School: SCIS-Hongqiao
    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, Sonia, Won Hee, Ju Eun, Diana

E-Mail contact:

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

1. Description of Our Team

Sonia is 15 years old, and is really artistic. In this project, part of her job was to design the website. Thanks to her, we could make a fabulous design for our site. She is a hard-working student, who gets recognized by teachers. In the future, she wants to be a fashion designer who can be famous and known by people all over the world. Won Hee is a 14 year old girl who is an athlete and loves to dance. Also, she always tries her best to get the best possible results. Part of her job was to handle anything that has to do with technology in this project. In the future, she wants to be a part of the society so that she can help poor people, donate to them, and work her best at her major field of study. Ju Eun is a 15 year old girl who has incredible musical senses. In Doors to Diplomacy, she took charge of creating the homepage. She is well-preparing and always works hard at school for her future. Diana is a 14 year old girl who is artistic and Korean, but has lived in foreign countries for half of her life. Her job in this project was to do the writing. She loves Science, and as a result, she wants to be a veterinarian or a psychotherapist in the future. To do this project, we joined together because our interests were the same and we wanted to learn and know more about this issue. Also, we divided up all of the different jobs depending on what each of us are pretty confident in. Although we did our best, Mrs. Brill, who is our only adult coach, gave us valuable advice and led us towards making this wonderful website.

2. Summary of Our Project

Our Doors to Diplomacy Web Project is about animal cruelty, which is happening in the world right now. We chose this topic because we wanted to tell people and make them recognize how serious this problem is. We divided it into two issues from the topic. One is about animal cruelty of mink coats and other fur coats, and how many innocent animals suffer to give us their fur. Another one is about how animals are raised, the seriousness of them getting diseases, and what we are eating. For these two issues, we suggested various solutions so people can put themselves in action in one of those two issues.

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:4-6

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):

We had internet access problems while we were doing this problem. Internet is pretty slow at our school because everyone uses it. Therefore, the uploading speed was really slow and sometimes, an error popped up. Because of this problem, we had to do most of our work at home and had to meet up several times. Also, because of the firewall in China, we were blocked from several sites. Those were our difficulties while we were doing this project.

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

Our team had a few troubles throughout this project. The biggest problem was limited time. Due to a big load of homework and projects from other subjects, it was hard to concentrate on diplomacy. All four of us also had totally different schedules everyday, so we mostly worked individually. To save time, we met each other at lunch time and break to discuss things about our website. Though the time given wasn’t enough, it all worked well. Another problem we had were technical difficulties and internet access. Since we live in China, some websites are blocked. Finding videos without youtube was especially difficult. We finally downloaded some videos from Chinese and Korean sources. Then, we faced another problem. The file’s format wasn’t accepted in the wix web page, which is the site we used to create our website. Therefore, we chose to just link the sources of the videos to a snapshot of it.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

Basically, our purpose of this project is to let people know what is happening to the animals that not only live with us, but also the animals we eat and wear. Some animals are not being treated as living beings, but as a product. Our group is working towards the goal of protecting the rights of these poor animals through our project. We all believe that our project will bring changes to people’s minds and to our society little by little.

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

In our school, SCIS, there are a few standards, such as communication, knowledge, high level thinking, behavior, learning attitude, and global and community appreciation. I think our team did a good job in trying to communicate with the audience about animal cruelty. By working on this project, we learned a lot of facts that we didn't know before we started. Since it was a topic we all wanted to do, it wasn't that hard to write more than just 'save the animals', or 'they are not treated fairly.' Throughout the whole project, we had a positive attitude towards writing and participating in fighting for animal rights. Through this site, we hope to let a bigger audience know the truth behind what we eat and wear. In these ways, the Internet is very effective. With old, traditional methods, we would have not been able to publish online for the whole world to see. Therefore, I hope future projects are done through the computer.

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

The mainly used and most valuable tool for us was our computers; for research. These computers are Apple Macbooks, and we each have one. If we were in America or Korea, we would've tried to at least borrow a book on animal cruelty, but we are in China, making it almost impossible. For the site, we used a site called [wix.com], which was where we made our site. However, foreign sites like [naver.com] helped us figure out some cases on animal cruelty. Also another site we shouldn't forget, [yahoo.com] was our source for most of our pictures. In our computers, different apps like pages and language translators helped us greatly with the writing.

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

We first became 'ambassadors' when we started this project. Our goal was simple; to raise awareness of animal cruelty. In our opinion, we did fairly well in trying to explain to others that what we see isn't always true. As we worked on this project, we got to talk to the people around us and tell them the facts they don't know. Even though animal fur has been a problem for a long time, many people didn't think they'd kill animals without painkillers or euthanasia. Also, because we humans take meat for granted, the subject of cruelty to farm animals was pretty new to everyone. Now, our site will show the world what the problem is and why we need to stop it. Peer reviews and advice from parents and teachers helped improve our site greatly, and many of them told us that our site was very good. To promote our site in the future, we think participating in campaigns and spreading the word of animal cruelty will help.

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

I think our web site will make people aware of animal cruelty once again. Some people are aware of this issue, but most people aren't. People in my community have learned the seriousness of it through our web pages. We suggested some solutions to make people help these animals. Teachers in our school and other students have looked at our web pages, and they said that they all realize that this issue is still going on and the animals need our help. This web site will help the people who have looked at our web pages be more aware of animal cruelty and think about animal rights.

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

Like other Doors to Diplomacy teams, we also needed lots of advice and help to complete our web pages. Many people were involved in our Doors to Diplomacy team as helpers and volunteers. Among them, the most helpful person was Mrs. Brill, our english teacher in SCIS. Because she is our english teacher, it was very easy to talk to her and ask for some advice or help. She gave lots of advice, and helped us make our web pages more perfect. Also, she kept checking our work, which kept us in the right pace. We all want to give her a great big thank you for helping us and giving advice to us. There are also other people who have helped us, and we just want to say thank you to all of them.