Brainstorming: Creating Our Team's Own Questionnaire

Before handing out the questionnaire, our whole team got together and discussed: "What questions should we ask everyone?" We wanted to know if people knew the history of Jian Dui, if they liked eating it, and what they thought about this traditional food. Everyone shared their ideas, and we wrote the questions on the blackboard one by one. After cutting and changing them many times, we made sure the questions were easy to understand and the questionnaire wasn't too long to make people not want to write it. Finally, we designed our very own "Lukang Jian Dui Survey" for the Sky-Patching Team!

Pre-trip Training: Overcoming Our Fear to Practice Handing It Out

Now that we had the questionnaire, we had to walk up to complete strangers with it. Everyone felt very nervous. To not mess up, we practiced beforehand. We learned how to be brave to speak up, introduce ourselves politely, and explain our research. We also practiced smiling and saying "thank you" even if we were rejected.

Dragon Boat Festival Action: Approaching the Crowds Waiting for Jian Dui

The Dragon Boat Festival was our first real test! We took our questionnaires to the place where Jian Dui was given out and looked for people waiting in line. Although we were a little shy at first, we saw that the people in line had free time and loved Jian Dui, so many of them were happy to help. Seeing the blank questionnaires get filled out gave our team members a lot of energy.

Teacher's Day Greetings: A Warm and Thankful Questionnaire

On Teacher's Day, we combined our research with a thanksgiving activity. We gave Jian Dui and hand-written thank-you cards to our teachers and asked them to help fill out the questionnaire. We found that the teachers answered very carefully. They also shared many of their childhood memories of getting and eating Jian Dui. The feeling there was very warm.

Designing a questionnaire is a big subject to learn:

When discussing the questions, we found it is really hard to turn what we want to know into easy questions and choices for others! This taught us the importance of putting ourselves in other people's shoes.

Being brave to speak up is the first step to success:

From stuttering in front of strangers to confidently saying, "Hello, we are the Ludong Sky-Patching Team," we learned useful communication skills. As long as we are polite and explain clearly, most people are willing to support elementary school students doing local research.

Jian Dui is not just food, but a shared memory for people in Lukang:

While asking teachers to fill out the questionnaire, we were surprised to hear many stories that are not in textbooks. This made us deeply understand that this traditional snack is closely connected to the childhood memories of many elders and teachers.

Organizing data requires great care and patience:

Typing a lot of questionnaires into the computer is a hard job for our eyes and patience. But it also made us understand that each piece of data represents someone's kindness. We must type them correctly so our final research results will be objective and accurate.