We discovered many past works with buttons that were designed in style. So, after we discussed passionately, we decided to draw our own buttons without the computer art creation. Tough are we!
Problems encountered and overcome
When the buttons were done and ready to be handed to our teacher, we looked at them and suddenly felt failure, because they were in so different styles. But the teacher said it was alright as such variance gave a feeling of we meant it. Was he not out of his mind?
Research project report
27
Date of research
2011/12/4~2011/12/5
Research duration
12 hours
Topic
Making the web page’s title flyer
Description of contents
We discussed and reached the contents of the flyer we wanted. It might be simple enough, but as the teacher said, we really meant it. Hihi…
Problems encountered and overcome
We made reference to many previous works; each of them had very artistic flyer, which discouraged us. But our teacher said your heart matters most; he led us through a discussion. Gradually we summarized the elements necessary for the flyer, which were “Rixin badge”, “text of Hengkang bj” and “pictures of Kuan-yu practicing”. We were also discussed much about whether to include “Rixin scenery”; but, in the end we thought the campus was not an important element to this work and dropped it.
Research project report
28
Date of research
2011/12/6~2011/12/7
Research duration
15 hours
Topic
Editing the introduction to Wufong research center
Description of contents
We integrated the precise address of Wufong research center and its central idea in a Word document and decided, after group discussion, to present it with both text and picture.
Problems encountered and overcome
We had not understood much until we asked Master Chi-wen Chen to explain to us and had it cleared.
Research project report
29
Date of research
2011/12/9~2011/12/10
Research duration
30 hours
Topic
Modifying, adding text to and taking more of photos
Description of contents
We changed the difficult phrases into colloquial expressions and explained on the proverbs.
Problems encountered and overcome
We found some pictures missing; so, we went back to the school to take relevant photos on weekends while Ba-Ji-men Wufong martial art society was practicing. There were some phrases too difficult which required us to look up in the dictionary or discuss with schoolmates and teachers. As for the proverbs, we obtained more detailed explanations by searching online and asking Master Chen.
Research project report
30
Date of research
2011/12/11
Research duration
8 hours
Topic
photographing Ba-Ji-men weapons
Description of contents
We took photos of Liouhe Lance and Pigua Double Saber and their applications.
Problems encountered and overcome
We asked Shih-han’s mother to help us with the function switching on the camera when we took the photos.
Research project report
31
Date of research
2011/12/12~2011/12/13
Research duration
10 hours
Topic
Integrating all current materials
Description of contents
We rearranged all pictures and texts and corrected before integrating them.
Problems encountered and overcome
Sometimes we did not know how to arrange the information and the pictures; but, then we repeated studying the contents and discussed with mother before we could integrate all the materials.
Research project report
32
Date of research
2011/12/14~2011/12/16
Research duration
18 hours
Topic
Editing and correcting the manuscripts of the fist techniques and interviews
Description of contents
Interviews:
We read the material out and revised where it sounded not nice and corrected the misused words, followed by pasting the photos.
Fist techniques:
We deleted part of the information on fist techniques which was difficult to understand and not a key point, and revised the wording to be more fluent and colloquial to make the contents more attractive to readers.
Problems encountered and overcome
Because the interviews were so lengthy that I could not remember correctly the names and the persons when pasting the photos of interview, I called Master Chen for helping in the checking of the photos of the big brothers and sisters. Some Chinese characters which have been incorrectly used needed mother to examine together.
It was hard to decide which part of the information on the fist techniques to be deleted. Mother said that this article is to make people know Ba-Ji-Quan not teach how to learn that; so, I read the material through once more, deleted what I did not understand or was not relevant to the theme and left with what I felt interesting
Research project report
33
Date of research
2011/12/17~2011/12/18
Research duration
26 hours
Topic
Discussion and photographing the photos needed by the manuscript
Description of contents
When the contents of the text were confirmed, we consulted Master Chen in how to photograph so as to display the screens we wanted. We marked in the article where a picture was needed and then asked Shih-han Chen to help taking photos or finding the pictures.
