GGHS 우희○

2018 Personal Essay

2018 GGHS Team 2

Unforgettable experience, combination of chemistry and Goryeo!

The reason why I participated in the global camp in the short summer vacation is because I learned about the science of the Goryeo period while participating in the 1100year science festival. Some people ask me that it is wasting time for three days at a global camp, but I think it is more rewarding to learn by participating in this program. Also, there is not much information about the Science of the Goryeo Dynasty. In particular, the chemistry field had very limited data, so it was hard to find the material while preparing for the academy. So I joined this global camp to explore the science of the Goryeo Dynasty and put it on our Wiki page to help others when they need this information.

I chose this subject 'Goryeo celadon and Goryeo gunpowder’ in my field of chemistry, because I thought it was best to show the chemical skills of the Goryeo Dynasty. Especially, I have been very interested in Goryeo celadon, because I heard that the colors of Goryeo celadon appeared through chemical reaction. Since I am interested in chemistry, it is obvious that Goryeo celadon seems to be very intriguing for me. However my knowledge about the chemical reactions of Goryeo celadon was poor. Then I met my group members through this program, so I could learn more about it.

A wide variety of techniques are used to make Goryeo celadon. The most typical technique is inlay technique called Sanggam. Sanggam is a method of engraving with background colors and other colors of soil on the surface of a celadon after carving out patterns or pictures. This allows you to create patterns of different colors and to emphasize more about its extravagance. Until the early Goryeo Dynasty, Goryeo followed the Song’s techniques to make celadon. However, by developing unique techniques of Goryeo, Goryeo celadon as we know it today was born. Thanks to the creativity of the Goryeo people, Goryeo celadon has been loved until these days.

One of the most surprising aspects was that Goryeo celadon was used in a wide variety of fields beyond our imagination. The celadon was used as a tool of living for the nobles, not only the jars, but also the bowls, plates, teacups, ink sticks, and even the building materials used to build the house. I had expected that a jar would be used, but it was quite surprising that it was also used in construction materials.

I made an effort to present my opinion on the direction in which I would work as an assistant team leader and share roles so that I could easily research data and write contents. In addition, it was usually just written, but it had to be written through coding language when it was posted on Wiki page. But I felt difficult because I was very unfamiliar with Wiki language and all my teammates as well. So I set the basic framework so that I could teach my team how to write things and help them to build things up, so that everyone could post their work.

In fact, when we started the global camp, I was very concerned about how to proceed and how to relate Goryeo to chemistry. I also suffered from lack of data. But in the process, I learned a lot about the chemical technology of the Goryeo Dynasty. Most of all, using coding to post the content of our quest on Wiki page made me very impressive. I heard only about coding, tried to learn it by myself, but I felt very difficult to give it a try. This time, it was an opportunity for me to learn about Wiki language and it was very rewarding to put it on Wiki page and get help from others. I would like to continue my exploration of this subject, posting what I learned in the process on Wiki page, and revising it.

This global camp gave me unforgettable memories. It was hard but I could learn many things. If I have a chance, I would like to participate in it next time.