About Us

We are a group of 14 year old students who are interested in Astronomy.

The 4 Astronomical Team Members:

From left to right: Aik Khim, Ting Kun, Su-Chern (The Chinese High School, Singapore) and Raphael (Willetton Senior High School, Perth, Australia)

For more, also see Web Report

Mentors:

Mr. Chew Tyng Yong (The Chinese High School, Singapore)

Dr. Phil Chan (Nanyang Polytechnic Observatory, Singapore)

Contributions of the Team Members

Ting Kun (Secondary 2 student at The Chinese High School, Singapore)

His wonderful skills and creativity with Flash MX 2004 has allowed the birth of dozens of Flash movies (easily 20) which you see around this web site, including the introductory Flash. His meticulous work since the starting of January 2004 has been vital in ensuring the completion of this project. A great thinker and perfectionist, he has been crucial in ensuring the continuity of the project. Firing off ideas consistently, especially when we were bogged down in pools of problems, he helped us forge ahead with his innovation.

Always ready to help with a jovial and enthusiastic personality, he is also our maestro in presentations. In charge of the information for Solar System, Galaxies and as well as being the "Flash honcho", he has enabled us to scale greater heights.

Aik Khim (Secondary 2 student at The Chinese High School, Singapore)

He created the tutorials on Cosmology which are available for download. His vast knowledge has allowed the visitors to gain more insight into the otherwise slightly obscure world of cosmology. Also, he created Flash movies to supplement Ting Kun's.

Aik Khim is a great learner and has mastered many scientific concept which are beyond his age. He often enlightened us with his broad knowledge on certain physics and cosmological concepts. Many a time, his sound words made us to reconsider otherwise "wild goose chase" plans and some of which were nearly impossible.

Raphael (International Partner, Willetton Senior High School, Perth, Australia)

It was a wonderful experience working with our new friend. Us, as urban kids, grew up never seeing the Milky Way. The ironic thing was that he lived in suburban Perth and could even see the Milky Way clearly every night!

During the Venus Transit of 2004, June 8th, we sent him a solar filter, identical to the ones we had.It was no doubt interesting when we confirmed each others' observations of Venus as a black disc, 6000km apart.

Raphael also created Flash movies which you see in the Solar System area on planets. He is also extremely helpful and consistently provided feedback on the web site as it went through its phases that we valued.

Su-Chern (Leader, Secondary 2 student at The Chinese High School, Singapore)

He was in charge of the section on the Observatory and Stars. Also the overall web designer and editor, he has also contributed Flash movies for the Observatory and Stars areas as well as getting our Australian partner to join us. He coordinated the workflow and distribution of work amongst all team members. he created the web site using a mixture of Flash and Dreamweaver MX 2004.

An avid astrophotographer, he also took most of the astrophotographs in the Observatory area and went overseas a number of times to do so. He coordinated the field trips and did most of the organization.

Mentor: Mr. Chew Tyng Yong (The Chinese High School, Singapore)

Our mentor, Mr. Chew, also our science teacher, was extremely helpful. He was very supportive of our project right from the start and had provided many avenus of help when we were in times of 'crisis'. He managed the administrative affairs and sacrificed much of his time for project meetings with us so as to allow for the successful completion of this project.

His advice was invaluable and we would not have come thus far without him. He often gave us sound advice on the design and 'cosmetics' of the web site as well as on the aesthetic points of our project. While he was occassionally unable to make it for our field trips, his encouragement spurred us on the scale greater heights. Thank you Mr. Chew!

Assistant Mentor: Dr Phil Chan (Nanyang Polytechnic Observatory, Singapore)

Dr. Chan facilitated our learning process, especially arranging the fieldtrips and even setting aside time for lectures. We have attended a nember of his talks and public-sharing sessions on Astronomy and have learned much from them. Not only did he arrange for a practical session in the laboratory cum lecture for us on stellar spectroscopy and some on quantum mechanics concepts, he also arranged for us too visit the NYP Observatory, one of the most advanced in South-East Asia. Also, we attended his public sharing lecture on the 8th June during the Venus Transit. Thank you!

Teamwork and Collaboration

This was a vital issue. Collaboration was needed to ensure the successful completion of this project. While it was an international effort, it was helped by the fact that Raphael and Su-Chern were already friends prior to this project. We used email to communicate and as well as MSN Messenger, not forgetting the occassional phone call and letters.

Alongside with ThinkQuest 2004, we were also working from the start on The Chinese High School Projects Competition, which we attained an "A" grade in the end. Therefore, there were a series of deadlines which we had to meet for both competitions.

Here is a brief description of how we collaborated. In Singapore, the team would first meet with our mentors. When the project meeting had been completed, Philip would then relay the results as well as updates via email or MSN as well as Yahoo Groups to Raphael, our Australian partner. If there was work to be done, we would fix a deadline sometime in the near future when we could collate the information. Later, should editing and vetting be needed, we would hold online discussions and thus would discuss what needed to be included or changed in the web site as well as the information.

Finally, when all the information was finished, we kept editing the web site design to that you see today. Some of our friends were amazed to see the trasformation from an ordinary Dreamweaver template into something more palatable. We kept efficiency in mind throughout in order to keep a streamlined design as Ting Kun puts it, "as prefessional as possible".

In the beginning, more often than not, disputes often arose as a result of lack of experience working with each other and also dur to poor communication skills. As time passed, we became more accomodative towards each other.

How did we subsequently become a cohesive team? We got to know each other better as we communicated more often, as well as through MSN, some international phonecalls to clarify certain doubts with each other. willing to help each other through obstacles in this project. We also found out more about each others' practices and lifestyles in different countries- the food, the activities and even the sky.

This project has indeed given all of us a broader perspective of Astronomy, as well as on international friendship and collaboration, which we can assure you that it is not very easy! However, we all did enjoy working together and hope to meet face-to-face in the future.

About Us | Our Site | Bibliography