School: Shanghai Community International School
    Shanghai, Shanghai, China

4 students, ages 14, 15, 14, 14 worked together to complete this Doors to Diplomacy project on March 7, 2012. They have participated in Doors to Diplomacy in the following year(s): 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012

Classes and Teachers: Matteo, Gustavo, Creed, Tristan, Ms. Brill

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://

1. Description of Our Team

Matteo (14) was the team leader which had the iWeb file on his computer, he wrote the 'Rome' page, most of the diplomacy page after gathering opinions from the team mates, he proofread everything. Creed (14) interviewed a man in the airplane industry and wrote half of the 'issue' page. Gustavo (15) wrote the other half of the 'issue' page and the 'Israel' page. Tristan (14) wrote some of the Diplomacy page. We didn't chose our team, we were put together. Ms. Brill was our coach.

2. Summary of Our Project

We chose airport security because we are all quite frequent travelers, more than the average teenager. Over the years we had issues with airport security and we wanted to help the world by improving the way airports do security. By security, we don’t only mean if the airport is secure, but also other factors that may influence people going through security, such as the respect the guards have to the cultures of the people going through.

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:2-3

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

We are in China and we had some barriers with internet, but we overcame them by using a VPN.

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

Our group actually worked really well together. We had problems setting up our meetings, but we just used a lot Skype. We had problems with multiple editing of the website, in the end we did not resolve the issue, but we just sent files to each other. Another barrier was the language barrier, since a new French student was in the group and only one of our group members could speak French.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

This project has strengthened friendships between the members. We brought a lot of relevant information to this community since everyone has taken the airplane in the community and we think they might be interested in this topic.

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

Our content addressed the people who take the plane, since it is good to know everything that is happening with airport security since we all are quite frequent travelers. We learned many new skills, for example, we learned how to collaborate with people even without meeting them in person often. We played quite an important role in the community because now, we are teaching the community rather than the community teaching us. Internet is a very useful tool for teaching and learning for us and it has been proven for us that it is more effective.

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

4 MacBooks, 1 Server 4 phones digital camera Skype iWeb Oral interview

These tools helped us communicate and create the project. Our most helpful tools were our computers, since they had all the communicating methods and the website creating applications.

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

We acted as ambassadors by joining all of the most important information and our opinions into one website. We contacted airport employees and their opinions on the airport security and they were interested in what our website would become. We have future plans by having the people we already showed our website to to more people. People were impressed that we chose this topic since it was really interesting for them seeing everyone's opinion in one website rather than going on multiple website to see just one opinion.

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

This website will impact the community because the community is actually using airports very often since most of us are expats. The people have learned new things such as security situation in other countries rather than just China and their home country. People around the world who are not frequent travelers might have learned new things, but it might not be as relevant as for the frequent travelers. We have received feedback that people have found our topic interesting and very relevant to them and expressed their own opinions on this issue.

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

We did not need that much advice on our website since we were from around the world (our group members were from Europe, Asia, South American, North America) and we had our own opinions on this issue. One of the people who helped us was one of our group member's dad, which worked in a private airplane company and was interviewed by us. There were few helpers from around the world, helping us with their opinions.