Problems encountered and overcome
We have taken a lot of photos but when back in home to organize them, we could not match them with the kinds of fist techniques. We had to ask Master Chen. It was difficult to show the abstract meaning with some pictures, for example, the characteristics “downsized, soft and smart” of Ba-Ji-Quan are very difficult to express with pictures. So, we turned to words instead of pictures for reinforced explanation. Also, the force of Ba-Ji-Quan is invisible; so, after discussion, we finally used arrows on the pictures to illustrate the directions of the force.
Research project report
34
Date of research
2011/12/19
Research duration
16 hours
Topic
Editing and preparing the Ba-Ji-Quan questionnaire
Description of contents
We designed the questions from the angle of the practitioners and arranged them into the questionnaire after group discussion. We asked Master Chen and Kuan-yu to assist in giving the questionnaire out to the learners at Wufong martial art study center.
Problems encountered and overcome
The originally designed questions were too similar to show the differences before and after practicing Ba-Ji-Quan. With Master Chen’s advice, we want to say now our questionnaire could make the reader feel such differences.
Research project report
35
Date of research
2011/12/20~2011/12/21
Research duration
20 hours
Topic
Reorganizing the later taken photos and the text to re-correspond
Description of contents
We organized the later taken photos and reheard the tape recording to check the contents, and deleted the useless words to make the whole article sound plain.
Problems encountered and overcome
I read a couple of times, but it was not easy to make the article more colloquial and precise. I discussed with the group members and finished it.
Research project report
36
Date of research
2011/12/22~2011/12/23
Research duration
14 hours
Topic
Integrating the pictures and text; editing and finalizing the document
Description of contents
We combined the photos Shih-han Chen has taken and the articles of us all into a complete report, rechecked it and corrected the mistakes.
Problems encountered and overcome
When the photos were pasted, the edited article became a mess and unreadable. So, we needed to adjust the photo size and readjust the document using the Numberings, Align paragraph, paragraph setting and so on.
Research project report
37
Date of research
2011/12/24~2011/12/25
Research duration
30 hours
Topic
Administering questionnaire to the Ba-Ji-Quan learners
Description of contents
We asked the favor of Master Chen to help us administer the finalized questionnaire, about 200 copies of printout, during the weekend of season greeting and took the opportunity of two days off for a happy Christmas. Merry Christmas! Hahaha….
Problems encountered and overcome
The subjects of the questionnaire administration were mostly Ba-Ji-Quan learners, present and past. Master Chen asked why we did not include the separation by age and years of learning in the questionnaire. And that embarrassed our teacher. Talk about mean it! Oh, well, he argued…excuse me, explained to Master Chen and made him understand the difficulties and situation we had had in designing the questionnaire. To be straightforward, it had not come to us that we should divide the subjects by age, because we suck. But, as time did not permit, we played by ear.
Research project report
38
Date of research
2011/12/26~2011/12/27
Research duration
16 hours
Topic
Retrieving the questionnaire and do statistics
Description of contents
We retrieved the questionnaire and do statistics of the number of persons and percentage using EXCEL.
Problems encountered and overcome
We thank Master Chen for his great support. Nearly 200 copies retrieved were a good harvest!
When it comes to questionnaire statistics, this is almost our strength. Since two years ago, we were taught to use EXCEL to do the computation of functions. Our teacher often said things like this that were to be calculated with tools, we did not have to scramble to do the calculation by hand. So, we made the analysis of the data using functions easily.
Research project report
39
Date of research
2011/12/28~2011/12/29
Research duration
16 hours
Topic
Making charts out of
questionnaire statistics
Description of contents
We converted the percentages data of the questionnaire into charts using EXCEL, which would give the reader a clear view.
Problems encountered and overcome
This was the first time we touched the EXCEL charts, which we thought to be difficult, because we had learned EXCEL functions for only a semester. And we thought it would take us much time to make the charts.
But, before we knew it, simply selecting the data form and inserting the chart to save as, we finished it. The EXCEL is an amazing tool!
Research project report
40
Date of research
2011/12/31
Research duration
18 hours
Topic
Shooting the Ba-Ji-Quan video
Description of contents
We made use of Saturdays to shoot the Ba-Ji-Quan video at Rixin Elementary School.
