Our ThinkQuest team consist of Samuel, Clement, Aik Wei and Soham. We are studying in Raffles Institution, a secondary school in Singapore. Every year, students in our school are tasked with a research project work and we are free to research on topics of our own interests. Hence this year we have decided to adopt ThinkQuest and carry out research on the topic of Down syndrome, an uncommon genetic condition. Our fifth member, Rohini, is from India and she has contributed much information about the situation in India.

To start up our research journey, we first brainstormed for the topic that we want to research about, and the objectives. We are to develop an educational website that aims to provide a holistic view of Down syndrome and suggest ways in which the general public can help to aid these people with this genetic condition. With clear objectives in our mind, we sorted tasks for everyone.

Before we conducted interviews and surveys, we needed to have a deep understanding of Down syndrome itself, including its history, symptoms, how it affects the person and other minor details. We gathered our data from different sources: print (from the library) and non-print sources (from the web). We took every effort and care to ensure that the data we produced was not plagiarized.

The various organizations that gave us insight into Down syndrome included Down Syndrome Association (DSA), Disability World and March of Dimes.
We came into contact with Mr Daniel Su, Program Executive, Down Syndrome Association Singapore, and The National Environment Agency when we wanted to obtain certain information from the organization library as well as to offer our services to interact with the children with Down syndrome. They were both friendly and approachable, never hesitating to clear out doubts whenever the need arose.

We planned out the questions for the survey. We ensured that these questions could fill any gaps of knowledge from our data generation. Following that, we generated and posted our survey through an online survey portal Surveymonkey. We chose this particular survey portal as they were able analyze the results for us. We publicized our survey through a few websites, forums, personal blogs and friends. For example, Yahoo! Answers. Of course, we had to determine our target group and our aims of the survey first.

As for the interview, we needed to seek an insight of a person who has experienced Down Syndrome before. As it was impossible for us to interview a person with Down Syndrome due to the lack of resources, we decided to interview a parent whose child has Down syndrome. This would be the closest we can get to providing an insight as the parent would have faced and overcome challenges herself too by raising a child with Down syndrome. The questions which we planned to ask were mostly opinions which we wanted to hear from the parents’ perspective. In total, we conducted one interview

Interview 1 – 23 February 2008
Mrs Lim (not her real name)
Parent of a 10-year-old girl who has Down syndrome
We found Mrs Lim through the Down Syndrome Association Singapore. They were able to secure an interview for us and we made an appointment soon after. We needed her opinions since she would have a first-hand experience of raising a child with Down syndrome. From our interview with her, we learnt about the various challenges she faced during the child’s early stages and how she overcame them. Her opinions were quite valuable as it can be used to educate mothers who have children with Down syndrome.

Samuel
When I first encountered people with Down Syndrome in my earlier years, I didn't know they had the condition of Down Syndrome. All I knew was that they looked weird to me.
However, my recent encounter and interaction with them has caused me to change this negative mindset about them. Actually, they are people just like us, who experience pain, joy, stress and other feelings.
The difference that I observed was perhaps their slower learning abilities. And just like us, they too get frustrated when they are unable to grasp a concept or learn something properly.

Soham
Down Syndrome- Trisomy 21- that was all I knew about Down syndrome as a genetic disorder. Patients have mental retardation and learning disabilities along with congenital heart diseases - that was what my knowledge was limited to; until I went down to the Down Syndrome Association to conduct a lesson, my perception of these people changed.
The class started at 11 o’clock and all the students poured in. The class started, and as I was helping one of the students solve the problems, I realized that Down syndrome patients were no different from that of the normal people – just that they learned things slower. The student I was helping got the first problem wrong, but he moved on to the next. I had to explain to him several times before he understood the steps to the problem, but at last, he got hold of it, and did the problems as good as a person of his level would probably do.
It felt ridiculous at first- teaching people how to add, subtract, read, or count, but as time went by, this feeling evolved into interest. It was quite interesting to see the children solve the problems and rejoice on their success or condole with them when they made a mistake or became stressed.
I learned one very important thing about Down Syndrome people – that however different they might be from us “normal people”, they are still human- and they have the right to be treated as humans should be, with due respect and should not be seen as someone abnormal.
I also realized that these people were more sociable and amiable than we were. As I walked in to the room as a complete stranger, they warmly greeted me and we became friends within a few minutes. My misconceptions faded away as seconds passed in close contact with Down Syndrome patients. I realized how wrong I was regarding these people as outcasts – not the norm, not part of the normal world.

Aik Wei
Throughout the 4 months in which the team worked together, overcoming challenges such as deadlines and plagiarism, we certainly did bond together, both academically and personally. Every person in the group has a role to play, be it the group leader, the time keeper, the web designer etc. 
Samuel was selected to be our leader as he has many past leadership experiences and would know how to lead our group to success. When he divides the task among the group members, he always has a soft side of listening to our difficulties and why we were unable to complete the task should we not be able to. I feel that it is this particular factor in him that sets him apart from other students to lead the rest. In terms of personality, he proves to be a caring and loyal friend, never failing to help those in need.
Clement is the main IT guy in our group. Being a member of the school’s computer club, he is the main technology whiz kid. He always stresses on excellence and perfection, and thus proves to be an outstanding member of the team. Despite his busy schedule, he ensures that his work is never substandard. Although that may set his standards to be high above the rest and result in him having more stress, he always manages to cope with it and become a better manager of time and ultimately a better person. 
Soham is an entirely new face to me this year. However, after working with him for 3 months, I would feel that we have bonded very closely in terms of working together as well as personally as a friend. He always puts in the effort to try his best. I saw that spirit in him and I felt that he made a very exemplary team member. 
As for me, being the happy-go-lucky guy, I was always the one cheering people up despite the enormous pile of work we had to face and overcome. I was the motivator of the team, encouraging my team members to do their work and always cracking jokes to keep the mood happy. This might have resulted in the team side-tracking once in a while, but after which we will get back to work. Motivation in my opinion is the most important when it comes to whatever you are doing. As long as the motivation and the cheerful spirit are there, work can be done at an extremely efficient pace. 
Throughout the 4 months in which we slogged it out at computer labs, libraries, friends’ houses, we somehow forged a bond ourselves that no one could describe. It was not friendship that we forged; it was the commitment to the task, to the project that brought us together. Whenever we gathered to do our part for the project, the bond grew stronger and it soon affected our personal lives. Trusting each other with work became part and parcel of our task and soon we learned to trust each other in our personal lives too. We did share the plentiful knowledge that we gained throughout our research. This also helped us in understanding Down syndrome better and from a different angle. 
Overall, this project was not so much a project for me, but a personal experience. We are a group with members who have different pros and cons, but a team.
Rohini
This is the first time I’m entering an international contest. As a result, I got very excited when I was asked to join this contest. Soham told me about Think Quest last winter when he visited me, in India. I immediately agreed to join this contest. Soham introduced me to my teammates over the internet. I was really happy to be a part of the team. Soham and I had thought of a few topics to make our website on but later we all agreed to make our website on Down’s Syndrome. Being so far away from the rest of the team, we only communicated over the internet. I provided the team with many links I thought may be useful and wrote about Mathru Mandir, a Down’s Syndrome organization in India. This contest was a great expirence for me. I got to meet new people and enjoyed working as a team.