School: Sanyu Elementary School
    Taipei, Taiwan, Taiwan R.O.C.

5 students, ages 11-12 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on March 18, 2003. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): 2003

Classes and Teachers: Wu Wen-Chung, Lin Jr-Jung, Lin Yu-Ling

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://www.syups.tp.edu.tw

1. Description of Our Community

Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei is an international city with a large population and limited space. Along with the urbanization, its garbage volume has remained high and shows no sign of decreasing. Therefore, garbage has troubled Taipei city residents for years. On the other hand, the rapid growth of computerization and networking has resulted in a sudden increase of waste IT (Information Technology) products. Most of the waste IT products contain toxic substances and are made of materials not readily decomposed. They often become heavy burdens of landfills, damage incinerators and seriously pollute our environment.

In order to solve the garbage problem, Taipei city has implemented the “per bag trash collection fee” system since July 1st, 2000. It is a garbage management system “mainly aiming at recycling”, and is a great revolution as far as environmental protection is concerned. As for the waste IT products, there are also recycling plans to re-process the “wastes” and make them usable again. With the collective effort of City Government and city residents, garbage volume has decreased a lot and recycling amount has comparatively increased. Taipei city has made great achievements in terms of recycling, and has now become a cleaner, more beautiful world-class city.

2. Summary of Our Project

Our project plan was to explore how a successful recycling system operates, how the recycling system is planned and what kinds of accompanying policies are needed to support the recycling system. Our research covers two major areas. The first one is “per bag trash collection fee system”, i.e. a recycling mode of garbage management system. The second one is the recycling of waste IT products, including a showcase of the recycled and reprocessed products.

3. Our Computer and Internet Access

A. Percentage of students using the Internet at home:more than 50%

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:4-6

E. Additional comments concerning your computer and/or Internet access (Optional):

The page layouts, animations and images on our web site are created and completed at school, teachers’ home and students’ home respectively. Sanyu Elementary School uses Fiber network 10Mbps to connect with Taiwan academic web sites. All of our teachers and students working on the project use broadband transmission to surf on line. Every team member applied mail 2000’s free email account to create project timetable. The timetable enabled us to clearly control the progress of one another’s work. Meanwhile, every participant also applied hotmail account for discussing, brainstorming and sending files on-line.

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

We enjoyed working on this project very much. We all took efforts for the project, and with which all problems were solved one by one.

(1)Time management:

All of the students working on this project have to attend some after school classes, such as English and piano. To cope with the extreme time constraint, we studied every team member’s schedule very hard and finally set up regular meetings during lunch breaks on every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday to discuss the project.

(2)Project structures:

The scope of environmental protection issues is very broad, including the air environment, ground environment and living environment… etc. Because of the limitation of time, energy and web space, after a long time researching, we decided to narrow down our research scope to two latest and most significant environmental protection issues in Taipei city. They are: “per bag trash collection fee” system and the recycling of waste IT products.

(3) Recycling event:

When we started working on this project, our teachers had given us an idea that the value of a research project does not lie on armchair strategy. Instead, we should spread the environmental protection knowledge and concept over our community and call the environmental protection into action. To five of us, it was too difficult to carry out this mission alone. Hence, we decided to look for partners to help us with the recycling activity. We had submitted proposals to some organizations and were fortunate to obtain the supports from HP Taiwan, Taipei City Education Bureau and our school. Prior to the activity, we prepared propaganda and sent out over 2000 copies of questionnaires to all Sanyu Elementary School students' parents. The publicity flyers and questionnaires included recycling education information and the information for the printer recycling activity.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

(1)Our sound bite:

Apply the concept of recycling thoroughly at all time! There will be nothing to worry about for generation after generation.

(2)What has our participation in International Schools CyberFair meant to students, school or community?

Because of the recycling activity in this project, the community was educated with the importance of recycling and was guided to do recycling together. This activity also aroused the community residents’ awareness of environmental protection.

In order to intrigue students’ curiosity to view this web site, we created on-line quiz and on-line puzzles. Hopefully, Sanyu Elementary School’s students will pay more attention to recycling.

Through doing this project, all of us realized the importance of collaboration in a team project. Besides, we have acquired the skill of information editing and learned many computer programs, such as Dreamweaver, PhotoShop, Illustrator… etc.

