School: Hualong number 4 middle school
    Xining, Qinghai, China

4 students, ages 14-17 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on March 15, 2011. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): 2009

Classes and Teachers: Jin xingxing

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://qh000040.edu.17888.com

1. Description of Our Community

Hualong hui nationality is located in the east of Qinghai province , borders Minhe hui and tu nationality autonomous county , south of the Yellow river , facing Dunhua sala nationality autonomous county and Huangnan tibet nationality autonomous prefecture , to the west of Huangzhong Town and Guide Town in Hainan tibet nationality autonomous prefecture , to the nprth of Pingan Town and Yuedu Town . It spans 98.5km from east to the west and 48.5km from south to the north , covering an area of 2740 aquare kilometers with a population of 230,000(in 2004) . Hualong hui nationality harbors about 13 nationalitie , including zang , han , sala , with hui living mainly in the east , covering about 52% of the total population .

2. Summary of Our Project

Although many mothers work or open restaurants in other provinces , you can still feel the mother sense when you walk into a rural family in towns or counties . The goal of our project was to show those personal handicrafts from mothers that were different from those folk arts but still shows the arts of rural mothers – mother’s art . We could enable more people to know those art that were shown by mothers in daily life directly , provide more mothers with the chance to carry forward those art .

3. Our Computer and Internet Access

A. Percentage of students using the Internet at home:none

B. Number of workstations with Internet access in the classroom:none

C. Connection speed used in the classroom:dedicated connection

D. Number of years our classroom has been connected to the Internet:4-6

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

Votage in our school were not stable as school did not equip transformers . The network connection speed was usually about more than 20KB though with a 2MB broadband which could not match low local telecom technologu and low computer configuration . We had our project done mainly in the computer room in students’ leisuring time as they did not have computers at home since they mainly lived in rural areas .

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

Based on our theme , the main content of our project was to show mother’s art . However , mothers had many busy wrok to do since ther were the main labor force at home resulted from the situation that many male labor forces were working outside . Therefore , mothers had time to do handicrafts during the slack farming season . Thanks to their understanding , we had our project proceeded as they set aside their time to show us their handicrafts . Another problem would be the limited time . We had many information to collect and classify but we overcame it with our concerted minds , common dedication and guidance from our teacher Jin . Finally ,we finished our work .

5. Our Project Sound Bite

We had more and better topic selection and information collection , including pictures that coule better show mothers and large amount of peperwork, since this was our second time to attend this comprtition . But our headteacher was not willing to let us join this competition as he was afraid that we may lag behind in study in light of our student role . We were even caught in the trouble of collision between our guiding teacher and our headteacher . We finished our project after help from school leaders by coordinating conflicts between them frequently .

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

Through this project , we planed to lead more students to know about life of mothers by showing them our website on the computers in the computer room after finishment . We were encouraged and complimented by students and were so proud that many students hoped to join us . The information class teaching was also upgraded since improvement of computer operation of our team members promoted the vitality of other students to learn information courses . After attending this international Cyber Fair competition , we not only improved our ability in writing and design but smooth process of educational and teaching activities in school .

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

Hardwares : computer , digital camera , USB , notebook Softwares : Photoshop , Microsoft Word , Internet Explorer , ACDSee8 , Ciss Network : E-mails , Online Forum , CISS , broadband

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

To do our work well ,we investageted arts of mothers in our own homes of our nationalities at the initial stage since we four came from different nationalities . But we got to nowhere since there were always stay-at-home senior citizens and children without parents who were working outside . This was a barrier for us to collect information . Mr. King inspired us that mother’s art meant daily art , since those senior citizens were eldership of mothers , they could be our core characters too . Hearing this , we got to know what we should do and knew many information after that .

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

During the project , students knew more about their mothers' arts in daily life and understood more about their mothers' hardships and endless love for family . We were amazed at the proficient skills of our mothers who always dedicated to the farming work after seeing their paper cutting , weaving and embroidary works . We admired them so much after experiening so much wonders despite of their illiteracy . Meanwhile , we should understand our mothers better by showing them our amazing progress .

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

Thanks to the support from our school leaders , we could finish our project smoothly . Another information teacher , Han Zhizhong , also helped us a lot by offering translation for us since many people we met during the information collection process spoke Tibet languaage . Although two girls in our team were from Tibet nationality , they still had problems in interview .

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

We were so happy and felt a lot to participate into this Cyber Fair project . We were inspired and amazed at every interview . We grew from zero understanding to understanding , knowing many arts about our mothers , sharing our information with students to enable them to know mother's art too , more inportantly , they could share our joy of success . We also learnt simple pictures processing , pictures shooting with digital camers and video and webpage design in this competition . May be we were caught in the trouble of misunderstanding of our course teachers , but after coordination by Mr. king , we interviewd and classified information in our leisuring time , not influencing our study . We also knew many colorful folk culture and we learnt and were admired with arts by mothers aruond us . All in all , all that glitters is gold .