School: Shanghai Community International School
    Shanghai, Shanghai, China

4 students, ages 14-15 worked together to complete this Doors to Diplomacy project on March 7, 2012. They have participated in Doors to Diplomacy in the following year(s): 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012

Classes and Teachers: Amy Brill, Tim, Victor, Matthew, Marvin

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://scischina.org/

1. Description of Our Team

The four members of our Doors To Diplomacy team are Matthew, Victor, Marvin, and Tim. Marvin is 14 and is from China. Victor is 14 and is BBC (British born Chinese). Matthew is 15 and is both Chinese and American. Tim is 15 years old and is from the Netherlands. We are four really good friends from SCIS (Shanghai Community International School) and decided to work together for the Doors to Diplomacy project. We are all very different individuals so it was a great idea to combine our minds together to create a website on 'health and environment awareness'.

2. Summary of Our Project

All of our group members live in Shanghai, China. As a lot of people are hopefully aware, there is quite a lot of pollution in China. Although it's not as bad in Shanghai compared to some other places, pollution is one of the things that we, as people, can do something in order to decrease the amount. We live with pollution every day and the sky in Shanghai is almost never blue. This is why we decided to do our project on Health and the Environment. Our website is a site that let's people know about the effects of pollution in our Health and Environment topic. We explain how the pollution is created and what it does to our health. We also include something on what we think might happen in the future. There is also a page that provides some brief information on the things that we can do to reduce the amount of pollution that enters our atmosphere every day.

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):

All of our group members have wireless connection to the internet. We have internet at school as well as our homes. The internet in our school is usually really slow. Because of this, it took longer for our webpages to load and for our work to get done. We did most of our work at home. One problem that all of us encountered with the internet is that the government of China has blocked several websites. We weren't able to access some sources of information, though we did find other sources and everything worked out fine.

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

The main problem we had with our project was building our website. At first, we had a hard time using the website that we chose to make our site. After spending more time on Wix and getting used to the site, we had a much easier time making the site. We overcame the obstacle by just being patient and looking at all the features of the site.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

Participating in Doors to Diplomacy showed the members of our group the serious problems caused by pollution. Our community learned about why we need to change our ways and protect the environment.

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

Our goal for the Doors to Diplomacy project was the provide as much necessary information about the 'health and environment' as possible. We wanted to let the people become aware of the environmental issue around the world. China has a terrible environment due to all the carbon dioxide emissions and pollution created by factories. We wanted to address this issue to the world as it is harming our world and believe that it should be resolved by protecting the environment. We learned how to create a real website (not like iWeb) and use some of our technological skills to change its layout or put some other ideas of our own into the web. By doing this project, we learned A LOT about this category of the health and environment because all the information really startled us, making us realizing how harmful human activities can be and how much it is affecting our natural environment. Our group is now aware of the reasons why our school community participates in numerous charity events as well as environmental organizations. It is because our community is full-on aware of this issue and would like to contribute by protecting our environment.

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

We used a couple of information tools and technologies to help us complete our Doors to Diplomacy project. Most of the information we utilized were from the internet. Today, internet is one of the most powerful technologies in the world because we are able to find out any information we want to by simply typing a few keywords on Google, Yahoo or Wikipedia. Sometimes, the information may be from an unreliable source, which is what we, as researchers have to look out for. We have to make sure that the source is trustworthy in order to be able to use the information for our project. The other tool we used was telephones, which we used to communicate with each other sometimes. Telephone usage didn't actually complete our project but we needed to call each other in order to meet up or create some time outside of school to finish the project.

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

Our group hasn't really considered being 'ambassadors' for our Doors to Diplomacy project, but a good way to inform people about our website is by first taking small steps, which is by telling people in our school to read our website. Because this issue is global and is affecting everyone around the world, millions of people are already trying to save the environment by saving electricity or saving water. One great way to let our website become well-known or get a lot more views is by winning the competition. Even though the chances may be slim, we would like everyone to read our websie.

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

We have always believed our project will have an effect on people in our local community as we spread the word of our website. Our group thinks that it would change people's minds about not caring for the environment, especially where we located, in Shanghai where pollution and clean air is a big thing. Our website has informed many people including, our teachers and peers in school, the parents of our group members and those people telling their friends about it so it would hopefully spread around the whole community . Actually after some time our site was published, we started receiving emails responses about our site and telling us about themselves and even how they support us, stating how after seeing our site and more reading on our topic, it has changed the way they do things everyday. We have made connections to some of the people who has contacted us making plans to start making posters and handouts to be seen and handed out around our district. Also we are designing T-shirts which would spread environmental concern while the funds would go to charity. We are proud of what we have accomplished from this project in our community and we wish the influence would spread through the whole city of Shanghai.

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

Our project involved a few essential people in school and outside school involving a few of our teachers, some our our group member's relatives and the people in Shanghai who have contacted us. We would like to give a big thanks to our english teacher Mrs. Brill for showing us the path and reviewing our website. Also to mention our social studies teacher Mr. Rodabaugh for giving us hints and tips and thank you to all of the peer editors that checked our website. Our group would like to thank our own parents for giving guidance to us throughout this project and an uncle of one of our group member's help with our website design. Lastly we own a major thanks to those people of Shanghai who have supported us and helped us with the things related to the community. Without these people, our project would not have been as great as it is. Thank you all.