Problems encountered and overcome
When our teacher went through the document integrating our words and pictures, he suggested us to shoot related videos allowing for future video insertion, which sounded reasonable to us. So, we made an appointment with Master Chen again to shoot on Saturdays when the martial art society was practicing.
Master Chen demonstrated continuous motions this time. That looked frightening because one would get hurt with broken skin if he gets hit by Master Chen. We had better behave!
Research project report
41
Date of research
2012/1/2~2012/1/3
Research duration
16 hours
Topic
Editing and compressing the shot videos
Description of contents
We edited the videos shot last week and made compression of them, trying to insert them in the web page.
Problems encountered and overcome
At first when we discussed the video editing, some classmate proposed to post the videos on Youtube and link with our web page, which we thought to make sense because that was trendy. However, our teacher reminded us that the organization forbids external links and that the web page contents should all be contained in our own web page, which thus means the method of Youtube is unaccepted. We did not understand what he said, as some members thought Youtube was still in our web page and it could be played normally. That seemed no need to link to outside web page.
Our teacher then spent some time explaining this issue to us. After that, we approached the method of web page containing videos; so, we wished to shorten the video and display them in more of best parts. Finally we chose the software, Windows Movie Maker, to edit for very simple reason. That was because the software comes with Windows, so, each of us could practice what we learned at the school when back in home.
Research project report
42
Date of research
2012/1/4~2012/1/8
Research duration
20 hours
Topic
Making website template
Description of contents
The website has many common components; so, we took care of these common screens and components by the skill of making “template”.
Problems encountered and overcome
The teacher used to make the template himself before passing it to us for each of us to insert the contents of divided pages and lastly integrating to complete the entire web page. This time, he said the website should be completed on our own. But, among all of us, only Kuan-yu Chen and Shih-han Chen had the skill of making template. Hence, the teacher asked them to complete the template before the term-end exam, so that we could insert the page contents individually at home during the winter vacation, and we would make adjustment and integration after the school restarted.
Research project report
43
Date of research
2012/1/12~2012/1/16
Research duration
40 hours
Topic
Applying the template
Description of contents
After the template was completed by the two schoolmates, we made use of the time after the final exam and before the school’s last day to practice the application of template. On an average, each student needed to make 7-8 pages. The web page skills we used were only inserting tables and horizontal line; the rest was just copying the Word document contents to the web page.
Problems encountered and overcome
A greater part of the students could not read the web page codes; so, the teacher asked us to paste the text on the web page editing area without formatting, and to distinguish and edit just using tables for the orders and positions, which were not far from the skills we have learned in the web page course. So, that became our winter vacation homework.
Research project report
44
Date of research
2012/1/17
Research duration
24 hours
Topic
Applying library to create submenu
Description of contents
We used the function of Library in Dreamweaver to create sub-list, which became the sub-page menu on the left side of the web page.
Problems encountered and overcome
It is simple about Library, which is like the blank slide in PPT. it took no time for us to learn it; but, the bottom line is all we needed was to be able to use it the first time, because what next was save as from the original page. So, the submenu on the left side exists automatically without any more library insertion.
Incidentally, today is the last school day and the weekend will be near Chinese New Year. Other schoolmates have long gone home for pleasure, while we were called for special training in this afternoon. We already began to get bored, which our teacher should have noticed, except he coaxed, as he always did, “we’re almost finished,” and talked us into it with the heart or something.
Research project report
45
Date of research
2012/1/18~2012/1/19
Research duration
12 hours
Topic
Creating CSS styles
Description of contents
We wrote the CSS style rules for the web page.
Problems encountered and overcome
When it comes to CSS, it is a familiar word, as our teacher often mentioned it. But, actually CSS is strange to most of us, who only heard of ‘CSI’; probably CSS keeps the web page in good order and rules. I just heard that Kuan-yu Chen and Shih-han Chen were called back by our teacher. The three of them discussed and edited the CSS styles for our web page, for which I appreciated very much. Our future is in their hand.
