CyberFair Project ID: 4637

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International Schools CyberFair Project Narrative
Title: Miracle of the Sugarcane field-Spring of the canal
Category: 7. Environmental Awareness
URL: http://www.victoria.org.tw/95librarywork/index.htm
Bibliography: http://www.victoria.org.tw/95librarywork/95e/M7/a7.html

School: Victoria Academy
    Yunlin County, NP, Taiwan

11 students, ages 13-15 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on February 28, 2006. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): NP

Classes and Teachers: Angel Shiao, Henrry Su, Vivian Cheng / Grade 7 & 8

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://htt://www.victoria.org.tw/

Project Overview

1. Description of Our Community

Yunlin is located at the central-south part along the western coast of Taiwan. Yunlin County stands at the north tip of Chianan plain, bordering Nantou County in the east, Changhua County in north with Choshiu River as watershed, Chiayi County in the south with Peikang River as watershed. The County has a total land area of 1,290.8351 square kilometers and a population of about 750,000. Major rivers, such as Choshiu River, Chingshiu River, Peikang River and Huwei River run from east to west into the Taiwan Straits. Under the jurisdiction of the County Government are one city, five urban townships and 14 rural townships. Except for Touliu City, Kuken and Linnei rural townships cover some mountains; the rest of them are plains. Chiatung Area is located in Douliu City, which is surrounded with various of farms. It belongs to the Dalun watershed of the Peikang River. The community waste water flows to the Dalun drain. Dalun drain flows eater towards to the river and meets other community waste water at the southwestern corner of Victoria Academy.

2. Summary of Our Project

1.how sugar-cane field turns into a private school -- Victoria Academy 2. study how importance of the biological environment 3. study how to well-use Dalun drainage system to decrease the water pollution problem 4. to compare different human-made biological pools nearby Victoria Academy 5. interview professionals and collect related information about environmental protection

3. Our Computer and Internet Access

A. Percentage of students using the Internet at home:21-50%

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):

Victoria Academy adopts ADSL to surf useful information and benefit teaching. In addition, there are two NT Servers and a LINUX Server used for WEB, DBS, MAIL, and FTP.

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

Through the process of water quality examination, we had learned a lot from interviewing several graduates and professors from National Yunlin University of Science and Techonology. They showed us how to work on chemical experiments and also taught students how to identify various species of living things in water, which was quite difficult and strenuous for us. Furthermore, we had to look for and read through all kinds of useful books, the encyclopedia, and internet data to decrease mistakes. In addition, although Junior high students in Taiwan usually have a lot of tests to take everyday, we sacrificed our nap time and weekends, working on computers to complete a huge mass of data we had collected and organized.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

We are glad that we have a group of students who are willing to participate this project. Although we had met a lot of problems and obstacles when we just started to work on the project, we do learn how to overcome these difficulties at the same time. Furthermore, we got lots of support and assistance from parents, who drove us everywhere to investigate varieties of ecological systems and even found use helpful devices to work on experiements. Though we got stung by insects or fell on all fours now and then, we still appreciate for this opportunity to work with others.

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

This project is concerned about the environmental and ecological problems, which is related to our biology courses and school sewage problems. In order to study more cases, we visited a lot of different places, schools, and universities in our community. We believe that students must have accumulated many experiences of investigations, interviews, and doing records. They are not bookworms. They learned to use the knowledge they got from books to organize and record their discoveries.

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Project Elements

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

oral interviews and telephones -- visit experts; interview through several phone calls computer software -- Dreamweaver MX, PhotoImpact 8.0, FlashMX books, nespapers -- look for related documents and reports recorders -- record interview contents, edit the records digital cameras -- make and edit CD picture Albums, scanners, printers -- scan newspapers or pictures, print out students' typing work laptop computers -- easy to bring with when visiting other places or people other computers -- students type written documents and surf information internet website -- surf data and communicate with internet pals flash discs -- is able to store a huge mass of data and picture files

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

At the beginning, Ms. Shiao was the one who started to work on data searching. She connected a Senior student studying at Transworld Institute of Technology and then was introduced to know a professor - Tan-Chao Won teaching in the National Yunlin University of Science and Technology. Ms.Shiao told them about our project and the assistance required from them. To our gratitude, they all agreed to help and did provide lots of relevant documents -- secondary or primary ones. Afterwards, our leader student -- David Tung started to take every plan in charge, including contacting interviewers, planning the route of each trip, finding opportunities to talk to staff in Victoria Academy and people living in the community. Charlie Wang mainly took care of the distribution of different tasks, for example, interviewing questionnaires, tapes recording, outdoors visiting, daily recorders and journals, and website pages design...etc. Through those tasks, students played as ambassadors to meet various residents and people who are specialists in environmental study and sewage disposal, discussing the importance of keeping away water pollution issues.

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

This project is the product of every participant's effort and achievement. Every participant have learned that a good project does need everyone's devotion and contribution in either individual research or team brainstorming work. Particularly, they also learned that 'science' is around us, everywhere in life, not just the things show up in the textbooks. Learning Science is not merely to meet academic achievement, but also to solve problems -- human or natural problems. Our community has a new group of pioneers are willing to take environmental issues into concerns.

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

We extremely feel an immense gratitude towards Professor - Tung-Chao Wun. He was not only provide plentiful data and useful disks to enrich our website contents, and all interviews were also conducted with permission from him. We also want to thank the graduates from Transworld Institute of Technology, volunteer parents, and administrators from our school -- Victoria Academy.

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

All the living things on the Earth rely on the Sun, the atmosphere, water, and soil, those environmental elements to exist. If our environment is threatened or damaged by any human developmental activities, all living things will get into danger as well. The ecological balance will be destroyed, too. Therefore when we are striving to promote the built-up of man-made ecological pool, simultaneously, we are improving the sewage treatment. When the sewage treatment betters a lot, all living things will revive again. Another discovery from project is that we found that water pollution is the main factor causing lots of organisms' disappearance or inexistence. If a school uses waste water to water the court field or plants, then the wild beings will lessen gradually. How to get a balance between economic effect and environmental protection will always be a concerned topic for human beings.

Bibliography: 1.Yulin Environmental Protection Bureau:'? School & Community Sewage Natural Purification Evaluation Report of Yunlin County,2004' (Revision 2005), TRI-GREEN ENGINEERING CONSULTANT LTD. 2.Shian-De, Lin. 'Biodiversity Design for Living Environment',2001,Jang-Shi Bookstore. 3.Yu-Shian,Tu. 'Freshwater Cladocera (Crustacea:Branchiopoda : Cladocera)', 2002, National Hsinchu University of Education. 4.Division of Environmental Protection Education. 'Huan-Huan-Shiao-Ko Album',1990,Taiwan Mitsubishicorp.

Websites: 1. Environmental Protection Administration Executive Yuan, R.O.C., [online] http://www.epa.gov.tw/main/index.asp 2. Environmental Natural Resource Educational Research Center at Transworld Institute of Technology, [online] http://tracer.tit.edu.tw/titbyjl/index/index1.htm 3. Department of Safety Health and Environmental Engineering Institute of Safety Health and Environmental Engineering at National Yunlin University of Science and Technology, [online] http://140.125.41.10/#

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