Transcribing recorded interviews Sometimes the interviewee’s voice was very soft, and it made transcribing very difficult. We had to play the recording a few times just to get a rough idea. In the end, we learned to play the recording sentence by sentence, and this helped us pick up the speed. Our teachers helped us by segmenting a long recording so more people could work on it, and we really want to thank our teachers for helping us finish transcribing the interviews smoothly.

		Interview rehearsal and interviewing HanGuang related personnel Since we did not have much experience conducting an interview, our teachers asked us to do a mock interview just to get us ready for the real one. Our teachers would throw in some unexpected surprises so we would be confident to face a real interview. This is a valuable learning experience, and we learned to deal with the unexpected in different situations. Our interviews went on without a hitch. Even with tons of practices, but when it came time to sit down face-to-face with the interviewee, we all got a bit nervous, and our tongues got a bit tight. If we couldn’t articulate ourselves clearly, then the interviewee would not be able to understand our questions. So we learned to have some conversation with the interviewee beforehand to calm ourselves down, and this would also make the interview more relaxing for every one. This is definitely an area that we still need to work on in the future.

		Juggling time between school work and Cyberfair There were so many things to do in Cyberfair, and school work was piling up by the day. So we learned to use our spare time in the morning for school work, and leaving Cyberfair jobs to lunch breaks or afterschool hours. We even brought Cyberfair materials home to work. School work and Cyberfair are equally important, and we learned to take care of both through good time management.

		Job assignment and completion There were many things to be done in Cyberfair, but we had limited time for meetings, so our teachers would make announcement and assign jobs through EDUCOCO. As a result, we got into the habit of checking EDUCOCO for any new assignments. This way, we would not miss out on anything, and we could get prizes for completing our assignments!

		Drawing and designing In the final stage of this Cyberfair project, we started on a series of designs. There were drawing and layout design to be done, as well as pictures that needed their background removed. We first did not take it seriously, and our works got rejected by our teachers. It was only until we started treating it seriously then our teachers gave us the thumbs up. Through Cyberfair, we learned that having the right attitude to do everything is the key to success. This is truly a learning experience for all of us.

		Questionnaires from the public We were extremely shy when we first handed out questionnaires to complete strangers on the street. But we couldn’t abort the mission just because we were shy, so our teachers accompanied us and asked a few people to fill out the questionnaire, and that got us going. In the end, we found that many people were quite friendly and agreed to do a questionnaire with us. Those who refused were mostly in a hurry or waiting for the bus. We may be down at first, but our fighting spirit got stronger the more questionnaires we got done.

		Differences in identity As a member of the Cyberfair team, there is a lot of hard work waiting for us. Besides school work, we had to complete Cyberfair works on time, especially for our grade sixes, who also had to assume the role of team leaders. They had to handle both personal and group works at the same time. Sometimes they ended up having most of the jobs on their shoulders. From this project, we learned that a leader needs to have good communication skills and knows how to delegate jobs to the right person. This will make the team more efficient by reaping the benefits of teamwork.

		Questionnaire Analysis After a few events, we have completed quite a number of questionnaires. Some are paper-based, and some are electronic ones. We then entered the data onto a spreadsheet for statistical analysis. Even though we have learned it before, but it has been a while since we last ran a spreadsheet like this, so we were a bit rusty. There were questions with multiple selections, and people had given us a lot of additional advice, making it even tougher to consolidate our data. If we lose our concentration for even one second, we would have lost track of where we were. In the end, we found that as long as we pay attention to our own tasks at hand, we could get our jobs done quickly and accurately.

		Too shy to be a guide A cappella guided tour was the first time that we acted as guides. It was also our first time performing in front of our teachers and classmates, and that made us shy. We were a bit nervous, shy, and too quiet, and the visiting students and teachers lost interested in our presentation. Our teachers reminded us the hard work that we had put in for this guided tour, and we should give them our best performance so our hard work wouldn’t go to waste. Afterwards, we got our confidence back and boosted our performance, and we also won the audience back. After the guided tour, we learned that as long as we are there to show ourselves, people will like us no matter how different we might seem. We need to be nice to ourselves, and everything will eventually get sorted out.

		Writing up the report With all the activities that came during Cyberfair, we had a lot of reports to do! For every event, we needed to do a report outlining our discoveries, reviews, and afterthoughts. When our brain juice was totally drained out, or our work got rejected by the teacher, we got really worried. Then, we would go out for some fresh air, and this trick worked every time. Therefore, when we encounter a problem, do not get overwhelmed by it. Try to go out and maybe a change of scene would help you find the answer!

Source: the Beautiful Voices │ Pictures: the Beautiful Voices