CyberFair Project ID: 7970

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International Schools CyberFair Project Narrative
Title: A Cappella Poetic Voices - HanGuang Vocal Band
Category: 8. Local Music and Art Forms
URL: http://librarywork.taiwanschoolnet.org/gsh2015/gsh7970/index.htm
Bibliography: http://librarywork.taiwanschoolnet.org/gsh2015/gsh7970/biography.htm

School: Yu-Tsai Billingual Elementary School
    New Taipei City, , Taiwan

11 students, ages 10-12 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on March 10, 2015. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): 2010,2011,2012,2013,2014

Classes and Teachers: Elaine Hsu, Christina Chen, Sunny Peng, Tina Yang, Tina Yeh, David Chen

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://www.ytes.ntpc.edu.tw/

Project Overview

1. Description of Our Community

Our school is located in Yonghe District of New Taipei City. Being a group that is grown locally, HanGuang Vocal Band is one of the few international bands that have been insistent on social responsibility and cultural revamping. It is also a pioneer in fusing classical poetries with a cappella. The band has people as its backbone, with culture as its foundation. It is an a cappella band that focuses on the harmonization of people and groups. HanGuang Vocal Band is from Taiwan. It is working hard to send the voice of all Asians onto the international stage.

2. Summary of Our Project

Founded in 2012, HanGuang Vocal Band fuses cultural heritage, musical elements, stage arts, and drama. It is Taiwan’s pioneer in fusing classical poetries with a cappella, and it focuses on cultural creativity. The band represents a new generation of performance with streamlined choreography and body language to create a brand new audio-visual experience with an Asian flavor. Most of the group’s songs are rearranged classical poetries, with only a few pop songs stashed in its repertoire. HanGuang Vocal Band is aiming to make itself a classical poetry a cappella band that is built on cultural creativity. HanGuang Vocal Band demonstrates the purest form of human voice in singing. We hope to share with the world about what the band has been doing in music, public welfare, and cultural promotion. And we hope to learn, discover, and grow with the band through this research project.

3. Our Computer and Internet Access

A. Percentage of students using the Internet at home:less than 20

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):

Our Internet connection goes through the academic network. There are fifty computers in the computer room for our students to work on the project. There is between one to four computers in every office, including the library, and one computer in every classroom. All computers are connected to the web to facilitate searching, discussion and printing. Our outbound connection is a fiber-optic line that connects to the New Taipei City education network. Moreover, the entire school is covered by WiFi for staff access.

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

1.Team communication: We discuss in groups most of the time for Cyberfair projects. Therefore, communication and cooperation between group members are very important to us. In the beginning, when team members were still new to each other, we had arguments arising from minor issues. It was also due to these minor conflicts that we learned to calm ourselves, listen, and respect the opinions of others. Gradually, we learned to listen, express our own opinions, and ways to communicate with our peers. 2.Teamwork: A Cyberfair project requires teamwork, and it is not meant to be completed by a single individual. Getting a group of students coming from different classes to work together presented a huge challenge for us! Therefore, after group tasks, such as guided tour and music seminar, were announced, we used the computer room for group meetings and discussions when it was vacant. While assigning jobs, we considered the strengths and weaknesses of each individual so everyone got a chance to contribute, making the project more efficient. 3.Interviews and Researches: In order to get our information first hand, we interviewed and completed questionnaires with people related to the band, people in the community, audience in the concert, and students from Yu-Tsai. It was a major challenge for us because it was our first time interviewing people and asking them to do questionnaires. To overcome that obstacle, we practiced really hard before interviews, and we even got our teacher to do a mock interview with us just to get us ready. Finally, when it came time for the actual interviews, we finished them with confidence. Interviewing and doing questionnaires with courage helped us get a hold on a lot of crucial information we needed for this project!

5. Our Project Sound Bite

Over the six-month span in our Cyberfair project, we got to know a very special band called HanGuang Vocal Band. We learned what made this band unique. HanGuang was really active in charity events, and it promoted Chinese culture without reservation. There is a lot for people to know, learn, and do. In this project, we learned a lot about the band, a cappella, and classical poetries. What made the project even more rewarding was we actually got to experience the fun in singing classical poetry in a cappella. After getting to know the band better, we held a series of events, like in-school guided tours, music class lessons, music seminar, and a cappella poetry competition to help our teachers and fellow students learn about HanGuang and a cappella. In addition, we wanted students to learn about a cappella singing techniques and use them for reciting and learning classical poetries.

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

1 Language: 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. This helped us in the listening, speaking, reading, and writing aspects of integrated language learning. 2. Math: 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. 3. Social Studies: 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. 4. Art and Humanities: 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. 5. Science and Technology: 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. 6. Mixed Activities: 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. Everyone on the Cyberfair team realized the importance of teamwork and the joy of sharing our success.