6. How did your activities and research for this CyberFair Project support standards, required coursework and curriculum standards?

“Nine-year Coherent Curriculum” is our new national curriculum system. It fully integrates the curricula of Elementary and Junior High Schools and covers seven major subject areas: natural and technology, composite activity, health and physical education, languages, social studies, art and culture, and mathematics. The following examples illustrate how our activities and research for this project fit into the seven subject areas.

Nature and technology: 1) Observation, discussion and recording. 2) Construct "Recycling Magic" web site. 3) The Chic Green Event. 4) Bibliography.

Composite activities: 1) Visit recycling management factory. 2) Interview Influential people.

Health and physical education: 1) Recycling mode of garbage disposal. 2) Recycling IT products.

Languages: 1) Collect and read related information. 2) Integrate the information. 3) Issue press release to mass media. 4) Recycling education (on-line quiz).

Social studies : 1) Investigate and visit on the spot. 2) Conduct questionnaire survey in Tian-Mu area.

Art and culture: 1) Pictures and drawings about recycling. 2) Create publicity posters. 3) Recycling education (puzzles).

Mathematics: 1) Number talks. 2) Statistic charts. 3) Ratio calculations.

Through doing this project, we have acquired the skills of conducting research and learned some computer programs. We also realized that harmonious teamwork is very important for a team project.

Our group practiced concept mapping, story boarding and peer tutoring. The content of our web site was created based on the four principles – analysis, design, development and evaluation. There are assessment programs, on-line quiz and on-line game on our web site, to not only promote visitors’ motivation of visiting the web site but also evaluate visitors’ understanding levels of recycling.

1) What information tools & technologies did you used to complete your CyberFair project?

(1) Computer hardware:

IBM and DELL brand personal computers, internet (Fiber network 10Mbps), printer, scanner, digital camera, phone, recorder, digital drawing board, Card Reader, CF card, and CD writer.

(2) Computer software:

Macromedia FlashMX, Macromedia DreamweaverMX, Macromedia Fireworks,MX Photosop 7 ,Illustrator 10, Ulead PhotoImpact 7,Microsoft Windows 2000, Professional,Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition, Microsoft Windows 98SE,CuteFTP 4.0,Toon Boom Studio v2,Office 2000 or XP,MSN Messenger 5.0,Norton Internet Security 2003,Norton Antivirus 2003,WinZIP 8.1,WinRAR 3.0, and ACDSee PowerPack 4.0.

(3) The technologies we used for communication:

On-line meeting and discussion through phone, fax and email. Send one another files through email. Post recycling event notice on the web site of a company (HP Taiwan).

(4) Facility sources:

All the software and computer hardware are students' private properties.

(5) The most effective technology:

In terms of communication tool, the hotmail email is the most effective one. For example, we worked separately to integrate the statistics by the use of messenger on-line reporting to send one another the statistical figures.

2) In what ways did you act as "ambassadors" and spokespersons for your CyberFair project both on-line and in person.

(1) Interviewing VIPs:

In order to accomplish this project, we had interviewed several key persons. Shen Shu-Hung, Director of Taipei city’s Bureau of Environmental Protection, has advocated the “per bag trash collection fee system”. Yu Yung-Chiech, Executive Secretary of Recycling Management Fund, is in charge of waste IT products recycling. Another critical interviewee is Taipei City Mayor Ma Ying-Jeou. He has posed a very challenging vow that Taipei city will reach the target: “No trash is buried; all resources are recycled” by year 2010. We were eager to know how this vision will be materialized.

We had done a lot of preparation before the interview. We started with surfing on the Internet to collect some basic data, and finally composed the questions for the interviews through brainstorming. We contacted the VIPs’ secretaries to explain the purposes and subjects of our interviews. We also emailed or faxed the questions to the interviewees beforehand. Fortunately, these VIPs willingly accepted our interview.

