to threaten the delicate balance of power, it’s up to diplomacy to protect us. As the United Nations as a peacekeeping and international organization partakes in the intervention of nuclear enrichment programs, it can only be hoped that it will be for the betterment of the world and not create another slew of problems. Can we do it? Can we achieve peace and security? Our hopes are on you, Diplomacy!

3. Our Computer and Internet Access

A. Percentage of students using the Internet at home:more than 50%

B. Number of workstations with Internet access in the classroom:more than 6

C. Connection speed used in the classroom:dedicated connection

D. Number of years our classroom has been connected to the Internet:more than 6

E. Additional comments concerning your computer and/or Internet access (Optional):

Our school is sufficiently equipped with wireless broadband connection and relevant software that aided us in all aspects of the project. Each of us also has access to the computer and the internet at home and thus the transmission of information was made easier.

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

The journey of doing this project was no doubt arduous as it was paved with many new challenges and problems that we were not within what we had expected. At times, we were at loss of what to do but we did not depend on our mentor for help as we tried solving the problem ourselves as a gauge of our ability. As Confucius said “Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man how to fish and he will eat for life.” This saying encompasses our belief of learning how to overcome barriers and obstacles using our own abilities and getting up from the mistakes we make. Many a time, we would be paused in our tracks, having to deal with conflicting views or being unable to acquire required information. We paused but we did not stop. By being bearing with each other, we often managed to reach a consensus and continue working, learning from the small arguments that we may have and enriched with possible new things we have learnt. We also had to deal with schedule differences even as we were racing for time. As such, we had to be accommodating so that we could meet up and complete our project. At times, late nights were unbearable but the knowledge and expertise we have derived is truly priceless, making our sacrifices worth it. We believe in the process. The process is the most important of all, it is where we learn to fall and we get up again stronger and more resilient than ever, never taunted by the difficulties which continue to unveil.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

Peace is essential to the balance of the international system and conglomerate of nations. As John F.Kennedy puts it, 'Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures.' We Believe. Believe in Diplomacy. Believe in Global Peace. We dream of the day when problems of security would be solved and we would be able to live in peace and harmony. Believe and Dream. When you believe and contribute, goals will be achieved and the world will be one step closer to becoming a better place. So let’s stop these unhappiness and live hand in hand, all as one.

6. How did your activities and research for this CyberFair Project support standards, required coursework and curriculum standards?

The activities and research for our project supported our current course on geo politics and geo economics. It addressed the issues of terrorism and its threats to the balance of peace and security in the international context. The research supports the academic context we are learning this semester, mainly violence and terrorism. We also learned new skills such as teamwork and communication skills to facilitate the proper completion of the project. We also improved our research skills which will be useful to us in the future when writing research thesis. Through this project we also better understood the concept of diplomacy and its importance and relevance today. Through this project we also realized that not only the teachers but the students play an important role in the school community. If all students were proactive and willing to share, we would learn much more and have a better grasp on the topic then if we were to leave everything to the teacher. In the modern society, internet has been a very useful tool for interactive learning and is used in our school as a platform for self-study as more information and contrasting views are shared online giving students a global perspective of situations.

1) What information tools & technologies did you used to complete your CyberFair project?

Equipped with at least one workstation at home with dedicated broadband connection, we were able to source for valuable information from the worldwide web, where information was abundant. This was an important tool as many of us were rooted by our commitments and therefore we were unable to collate much resource from the library. Therefore, the internet was a back-up method where we could also gain upfront information from websites of the organizations that we may be working on. The next stop for valuable and accurate information was the libraries, where a massive collection of intelligent readings, which not only provided gave us new insights on our area of research but also helped to improve on the information and perspectives that we had already garnered, adding quality to our project in the process. We were also able to avoid generating views that had already been adopted by writers and therefore, we could add freshness to our project.

