1. Description of Our Community
We live in a place where you can see many temples and deities around, where there are numerous temple activities and religious ceremonies. Old generation seems to know when to worship certain gods, and what sacrifice offerings good enough to gods. With the advanced technology, some folk practices have been gradually neglected. Through this case study, we may have some memories and understanding about temples, their origin, and some related knowledge.
2. Summary of Our Project
There are numerous old temples in Taoyuan County. Most people are not aware of history and culture of old temples, and their sad stories behind and development. This case study is aimed to introduce “ Hsiang Hsin Tan”, an old temple on the mountain.
We have made on-site interviews during a period of half a year into Web Page. You can have a glance of the old temple in terms of history & culture, geographic environment, belief, architecture and so on. With our further in-depth exploration, you may see something unknown behind an old temple.
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:1
C. Connection speed used in the classroom:dedicated connection
D. Number of years our classroom has been connected to the Internet:2-3
E. Additional comments concerning your computer and/or Internet access (Optional):
When Internet was required, we would use the computer at school to log on the Internet. Through TI and ADSL, we are satisfied with the Internet speed. The school is planning to drive a movement” every classroom with wide-band Internet”. As a result, every classroom can be equipped with a computer with Internet connection. How convenient!
On Holidays, we are able to use computer facilities in the Information office to search information we need. Or we may go to Internet Café, or at least we can use our computer with a modem at our own home.
4. Problems We Had To Overcome
Our first drawback was the change of study subject. Due to typhoons and the safety concern they caused, we had to cancel the original topic "Train Journey to Hualien." Then we learned about Hsiang Hsin Tan by chance. After knowing the stories behind the scenes, we decided to make it the subject of our case study.
The tremendous amount of information presented another challenge. Processing the information gathered mostly through interviews becomes an important issue. To solve the problem of writing down the materials recorded on interviewing tapes, we listened and typed them into text files and let the students decided what they want.
Transportation and language problems seem trivial compared to he ones mentioned above. As there are very few buses going up the mountain where Hsiang Hsin Tan is located and the students are too young to drive, Director Chen, Mr. Hsu and Ms. Chen would take the students either by car by motorcycles. Last but not least, Hakka is the dialect spoken by people in Hsiang Hsin Tan, Ms. Chen, the only group member who speaks fluent Hakka, acts as our interpreter.
5. Our Project Sound Bite
It has been half a year since we started our case study. Now it comes to an end. This ending seems perfect to us. We have spent a lot of time and learned from this case study, and the teacher gained experiences of leading us. We learned how to collect data and information, deal with and communicate with people.
Local hooligans often came and make troubles in the temple, threatening their family. They are not scared, as the head said, “ as the manager of temple, I should do my best to safeguard the temple.” The way he was doing things is what we need to learn. As long as things are right and good, we should be insistent. Men are doing things on earth, and the heavens are observing them. In spite of villains’ evil doing, things will change in a long run.
The contest is over now. We are going to dedicate our works in the contest to Hsiang Hsin Tan. We hope through this website, the temple can be prosperous. Let us make an extra effort!
6. How did your activities and research for this CyberFair Project support standards, required coursework and curriculum standards?
As to your involving in the activity of case study in the Cyber Fair, does it help you in terms of the school teaching and the curriculum? Among others, our students are the ones of low-achievement. They have not been good in academic performance, and less interested in class.
However, through the case study, they made field and site investigations. On the interview process, they were dealing with people and things. Most important of all, they learned ways of communication and the importance of it. All of these cannot be provided in class alone. Working together in interviews, teachers and students are getting in good terms. In addition, we have learned how to use some software, some of which taught at school some of which learned at first time. In doing the case study, we are getting fond of computers, which provides us other usages than video games, such as filming editing, photo processing, data gathering, etc. on experiencing these, we are sure we are getting more interested in learning.
In junior year, we students at Information Department are going to have a class, called “ topic making”. We believe we can score high because of our experience we got this time.
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