School: Gangcha Middle School, Haibeizhou, Qinghai Provinc
    Haibeizhou, Qinghai Provinc, China

9 students, ages 13-16 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on February 28, 2007. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): No

Classes and Teachers: Mrs.Kui La-mei

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://qh000011.edu.17888.com

1. Description of Our Community

Qinghai Lake is the largest salt-water lake in China, whose area approximates to 4650 sq.km. It's famous for a special kind of scaless fish and millions of migrant birds. It's a well-known resort and natural reserve. Due to its ecologic dominance, it was authorized as the international important swamp in 1992 and national nature reserve in 1997.

2. Summary of Our Project

In recent years, the water level of Qinghai Lake continuously falls down due to global warming, over-fishing and ignorance of environment protection. The number of 'Huang' fish declines each year. The fishes grow very slow (it reaches 1kg after ten years) because of the low temperature of the lake. If no protection is carried out, this species may die out. If it happens, the migrant birds, which live on fishes, may never come. As a result, other hydrophytes will grow without limitation. At that time, the Qinghai Lake will be a dead lake. The beautiful scenery will never appear. As local students, we need to do something to protect its environment and draw the world's attention on it. We are trying our best to redress the ecologic balance here. In 21st century, the theme is to protect the earth, nature and diversity of species. It's our commission. As long as everyone takes part in the protection activity, the Qinghai Lake will become the beautiful home of animals and human beings.

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:none

C. Connection speed used in the classroom:dial-up modem

D. Number of years our classroom has been connected to the Internet:1

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

We want to express our sincere thanks to the consultant of Grown up Center of Taiwan and TTT staff. With their help, we try to make web pages for the first time. This is the first time we participate in the CyberFair. The teacher and the team members lack previous experience in webpage construction. We have to consult others whenever difficulties arise. The team members come from different grades and classes. We have little commonly free time apart from the time for group activities. Therefore, we make use of our spare time for group discussion with the teachers. It costs much time in typing material into computer. The false operation nearly looses all the material. The misunderstanding causes conflicts between students and parents.Though it is difficult, we overcome all kinds of hardships and difficulties during the process. We are proud of ourselves and the experience is unforgettable.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

No pains, no gains. As long as we try our best, we would never feel ashamed. Be charitable to others and our environment. Our future will be more wonderful.

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

The activity involves literature, history, geography, computer, art ,biography, chemistry and culture. We have learned many things that are not in the text books. We break out of the classroom, and learn from the real-life environment and experiences and from various experts in history and culture. Through this research project, we have learnt how to search for information, how to conduct an interview, how to organize information. The interview and research not only boardens our knowledge scale, but also enriches our experience.These abilities will become our life-long assets.

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

(1) Hardware facilities: computer, digital camera, recorder, scanner,mp3. (2) Computer software: Dreamweaver for webpage editing, Photoshop for graphic processing, Microsoft Word for textual information editing, Outlook Express for receiving and sending mails, Internet Explorer for browsing website, ACDSee for image browsing, CuteFTP for transmitting information, UC chatting tools on Sina. (3) Internet: E-mail, message board, FTP server,broad system.

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

We consider it our responsibility to make the public knowing Qinghai Lake, thus we should play the role of 'community ambassadors' and reveal this history to others. It's the largest salt-water lake in China and a well-known resort and natural reserve. As local people, we should do something to protect its environment. We have tried to tell others what we know and introduced the lake to school mates and villagers. We realize our research result in the form of signboards, as well as a homepage hosted by the school website. Apart from being a resource for countryside education, the homepage also allows citizens to deepen their understanding of the local natural environment through the Internet. The website we make is believed to make more people know Qinghai Lake.

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

Through this research project, we have come to know more about the Qinghai Lake. We are fully confident that our work, when finished, would be the most exhaustive online resource about it at the moment. In our research, we gain much help from others. Our parents search information about our visiting routes; the monks who live around Qinghai Lake introduce their experience about how to protect the lake to us; the staff in local tourist department kindly cooperate with our interview. We share our knowledge to our schoolmates and propose to organize an activity of 'Protecting Qinghai Lake' in vacation. In the whole process, we have felt the public's concern about the future development of local natural environment. The protection of natural environment has become the most concerned issue in the past decade. We hope that our project would not only deepen the public's knowledge o, but also arouse their recognition and passion for protecting environment. We all have a kind of passion and confidence unique to ourselves. Through this project, we have established good interaction with the community. Our actions are full of passion, and we behave with full confidence.

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

All the web pages are editted by ourselves. In our research, we pick out some word material and pictures from 'Historical records of Gangcha' and 'Guidebook draft' ; use video about breeding scaless fish from local fishery bureau; and most material is writen by ourselves after our research and interview. We want to show our sincere thanks to everyone offering help to us.

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

We have got a better knowledge of Qinghai Lake's history and stories. It's famous for a special kind of scaless fish and millions of migrant birds. It's a well-known resort and natural reserve. Human beings gained so much from this lake in the past, nowadays we need to protect its natural environment, otherwise our living environment will be destroyed.