School: Ingraham High School
    Seattle, Washington, United States

3 students, ages 15-18 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on March 20, 2005. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): 2005

Classes and Teachers: Stan White, Bonny, Cylinna, and Karla

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://www.seattleschools.org/schools/ingraham/

1. Description of Our Team

Bonny and Cylinna, both aged 15, learned about the Doors to Diplomacy project through One World Now, a leadership program dedicated to teaching other cultures. Karla, aged 18, joined the project after being approached by Stan White, the adult coach. Cylinna brought to the group her technology skills used to create the website. She also aided in the research project alongside of Bonny and Karla. Stan White, a business teacher at the high school, helped in forming the project question. After forming the question, subtopics were formed and distributed among Bonny, Cylinna, and Karla in accordance with their business interests.

2. Summary of Our Project

It is very well know that China and the United States are major trading partners. Knowing that the upcoming Olympics will occur in Beijing, China will need to import a lot of products to prepare for the games. We also knew that China was in the top ten of importers and exporters. Using this knowledge, we decided to take a closer look at the issues regarding U.S. trade with China and the impacts. Economics, society, culture/customs, employment, technology, World Trade Organization, and politics were all looked at. Each one plays an important part in the daily trade of items between the United States and China. The goal of the project was to investigate and see just how trade impacts each area.

3. Our Computer and Internet Access

A. Percentage of students using the Internet at home:more than 50%

B. Number of workstations with Internet access in the classroom:more than 6

C. Connection speed used in the classroom:dedicated connection

D. Number of years our classroom has been connected to the Internet:more than 6

E. Additional comments concerning your computer and/or Internet access (Optional):

The Internet is a very useful research tool. However, for this project we were unable to find very much information that pertained to our project.

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

We had one major obstacle in doing our project: finding information. We had a really solid topic, but finding information was rather difficult. We had to cut out a couple of subtopics simply because we were unable to find sources to support the topic. The topic is also very current, which means that there is not a lot of information in books. The Internet provided more information, but it came from unreliable sources. We used news sites to find reliable sources, which included many current magazines and newspapers.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

The Doors to Diplomacy project has been an exciting learning experience. We have learned a great deal about the impacts of trading between the United States and China and look forward to others viewing our work.

6. How did your activities and research for this CyberFair Project support standards, required coursework and curriculum standards?

1) What information tools & technologies did you used to complete your CyberFair project?

All three of us students have computer and Internet access at home. This has helped us find information as well as communicate with each other. Computer software, including Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Image Ready, Internet Explorer, and Microsoft Word and Excel were used in the creation of the website. Without such software, our website would not have been completed. We utilized the libraries in our area, which provided us with resource materials. Books from the libraries were helpful for our research purposes. Newspapers and magazines were the most helpful for the research portion and this is where a great deal of our information came from.

2) In what ways did you act as "ambassadors" and spokespersons for your CyberFair project both on-line and in person.

This project took a large amount of time to complete. We spent many hours submersed in researching for the project. Our friends and teachers wondered what we were working so hard on. Each time someone asked what we were doing, we would explain the project. By doing this we have encountered many people who have shown a great interest in the topic of Chinese and American trade. We hope to expand the number of people who will visit our website by linking our website to our high school's website. We also hope to raise awareness of the project and our website by writing an article for the school's newspaper, which is read by the whole school community.

3) What has been the impact of your project on your community?

We plan to link our website to our high school's website. We are hoping that this will be a valuable source for current and future students who do projects concerning trade. The website will provide an insight into how our lives are impacted by trading with China. Our topic is very current and is always in the news. Other students at our high school will be able to use our website if they need a current events topic for a history class. The website will definitely be a useful source for research papers.

4) How did your project involve other members of your community as helpers and volunteers?

We involved much of the staff at the local libraries. They helped us find research materials and provided support when we needed it the most.

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

We thought that this project was harder than we anticipated. If we could do the project again, we would definitely get started on it sooner, so that we were not so busy at the end of the project.