Research project report
46
Date of research
2012/2/8~2012/2/10
Research duration
48 hours
Topic
Integrating the web pages
Description of contents
We assembled the subpages which we finished at home individually during the winter vacation like the components of a robot to make the subpages browsable normally.
Problems encountered and overcome
The school starts again. Our priority is to integrate the subpages we have edited individually and to cross-inspect them to eliminate some minor problems.
The teacher said that when the three of them worked on the CSS before winter vacation was over they found the web page buttons we had drawn were not suitable. So, Shih-han took the advantage of winter vacation to hastily call for help from his father, who is a programmer; they made new buttons with Photoshop in a very short time. The teacher said the buttons we drew were to be put in the Reflection section as illustration.
Research project report
47
Date of research
2012/2/11~2012/2/12
Research duration
8 hours
Topic
Drawing web page background
Description of contents
We drew the web page background using Photoshop.
Problems encountered and overcome
When having integrated the web pages, we found the white background somewhat monotonous. Our teacher said nothing was wrong with white color, or we could change to a color with creativity.
Shih-han Chen, our prince of artwork, proposed why not let him try to make some simple backgrounds with Photoshop.
We found it a good idea; but, the bottom line was that none of us knew how to use Photoshop to make background. Since Shih-han Chen volunteered, we were happy to follow the leader.
Research project report
48
Date of research
2012/2/13
Research duration
9 hours
Topic
Resolving misunderstanding and disputes
Description of contents
Some among the members complained about the teacher having not used the artwork they provided; they even once wanted to quit from the team.
Problems encountered and overcome
Today, the teacher held a campfire talk with us before the work began. He mentioned why there was not a single already-existed artwork in the entire web page of ours and all there was were plain background, Kuan-yu Chen’ martial art movements and the pictures we made during the project process. The teacher conveyed the importance of intellectual property rights.
When the student who complained a lot he said he got it in a cool manner; but, in fact, we all knew he learned his lesson.
Turns out there are so many things in our life violating intellectual property rights; only that the authors did not suit us.
Research project report
49
Date of research
2012/2/13~2012/2/22
Research duration
54 hours
Topic
Proofreading and revising the web page contents
after the web pages were complete
Description of contents
When the web page integration was complete, the teacher put them on the school’s server and asked us to browse and confirm on the correctness of the contents individually. Then, we posted the mistakes to the forum of the Network Center and made corrections of the web pages.
Problems encountered and overcome
At first, we thought that was all when the web pages were finished; but, unexpectedly many mistakes were found in proofreading. The correction exhausted us and took a lot of time, making us really learn the importance of doing things seriously. In a next creation, we will take the preliminary arrangement more accurately to be more efficient.
Research project report
50
Date of research
2012/2/17~2012/2/22
Research duration
30 hours
Topic
Posting the project reports and web page works
Description of contents
We uploaded the project reports and web page works we finished to the web site designated by the organization.
Problems encountered and overcome
While we were ready to upload the project reports and web page works thinking they were finished, our teacher called us all for a meeting suddenly. He said he found a major problem: the project reports should not be uploaded in the last minute all together, which we did not understand. He explained that because the organization wanted every team to upload the project report as scheduled, it provided that the interval between the uploading of two project reports be greater than the hours of each project research. Now this is bad! We were screwed by the very true-hearted, pigheaded teacher, who had been too busy to keep this important message in mind. We would not be disqualified, would we?
He called for an urgent meeting on 2/17 to work out a solution, which was that Shih-han Chen does a part of the uploading in the school with the other part uploaded by Kuan-yu Chen at home. So, a total of 40 plus reports were assigned between them. It was so decided because the two of them have more stable web skill and our teacher felt safer with them. Also, these two students could coordinate better on the time difference in uploading and not cause failure in uploading from miscalculation of time difference.
The teacher also said it was a chance the problem emerges, so that it tests our ability to solve problems, which is in line with the grade 1-9 curriculum well. Oh my god! How he could put up!
In fact, we had already uploaded the project reports to the Network Center and he has corrected every one of them. Hope this ignored message would not affect our qualification for participating in the contest.
