Research Process

To find out information for this project we started by brainstorming what we already knew, which was not very much.

We decided to send a letter to people living around the school to see if they could help us, and we all took 30 copies to deliver on the weekend.

Sebastian Van der Zwann - ex-pupil of Campbell's Bay school

We contacted an ex-pupil of Campbell's Bay, Sebastian, who is a journalist. He agreed to write a story for the local paper, asking residents with knowledge of the war to contact us to be interviewed.  Sebastian sat in on the interview with Mr Davis and Mrs Hayson.  He also took our photo and taught us about interview techniques.  We learnt to ask open-ended questions using why, when, and where, rather than questions that Could be answered with a 'yes' or a 'no'.  This is so that you get more information.

We looked at some books from our library and from the National Library and we skim read through, and used the index, to find things.  There was nothing in the books about Campbell's Bay School but we did find out some things about the war.

We went to Takapuna Library and asked our parents and grandparents for information.  We found some people to help us, and interviewed them in our conference room.  We taped their talks so if we forgot what they said we could replay the tapes to remind us of the information. We had turns doing the interviews and taking notes and then typing up the notes.  Some people learnt that if you don't take good notes, then you have a really big problem when you come to type them up later.  Mrs Purchase took notes at all the interviews in case we needed help.

Thinking   Josh Research

We looked on the internet and found some pictures from the Alexander Turnbull Library in Wellington.  The people there said that we could use their pictures on our website.  We also got pictures from the people we interviewed although they said that not many people had cameras during the war and even if you did have a camera, it was very hard to get film because of the rationing and shortages of everything.

We scanned the photos on to the website in the JPG format because that is what this website likes.

It was quite hard typing up our notes and thinking of new questions to ask people.  We had to write our information in our own words, not big fancy words that you read in books.  We wanted the little kids to be able to understand our information, not just adults.  Some of us drew pictures, but you didn't have to if you didn't like drawing.  You can't just scan pictures from books into a project like this, unless you have asked permission from the photographer and publisher, so it is better to take your own pictures or draw things.  If you copy someone's work it is called plagiarism, and it is bad.

We also went on a trip to the observation post at JF Kennedy Park and saw all the gun emplacements in real life.  They are really big and were disguised as houses in the war.

We learnt lots of different ways to find information.  We are looking forward to seeing our project finished and on the internet.  When it goes live, we are going to invite our parents and all the people we interviewed to come to school and have a party to celebrate our hard work.  Mrs Purchase is going to give us a certificate at assembly.

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