| How the team was
formed After
working on Thinkquest October 2003, Victor felt that the
learning objective of Thinkquest had not been achieved
and hence decided to form another group to take part in
Thinkquest April 2005. Initially the group consisted of
Victor, Junrong, Ee Teng and Min Xuan. Subsequently,
Colin and Yuheng joined the team upon hearing about the
project.
Why the topic was
chosen
We figured that since we
wanted to learn something fresh, we should work on
something foreign yet interesting. Hence we chose the
topic "Colonialism & Conquest" which
appears interesting rather easily. However, deciding
which period and colony to work on was to take longer.
Suggestions stretched from the ancient Roman Empire to
Nazi Germany. In the end, we decided to focus our project
on Egypt in the British Empire. It is a country with a
long and unique past; it is relatively unknown but thus
exotic to us. It thus fits the bill. However, a decisive
decision was delayed, for information on this relatively
lesser known period might prove too scarce as we had
found out in our initial probing. In the end, still, we
agreed to go ahead on the topic.
Meetings
With college keeping us
busy, it is difficult for us to balance our time to work
on the site as procrastination was tempting. Usually the
team meets up online on MSN messenger at least twice a
week for group discussions as it is impossible for us to
meet personally to discuss on the website. Of course,
these meetings became more frequent nearer to the
deadline.
Difficulties we
encountered
- Initially the worries
were realised as we were hit by a severe lack of
information. Books on the period proved to be
extremely limited, at least in Singapore, and
searches on the Internet yielded but a few
precious sites. Even worse, these sites touched
only lightly on the topic. For a moment, we were
faced with the prospect of creating a site with
only a few strands of information. Fortunately,
our luck changed after searching intensified and
several sites on the topic were discovered. Like
archaeologists, these finds delighted us and we
proceeded to fill in the details. Meanwhile
Victor laid out the skeleton of the site and
allocated people to their respective sections.
Yuheng, having joined late, was assigned to fill
up tasks that could be out sourced, for the
researchers were quite burdened with sections to
write.
- Disaster struck when, a
couple of days from the deadline for Thinkquest
April 2005, a new government policy prevented our
coach from joining Thinkquest. We were at our wit¡¯s
ends because we are worried that what we have
done would go down the drain. Under great
disappointment, we decided our only option lay in
taking part in the next Thinkquest, in October
2004, and compete with other teams in the
miscellaneous category. As a result, we did not
enroll in the April 2004 Thinkquest.
- Soon, schoolwork forced
us apart as we had to study for our end of year
exams. The long break broke our familiarity and
connection with the topic. Thus, as the October
2004 Thinkquest came closer, we were eventually
demoralised by our alienation with the once
familiar topic and the poor state of our site in
comparison to others. However, pace eventually
recovered as Victor rallied the team together to
finish and polish the site.
- We found out that it is
difficult to juggle between the hectic pace of
college life (school work and school projects)
and Thinkquest. Many of us ended up sleeping at 1
or 2 AM in the morning just to get things done.
Micro-management of time became a necessity¡and
an amusement as we find ourselves discussing the
project for brief seconds if we met while walking
to our respective classes.
Credits and
Appreciation
We would like to thank the
following people for contributing to the success of our
site:
- Our coach, Mr Mayank
Gandhi
Mr Mayank Gandhi is an experienced Thinkquest
coach and educator. Despite geographical
distance, he has played a helpful role in the
refinement of our site.
- Our assistant coach, Mr
Gi Soong Chee
Before Mr Mayank, Mr Gi was our first coach. He
enlightened and reminded us of the objectives of
our educational website and pointed out that our
site seemed to be like ¡®an e-book¡¯ rather
than a website designed to educate during our
initial stages of website development. An
experienced teacher in Computing and an
enthusiast in the use of informational technology
to educate and teach, we have learnt more about
using interactive media in information technology
to educate our audience and thus fulfill our
objectives of designing an educational website.
He has been an objective coach yet encouraging if
necessary. Thank you, Mr Gi.
- Friends, family,
teachers and anyone who has helped us in one way
or another
We sincerely appreciate you all for your support
and understanding, and we thank you all for your
encouragement as well!
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