Through conversations verbally and online, we were able to bring our information together and reach a consensus on many of the issues which were debatable. At the same time, these conversations were mediums where we could brainstorm for fresh ideas and improve on those we had to better our project. For our website, in order to increase interactivity and to arouse the interest of visitors, we made use of tools such as Macromedia Flash to create aesthetically appealing layouts. In order to create an even lasting impact on our visitors, we have also made use of Photoshop to enhance our images so as to add to the appeal of our website.

2) In what ways did you act as "ambassadors" and spokespersons for your CyberFair project both on-line and in person.

We are acting as ambassadors on-line by spreading the message to our friends to encourage them to visit our informative website. They will also be helping in passing the message to the rest. Once the project is finalized, the link will be publicized to encourage students alike in the local community to visit the website. We will also be setting up online communities, such as forums, to allow visitors to voice out on it, which can actually reach out to the larger population as in this modern society of ours, more people are spending their time online. Besides these, we have also given an email link on the website where they can email us with their queries and we will try our best to answer them.

In person, we have not only spread the message on the importance of diplomacy, we have also practiced what we preached. We strongly believe that violence is the last and most undesirable solution to problems of any sort and strongly support the use of mediation and negotiations in solving conflicts we happen to face. Furthermore, we often and will be spread the message by addressing the importance of international security and stability through diplomacy to our friends by word through ways such as presentations, speeches and through just daily conversations, in hope that it will one day influence them and change their mindset to believe in diplomacy. As our school is highly enthusiastic in equipping students with a global perspective, we do believe that our project can be spread around in school through their publications, websites, etc. By gaining recognition through such methods, the word will spread and we will be able to spread the message, both on-line and in person.

3) What has been the impact of your project on your community?

Due to the massive coverage by the media and internet that terrorism is bad and that war and violence are methods to solve this pressing problem of terrorism, our project will offer a new perspective which is often neglected by many and therefore, making a huge difference as it will help others understand that there can be other methods to solve the major crises that challenge us in today’s society, in this case diplomacy. Through diplomatic ties, countries can avoid elevating major problems to the stage of war and thus, ensuring world peace. The government is a body that works with the people and if the population is unable to adopt a mature view on major issues, the government will often be placed in difficult positions and end up having make decisions that may have detrimental effects not only in the country but also internationally. Therefore, our project will aim to provide them with a new perspective that diplomacy has also a very important role to play in solving the worldwide concern of terrorism.

This project will serve as a platform to spread the message that we strongly believe in which is The Art of Diplomacy is crucial to peace and security in the International Community. It will be able to persuade them and get them to understand the workings of diplomacy in the global platform. This promotes the use of peaceful means of solutions in our local community. The website will be an important education portal for the simple understanding of topics illustrated. It will serve as a tool to aid in the understanding of topics during lectures.

4) How did your project involve other members of your community as helpers and volunteers?

This was a very challenging task for us as we had only started learning geo-politics at the start of the academic term. However we would like to express our thanks to the members of the community this project was able to do well. First of all, we would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to our teacher Mrs Chan Shu Hwee for her relentless patience in helping us and correcting us. She also gave valuable input during group discussions that helped us to perfect our project, often sparking us off with wise comments.

Next, we would like to thank our friends for their help. We could always count on them to help us whether it was themselves or their family members for the valuable insights they provided us from an outsider view was able to aid us in our brainstorming and intellectual discussions. We would also like to thank other members of the local academic community such as our lecturers in aiding us by helping in the obtaining of less common research material. Another “member” we would like to thank is the local newspaper which gave intellectual stimuli with the engaging articles and reviews. The librarians at our local library were also very helpful in helping us recommend reference books and scholarly journals. Lastly we would like to thank the global community for sharing their information and previous interviews over the World Wide Web which gave us insight into the past decades.

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

We made many interesting discoveries in the process of completing the project such as the relevance that diplomacy has to daily life. How it involves us and the community at large and not only exchanges between world leaders. We also discovered that there was not enough awareness of the benefits of diplomacy and thus have worked hard to push this message across in our project. We also benefited personally by getting a deeper understanding of the mechanics of the global political system and also the numerous forms of diplomatic relations that occur. It has indeed been an enriching experience for us intellectually and we feel that we have benefited much from this experience.