Background - Goals and Objectives

 

Combining the Project with Grades 1-9 Curriculum

From the Cyberfair project, we learned how to complete a research project from scratch. Starting with the topic, formulating a plan, carrying out the research, to finishing the website, our effort over the past six months is captured on this website. Although we did not sit in the classroom or read from textbooks, the knowledge that we acquired from different subject fields is a perfect reflection of the Grades 1-9 curriculum.

Our research subject is HanGuang Vocal Band known for fusing classical poetries with a cappella. As a result, throughout our research, we learned quite a few poems. And through those poems, we learned about their authors and the essence of each poem. Finally, we wrote our very own poem using "Joy of Studying in Four Seasons" as a reference. In this project, we learned, analyzed, and wrote poems. We got a chance to refine our listening and communication skills through group work. With every event in the process, we recorded them and then put them into words, and then we came up with our afterthoughts. This helped us in the listening, speaking, reading, and writing aspects of integrated language learning.

Before and after every event, we would conduct questionnaires to investigate the participants’ level of understanding and satisfaction. Regardless of whether it was a paper-based or online questionnaire, we would always organize, calculate, and draw graphs using Excel.

When Chinese culture met western a cappella, we needed music teachers and song writers working together to allow HanGuang Vocal Band to show its unique brand of music. Through in-school guided tours, we introduced the HanGuang that we saw in our research to grades four and five students. We also invited the band to school for a music seminar. Videos of the entire event were uploaded to Youtube so we could share them with the world.

In our research, we played a different role in every event. For example, during the a cappella exhibition, Cyberfair team members acted as guides. Whereas in other events, we were the behind-the-scene staff. We shared our accomplishments with the world through the Internet.

Throughout the project, we combined techniques in drawing, editing, layout arrangement, and photography for text and still- and motion image editing to complete the entire project. We have also raised our ability to appreciate art and beauty.

In music, we listened to lots of a cappella music in the project. Under the guidance of Teacher Allegro, Chu and Teacher Chen from HanGuang and three music teachers from our school, we have gained a lot of insight on a cappella. After further research, we held an a cappella music seminar. We helped not only the entire school, but also parents and community members to learn about and appreciate a cappella music.

During the research, we relied on EDUCOCO’s online platform for discussion and exchanging information without any limitation on time or location. We could even discuss the project from home. For every event, we used digital cameras, video recorders, and mobile phones to record the entire event thoroughly. Finally, we utilized our website making skills and image processing software to organize the content for our website. By the end of the project, we got really proficient with different types of IT equipments.

Through the Cyberfair project, we held numerous in-school activities and invited HanGuang Vocal Band to join us. We had a lot of fun experiencing a cappella through in-school guided tours, music seminar, and a cappella poetry competition with the band.

We learned to communicate, cooperate, and even collaborate with the band and its teachers. After the project, everyone on the Cyberfair team realized the importance of teamwork and the joy of sharing our success.

Source: the Beautiful Voices|Pictures: the Beautiful Voices