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Project Elements

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

[Software] *Windows 7: OS used during the project *Internet Explorer, Google Chrome: Searching related websites for information and *news; uploading event videos and pictures *Microsoft Power Point 2010: Notifying team members and music class presentations *Microsoft Word 2010: Finalizing the text script of and reports for the project *Microsoft Excel 2010: Questionnaire statistics and charts *PhotoImpact X3: Image editing; poster, program, sign boards *Photoscape: Image editing *XMind: Drawing the mind map *Adobe Flash CS6:Creation of animations *Adobe Dreamweaver CS6, Microsoft SharePointDesigner 2007 : Creations of topic website *GoogleForm: Questionnaires *PowerDirector11: Editing event related and voice percussion demonstration videos *EDUCOCO online platform: Discussions, researching, idea sharing

[Hardware] *Digital camera: Recording of activities *Sony Digital Camera: Recording of activities *Microphones and speakers: Announcing of activities *Projector and notebook: Administrative meetings, briefings, music lessons *Tablet PC: In-school guided tour *Laser printer: Printing research materials *Mobile phones, voice recording pens: Interviews and sound recording *School PA system: Lunchtime broadcasts

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

1. Bridging Yu-Tsai and HanGuang: After our topic was set, we acted as the bridge between HanGuang and the school. We sent out invitation cards with messages from students to Director Chu via email. After the band had agreed, we drafted a rough proposal for this year’s Cyberfair and presented it to our principal and directors during school’s administrative meeting. Finally, with both parties agreeing to our proposal, we finalized the events and dates for both Yu-Tsai and HanGuang. 2. Interaction With School Staff and Students: Throughout our research, we held many activities for school staff and students to join. For the guided tour, we came up with lively ways to do it so students would be able to learn about a cappella from different angles. As for the music seminar, learning poetry through a cappella, and music lessons, we were mostly in charge of supporting duties, planning activities, and contacting the band. We hoped our teachers and students could learn more about HanGuang Vocal Band and a cappella through these activities. 3. Interaction With HanGuang: From our interviews, activities, and team practice sessions with HanGuang, we saw how passionate each one of them was about music and the band. After spending time with the band, we learned a different side of HanGuang that could not be seen from videos on the Internet. We learned that it takes a tremendous amount of hard work to become a member on an a cappella band. 4. Interaction With Local Community: Before our activities with the band started, we reached out to neighboring communities and learned how much they know about a cappella through questionnaires. We even got acquainted with some of them! This is truly a valuable and unforgettable experience for us.

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

Before contacting HanGuang Vocal Band, we did not know much about a cappella. After researching for quite some time, we learned not only about a cappella, but also about writing poems and singing them in a cappella! Besides the Cyberfair team, students at Yu-Tsai have also learned to sing classical poetries in a cappella through learning, experiencing, and imitating. They have indeed made learning poems more interesting! On our project website, we have a lot of first-hand reports, information on the band and a cappella, and activities relating to poetries. Through the website, one can not only learn more about the band, but also learn about singing a cappella and analyze classical poetries. As for the content of the site, we invited Mr. Chu and our music teachers to give us suggestions and verify on the accuracy of our research. Director Chu helped us with analyzing classical poetries. After the website was complete, we invited HanGuang Vocal Band, our teachers and principal, and parents to give us some feedbacks. All of them said that our research was very comprehensive and interesting, definitely worth the time to go through the site in detail!

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

We’d like to thank everyone on HanGuang Vocal Band for granting our interview and performing at Yu-Tsai Elementary School even when they were extremely busy. Every student was able to see and hear A Cappella. During our research, they not only shared every bits and pieces of the band with us, but also agreed to demonstrate different singing parts for the song –Full River of Red. Furthermore, we’d like to thank them for staying after the school concert and teaching us about voice percussion and Bass. We even made a video so every student at Yu-Tsai would be able to learn with us. About this project, we got a chance to learn about A Cappella and attend the band’s practice sessions. Whether it’s through observing the band’s practices sessions or performances, we could see and hear HanGuang Vocal Band’s heavenly voice and its unique style of A Cappella. The member of the HanGuang Vocal Band taught us to know A Cappella and gave us a lot of comments about our project. We were very appreciate the member of the HanGuang Vocal Band and the all be accepted that interviewed from us.

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

[ Discoveries ] 1. Many Hands Make Light Work During our research, we got teams competing against each other to create synergy, and the end result was better than expected. While organizing and making and website, we got back to individual work with some people doing image editing and others working on content layout and editing. 2. Let’s A Cappella A cappella is not limited to adults, even kids are able to learn a cappella, and they may even do a better job than adults. When combined with classical poems, a cappella helps people learning about poetry. Learning poetry can now be both fun and relaxing. [ Lessons ] 1. Always give it all you’ve got We sometimes handed in works that were substandard due to time constraint, and they inevitably got rejected by our teachers. After the project, we have learned not to compromise on the quality of our work and give it all we’ve got! 2. Time management, progress tracking We used most of our time during lunch break and after school hours to work on the project in computer classroom. However, after we got there, we could not resist chatting with each other, leaving important tasks unattended. As a result, we got a bit behind near the end. We need to do a better job in time management and progress tracking to see the project moving forward according to the schedule. [ Surprises ] We found out that HanGuang Vocal Band performs a truly amazing brand of a cappella with classical Chinese poetries as lyrics. They unveiled a new dimension of classical poetries with the merging of western music with eastern poetry. From HanGuang’s performances, we heard the poet’s heart and soul in the songs, and HanGuang’s dazzling techniques in a cappella simply left us in amazement.

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