(2) Holding recycling event:

In order to invite more people to participate in our printer-recycling event, we had disseminated event notice beforehand via Internet, mass media and we students’ hands. We posted event notices on the websites of Sanyu Elementary School and HP Taiwan. We put up propaganda posters on the community bulletin boards. We also asked our schoolmates to bring the event notice to their parents. Finally, we issued press release to let the general public know about our objectives and efforts. Such an extensive publicity program had brought many people to our recycling event. In one day, we collected over 120 recycled printers or laser jet cartridges. People were impressed with the work we had done. One of the local news reporters called us “the junior pioneers who have made brilliant achievements.”

3) What has been the impact of your project on your community?

(1) Educate the community residents:

We conducted a questionnaire survey in our community. Through the “Do you know…?” questioning pattern, we disseminated to the community the recycling related information including the review of “per bag trash collection” fee system and recycling channels of waste IT products.

(2) Guide the community residents to do recycling together:

As the result showed that over 120 printers or laser jet cartridges were recycled in one day, we knew our effort of guiding community residents to do recycling has gained great support.

(3) Educate all students in Sanyu Elementary School:

We are confident that we have constructed a lively and interesting recycling web site, and it is a good teaching material for recycling. Therefore, we talked to our principal hoping that the web site could be forwarded to every student in Sanyu. In order to intrigue students’ curiosity to view this web site, we created on-line quiz and on-line puzzles. We believe that after visiting this web site, students will pay more attention to recycling and extend the habit of recycling to their families. At the same time, the students will be encouraged to reinforce their information retrieving ability.

(4) Unite with other schools and organizations:

The logo of “Recycling Magic” has been placed on the home page of our school’s web site. In this way, environmental protection organizations and other schools can download the web page content via Internet and take it as a teaching material. Furthermore, our school has shared our achievement with other school’s teachers in a national conference. We would like to take this opportunity to scatter the seed of resource recycling over all schools in the country. Currently, our web site is linked with the web sites of two environmental protection organizations, eight schools, and one international cooperation.

4) How did your project involve other members of your community as helpers and volunteers?

This project would not have been possible without the help and guidance of our teachers, school, friends, families and the public.

(1) We would like to thank HP Taiwan who generously supported the printer-recycling activity. For each recycled laser jet cartridge, HP diverted 100NTD to the regional computer education fund for the "921 Earthquake Disaster.” For each recycled printer, HP offered a NTD 1000 discount coupon for the consumable materials of printers. HP also offered every participant a complimentary snap shot. The help from HP made the activity very interesting; we consequently received favorable responses from the general public.

(2) We also appreciated the help from Super Dragon Technology Co., Ltd. When we visited their recycling factory, they enthusiastically gave us a very comprehensive recycling lesson and showed us their recycling and reprocessing workflows. At the end, they gave us a sculpture made of reprocessed glass-resin material. This was one of the most fruitful visits in the process of doing the project.

(3) We will never forget how our teachers guided us through the process of project research. They gave us general direction as we started the project. They taught us how to collect data, edit and consolidate information, construct the multi-media Web page during the research process. When we encountered obstacles that we could not overcome by ourselves alone, they gave us just-in-time advices. When we turned in our homework, they always gave us optimistic big smiles.

(4) Besides, we are grateful for our big brother Ken Chen’s long-distance assistance with the digital animation as well as our teacher Huang Mei-Chen and Auntie Ko Hsiang-Yuan’s helps with the English translation.

(5) Last but not least, we would like to thank our parents for their love and encouragement that supported us all the way through our endeavors.

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

In the process of doing this project, we were most surprised by those recycling statistics. For instance, 50 KG recycled paper can save one 20-year-old tree; 99% of the rapidly increasing waste IT products are recyclable; 26000 recycled computer motherboards can be refined to 1.5 KG gold; the recycled wastes of computer monitors can be used for paving roads. Furthermore, we knew that the main entrance paths of the National Palace Museum and Taipei Municipal Zoo would be paved with glass asphalt, a recycling by-product. The road will glitter at night and in the sun.

Moreover, we realized that harmonious teamwork is very important for a team project. Besides showing his/her best ability, every team member should also try his/her best to help one another solve problems and overcome obstacles. This is the objective that teacher Lin set up for us from the very beginning. When we turned in our homework, teacher Lin always wore an optimistic big smile and admired our work. Hence, we were able to work very hard together and cooperate with one another very well under the none-pressured and self-expressive circumstance. Working on this project will be one of the most valuable experiences in our lives.