School: Tec of Monterrey, Campus State of Mexico
    Mexico City, Mexico, Mexico

5 st students, ages all are 18 years old worked together to complete this CyberFair project on March 9, 2003. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): none

Classes and Teachers: Teacher: Prof. Víctor Garza. Coaches: Margarita Tortajada, Cecilia Tortajada, Asit Biswas, Miguel Álvarez. Students: Gerardo, Rodrigo, Andrea, César, Oscar

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://www.cem.itesm.mx

1. Description of Our Team

Link to the description of our team: http://members.fortunecity.com/andariel1/Narrative%20(e).htm

2. Summary of Our Project

Art is basic for human beings. Communication, feelings, pleasure and even death is depicted in it. However, art can also promote peace, a peace and understanding that this world needs so much. This website is being planned with the objective of encouraging a new conscience, a new view towards the importance that tolerance plays in the preservation of peace. We plan to focus ourselves in the important artistic movements and actions that have worked in favor of humanitarian causes against the war in Iraq, and the impact they had in cultural interchange between nations. Art is a mirror of the society that creates it, so we also plan to make our country known by presenting the reflection of this mirror.

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:dial-up modem

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

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

In general, we didn’t face very difficult problems. The first big problem was that we all had good ideas for the project, so we had to decide which the best of them were. After we solve this first problem, we had to overcome a second one that was a consequence of the first one: After we chose the topic, we realized that it was very extensive so we entered into a new discussion about how we were going to synthesize them. A very important difficulty that we had to overcome was time, since we had a lot of projects, homework and exams. Finding a specific moment was hard and we needed to sacrifice some personal activities. Another problem we had to overcome was the organization of the children for our campaign, in which we asked them to make drawings about their thoughts regarding peace and war.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

It was an invaluable opportunity for us as students to acquire new knowledge about our community, the world and us. This will not only be useful in our academic lives but it will also make us broad-minded people.

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

Our doors to diplomacy content standards were, basically, those stipulated by the rubric of “Doors to Diplomacy” committee, as well as the extra information provided by our teachers. Background, introduction and conclusions, precise content and credible sources were our main content standards. The educational system of our country was not directly involved, since most of our research was independent, although we do could realize that the Mexican educational system is not working as it should, because we find out that most of our people is ignorant in matters of artistic expression and culture. The requirements of our school were not only met but also surpassed, due to the academic impact that this project would have our grades. Our role as cultural ambassadors was met due to the extensive investigation and the presentation of conclusions we had to do. Also, the drawing campaign that we organized helped us to become effective agents in matters of change and improvement.

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

For the first part of the project we didn’t use a lot of tools. First of all, we used our local computers (5 laptops in total) to access the webpage of “Doors to Diplomacy” and to know the evaluation policies. After this, we continued with our investigation via Internet and a whole variety of books related to art subjects as well as newspapers and magazines. We also used some of our experiences to complete our information. Things we have lived through in other countries and with different people. We also had interviews with our helpers and coaches.

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

We, as Mexican students, worked hardly in this project to give a proper and faithful image of our nation’s culture to international eyes. Every movement required by the contest was performed under our culture’s principles in order to preserve a commitment with both our society and the worldwide audience. Artistic movements of inspiring intentions are abundant in our surrounding environment. However, to contact the leaders heads of each one of them is a task that must follow prudent steps. A meticulous strategy is needed, so a strong relationship can be maintained with the representing people of each movement. Although not all the people that are directly involved in some movements could be contacted personally, we did established powerful nexus with wise characters, whose knowledge about these issues played a vital role in this process. In fact, all the information present in our web page comes either from our personal investigation programs and preexistent knowledge or from the interviews applied to professionally capacitated people. This people include some professors from our high school and relatives from our families. Their devotion concerning humanistic manifestations catalyzed their volunteer collaboration. Our web page is, actually, a representation of human cooperation. Starting from the investigation resources, including a contemplation of infant ideas about the topic, we reach the equally valuable technical support. In addition, the necessary but joyful interaction with the members of our society improved our conception and relationship with it. We are now more interested in finding out things about our national territory, its implications and capacities. The goal of the project was achieved just by mentioning a simple fact: the feedback that our culture gave us was more productive than any other getting-to-know method.

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

Several objectives were covered as an impact to our community. To begin with, we are willing to develop a new artistic conscience among kids about the latest war’s issues via the drawing technique. This will take place in the Centro Escolar del Tepeyac school, where boys and girls will be able to express themselves the best way they can: through art. We are expecting to make an effort so that Mexican youth will reconsider everything about the terrible implications that war may have. The participation on this project will also plan to impact community by transforming ourselves into effective cultural agents. The interviews, the information and its final presentation is expected to be available for everyone interested in knowing art from the international point of view. Sometimes, Mexicans are not aware of the immense richness of their traditions and artistic expressions, so we also plan to inform our community about the worldwide impact that we are having. Our people need to know what is happening. Teachers, investigators, foreign members of our community, students, everyone is involved, in one way or another, in the artistic activities that we are showing as the influence Mexico has at global levels.

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

Several people were involved as helpers or volunteers in the creation of our project. Some of our helpers were our Art History teacher; Victor Garza Joa, our Literature professor and writer; Miguel Álvarez. We also had the support of our coaches; Margarita Tortajada; Chief Resercher for the Centro Nacional de las Artes (National Artistic Center) of México. Asit K. Biswas; President of the Third World Centre for Water Management. Cecilia Tortajada Quiroz; Vicepresident of the Third World Centre for Water Management. Some of our volunteers were the children that participated in our drawing campaign and the leading teacher Lucy Muedano de Anaya. We also had some technical helpers for our web page such as: Alejandro Olvera, and Thania Gómez Escudero.