To facilitate participants in the planning process and strengthen their skills in conducting group projects, the Institute organised five workshops for school teachers and students in July and August with guest speakers from local museums, the media and the medical profession. The first four workshops took place at the Hong Kong Museum of History. Using vivid examples to illustrate, speakers discussed project work in terms of methodology, perspectives, organisation, media production and presentation skills. The last workshop was conducted in the Prince of Wales Hospital where Professor Joseph Sung talked about the difficulties the medical professionals had encountered in their struggle against SARS. The workshops received an encouraging response from over 30 schools for each session. Episodes from the workshops are available on the Project website: http://www.ied.edu.hk/sarslearning/. The key elements of each workshop are summarised below.

Dr Ting introduced the procedures and methodology for conducting research on historical topics. He explained that learning about, exploring and deliberating on history from a wide spectrum of perspectives such as culture, geography, economics, politics and individual personality would result in a more impressive and effective study process. He pointed out that young people in Hong Kong are well qualified to give eye-witness accounts of the SARS outbreak in 2003.