Image Tiffany. Copyright
The Big Problem 2008

It's only with a project like this, can you really understand what they're trying to say. Repetitive talks and lectures will only make you think it's useless, you have to really learn about it to see a clearer perspective.

For a snack, I usually have fruit. Fruit tastes very good! My favorite fruit is watermelon. Also, I like asparagus. At home, we don't buy junk food at all.

At school we don't even have recess. Though, one quarter of each year, you have Gym for 45 min. each day. That is usually our exercise. When it's nice outside during fall, spring and summer we get to out on the tar/parking lot for 10 min. during lunch. For exercise, I do ballet 3 times a week. Two hours on Monday and Wednesday and one and a half hours on Friday. During the summer, I do a lot of tennis.

When I think about this project, I think about how much I learned. How clueless I seem a few months back, then a few months back from there, and again and again... I would never have known about hormones, certain brain functions, what obesity and fat really are, etc. With the Killer Waves project, I would never have learnt how dangerous tsunamis really are and how they actually happen. I wouldn't know how to use Flash (drawing aspect). With the Tiny but Dangerous website, I wouldn't have even known what mosquito borne diseases are and I wouldn't have known how to use Dreamweaver and Flash (animation aspect). If I hadn't done the sports injuries website, I wouldn't have known what can be a sports injury. I wouldn't know how to use Photoshop.

At first, we had a rocky start. Most of the writing was done already, the team had been planning to enter the website last year but could not find a web designer. Also, we were missing a few roles. The writers had to simplify all the writing and find people to fill in the missing roles. Thomas enthusiastically researched about this topic for two years. Elena and Eric collaborated with him to

produce all the writing.� We finally found a teammate, one of my previous members.

When�over the summer, when my family went to Thailand, I tagged along with my brothers, who were being interviewed by the media. It was a special occasion because they made a website about Epidemiology and my mom comes from Thailand. There, I met Mr. Sudhisak, who introduced us to Teeramet, Arponthip and Mr. Stephan. This led us to Mr. Wichai, who helped Teeramet communicate with us.

In the 12 and under category, it really is the hardest to find a graphics designer and even harder to find a web designer; though usually most web designers are also graphics designers. Teeramet worked everyday to get things the way we wanted them. Once we got an idea for a picture, Teeramet drew it immediately.

Also, our team found a Thai translator! She has been a huge asset to the team. Every time a new topic was written about, Arponthip took the dictionary and translated every painstaking word, one by one. As soon as the writers finished something, Arponthip took it right away and translated it. Sometimes, she even finished multiple sections in one day! You could always count on her.

Two months from the end, at the “crunch time”, our web designer left our team very suddenly. Everything that everyone had worked for seemed to have just so suddenly come crashing down, especially since it is so hard to find new members.� Thankfully, Teeramet stepped in and took on the extra role. He has been a great asset of our team.

Whenever the writers came up with an idea for pictures or the layout of the website, they would tell it to me and I would advise them on it. Then, I would send the idea to Teeramet. If Teeramet was having trouble with the idea, he would email me and I would try to help him. Especially at the beginning of the project, when we had no coach, I would act like the Primary Coach. I would set deadlines, and if needed, extend them.

In the end, everything got finished with a excellent result. Of course, all of this wouldn't have started in the first place without the actual competition. All of us would like to thank Thinkquest for coming up with this ingenious idea.

Throughout all these projects, I have made so many friends. These friendships are so strong because of the things that we have been through together. There are some of us that we used to be friends, we hadn't seen each other for many many years, we call each other up, then we're very very close friends again. We call each other every day. Friendships like these are very special.

Even though our members are spread out across the globe, we can communicate just fine. We have a forum and email quite a lot. I set up the forum and we had a section for graphics, writing and all the work where members could check on other members. If we have a few members who live near each other, we have a meeting face-to-face. Also, we use the phone to call other members. At times, it is a bit difficult to communicate what you want to say because it is easier to show it and guide someone in person. We try the best that we can to get things done to the best of our ability.

Image Tiffany. Copyright
The Big Problem 2008







Image USA team. Copyright
The Big Problem 2008