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1. Description of Our Community
“Jingmei” is an ancient market near our school. Being affected by the environment evolution, the market started downward. However, the build in of Taipei Public Library, Taipei Cultural Center and Taipei Hydraulic Engineering Office, brought new life to Jingmei both in culture and recreation. Jingmei, just like a lot of other market places in Taiwan, developed and expanded around the Jiing Temple which is protected as third-class historical site. When the volunteer inside the temple narrated the development of Jiing Temple, it seemed telling the story of the market’s past and present, rise and fall. To keep to the fast changing society, when the day turned to dusk, the night market took place fulfilling the needs of nearby residences, especially people from Xindian Bao Bridge Industrial Estate and Far-East Industrial Estate. In the most flourishing period, Jinmei included day market, night market, whole sale supermarket, department store, and four theaters. Now, there are only local people who shop in day market. You can not find stream of people in the night market anymore. Department store fallen apart and supermarket with not much business. Even the theater only left one showing the second round movie. At this moment, Taipei Public Library, Jingxing Branch, and Taipei Cultural Center, Wen-Shan Branch Center moved in. Along with the Xianji Rock Hiking Trail renovation finished and the bikeway along the Jingmei Stream can cycling all the way to Yuanshan, bringing a new life style for Jingmei neighborhood. If you want to know more about the story, please link to our web site: http://librarywork.taiwanschoolnet.org/gsh2007/gsh4895/p02.htm
2. Summary of Our Project
We planed to obtaining information about Jingmei market starting from collecting data, field trip, interview, questionnaire, etc. and combining all the resources we collected to create a web site with diverse information that will catch the attention of people to visit Jingmei. For this purpose, our project has several study directions: Jingmei market, Jingmei night market, Jingmei culture, and Jingmei recreation. Furthermore, we also invited the local elders to talk about the Jingmei from their point of view. Hoping this will attract more visitors to come to Jingmei for their leisure time. If you want to know more about how we worked, please link to our web site: http://librarywork.taiwanschoolnet.org/gsh2007/gsh4895/p02.htm
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:2-3
C. Connection speed used in the classroom:not sure
D. Number of years our classroom has been connected to the Internet:2-3
4. Problems We Had To Overcome
As a group with little computer knowledge, we had no idea how to create a website. Besides, our parents concerned that doing this project would occupy too much of our time. Nevertheless, we have great passion and enthusiasm. We decided to team up to join the 2007 Taiwan Schools Cyber Fair. Initially, there were five group members. We took the first initial of each student’s English name and combined those letters to form our team name. After first meeting we decided the topic. However, nobody, not even our instructor, knew exactly what to do next. We had no choice but to ask our parents for help, who then worked separately to plan the project, set the deadlines, allocated works, and did the training. They decided to meet one week later to discuss project related issues. Before the meeting, our instructor received several proposals related to the project through e-mail from the parents. She divided and assigned the job according to our personalities and interests. During the marketplace interviews, the interviewers had to visit the marketplace four or five times because many of the interviewees were too busy to talk during the initial visits. In order to accept our interview, some shop owners had to stop their business to talk to us. We were really appreciated. For the night market interviews, the team members felt that they were not fully prepared. So they had to do it three times and compiled a written report of their findings. Remember, the team members used their spare time and did this on the weekend. It really showed how much effort they put into the project.
As a research of old market, we will encounter lots of elders who can only speak in Taiwanese. There is difficulty to communicate with them since most of the team members can only speak in Mandarin. The parents who accompanied them had to interpret every word for them. This is a big challenge for the one who was in charge of taking notes. There were two team members assigned the hiking trail and bikeway field research. Some of them were worn out before arrive the destination. It is really a happy start and a disappoint ending. But the students managed to finish their interview. They were really hard working and deserved admiration. Although the team members were wearing uniform during their interview or exploring, still a lot of people refuse to accept interview. We had to overcome their denial and tried hard to find someone accept interview.
5. Our Project Sound Bite
”Dashing in and out with full energy” is the most proper description of these students. However, they do not have any experience, you can not let go of them in case causing some damage. Thanks all the parents who stand behind this project, from confirmed project title, set up project procedure, interview training, escorted students up and down, recording, photographing, instruct web page design, and music compose, almost every part of the project you can find some trace from the parents. Thank you all for your help! Actually parents’ support is most needed when students do extra-curricular work. In our first meeting, all the team members and their parents attended. Everyone was involved and put in a lot of effort. The coherence to the whole class had been achieved. The students learned immensely, parents gained more. Most of all, the teacher will be the luckiest teacher in the school. If you want to know more about our hard working, please link to our web site:http://librarywork.taiwanschoolnet.org/gsh2007/gsh4895/p02.htm
6. How did your activities and research for this CyberFair Project support standards, required coursework and curriculum standards?
Literature: During the process of collecting and organizing materials, to keep every word and phrase is very important. Writing something that everyone can understand and expressing exactly what we thought is a good lesson for every member in this project.
Mathematic: In this project, there is the limitation of capacity of the webpage. However, there are tons of materials we want to put into. How to create the best webpage within limited capacity we have to be very calculating. Compare to the mathematic course, we have to calculating, increasing, and decreasing page by page. It was like solving a difficult mathematics problem!
Social Science: Field trip, interviewing and reporting is the best coursework of social science.
Natural Science and Science Technology: Our website includes a Jingmei leisure and recreation guide that covers the Xianji Rock Hiking Trail and the Jingmei Stream Bikeway. These two locations offered abundant opportunities to gain biological and scientific knowledge. Designing web site is an entirely new experience for every member in this project. From the beginning without any knowledge about how to create a website to a real amazed outcome, only one phrase to describe--where there's a will there's a way. Now everyone in this group is a little computer expertise!
Health and Physic:For the field research on the Xianji Rock Hiking Trail and the Jingmei Stream Bikeway it was very tiring to make the trip, sweat streaming down the back is the most proper description. We realized the importance of physical education. If they had a stronger body, they wouldn’t have been worn out so quickly. Liberal art: This project covered Jingmei’s past and present. We probed the depth of every cultural activities and information surround us. This is a rare opportunity for students to find out and admire the beauty just beside them.
Other: The power of teamwork is the most significant lesson from this project. We appreciate our teacher’s leadership which tied us together. Some student who is usually not too good to express themselves, during this project, they tried to reach out with strangers, learned how to interact with other people, how to team work and how to cooperate with each others. For every member in this team, as website progressed, they also made a lot of progress. This project let us looking at our homeland Jingmei with different view from before.
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