School: Hsin-Ya Primary School
    Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.

6 students, ages from 10 to 12 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on February 8, 2002. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): First time

Classes and Teachers: Mrs. Wang Mei-lan, Mrs. Huang Chien-chen and Mr. Chung Yun-pung

E-Mail contact:

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

1. Description of Our Community

The city of art-Taipei Taipei has changed a lot! Now this international city has another face - a city of art. You can see many art activities everywhere. For example, the hottest tourist spots like Dr. Sun Yat-sen and Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall are the places where there are many exhibitions of Chinese or Western paintings. The Nation Concert Hall at Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall regularly hold world-class performances by local and international artists, which promotes the quality of music in Taiwan, international cultural exchange and local interest in music. And other places like Nation Art Museum also hold regular concerts, Chinese operas and plays. These places have served as the promotion centers for traditional and modern Chinese music as well as social education. Walking on the streets, you might meet some creative and interesting sculptures which are the mixtures of Chinese and Western art. If you don't believe it, welcome to this beautiful city and check it out yourself!

2. Summary of Our Project

Now many people prefer Western popular music but ignore our traditional Chinese music, which is even considered out of date. In fact, Chinese music is very melodious and its unique rhythm exactly represents Chinese culture. To have more people know the beauty of Chinese music, we began their research on Chinese music and tried to combine traditional Chinese music and computer technology. We hope that our homepage

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:2-3

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):

In our school all the classrooms, including the 4 computer laboratories, are equipped with computers, printers and projectors available for all the teacher and students. Students have their own class homepages and teachers usually keep contact with parents through e-mails.

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

Our problems includes: a. Computers and electronic appliances sometimes didn't work out, which caused the delay of our schedule. b. We were pressed for time and it was hard to find the time to work together. c. We lacked the experience of making a complicated homepage Our solution： a. We turned to many teachers' help and spent more time to catch up with the tight schedule. b. Except the school hours, we did the project or even slept at our teacher's home every day. c. We spent the extra hours taking the courses on how to use the software like FrontPage, Flash5 etc.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

Our maxim: There is nothing

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

We developed the project based on the curriculum area, Arts and the Humanities, which focuses on the relationship between diverse forms of art and human culture. So in our page, which presented our love towards the local music, we shared opinions and discussed with others all over the world with E-mail to promote the interaction of different cultures. We learnt how to put the music we play had played on our homepage to let people download and make people realize what Chinese music sounded like. Besides, finding most Chinese music websites only explaining Chinese instruments, we tried to analyze the differences and similarities between Chinese and Western instruments and pointed out several examples of Western instruments used in Chinese orchestras. We think it is important to find out not only the beauty of the local music but the influence of Western music to us.

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

a. Hardware: *digital cameras, digital video recorders These tools can be connected to computers and save a lot of time of film editing and picture processing *computers, scanners, printers The essential tools for our project b. Software :*FrontPage, Flash 5 The software makes our homepage more interesting *PhotoShop, Composer (a musical processing software), MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) We add pictures and sound effect to our homepage with the software which are the most helpful to our project. c. The interview with the famous Chinese musicians: the interviews with the conductor Mr. Chen Chung-sheng , the chief of percussion section Miss Lee Huei, and the Erhuist Miss Ching Ya-ching of Taipei Municipal Chinese Orchestra d. On-line resource：Hsin-Ya primary school http://www.hyps.tp.edu.tw/ (Chinese) The websites about Chinese music http://www.musicofchina.com/erhu.html(English) http://smci.sapp.org/(English) http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/2682/la.html (English) Taipei Municipal Chinese Orchestra site http://www.tco.gov.tw/(Chinese and English) e. Book：Introduction of Chinese Musical instruments

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

We had interviews with three famous members of Taipei Municipal Chinese Orchestra. They not only told us the features of every instrument and the ways to maintain them but also made us realize the importance of preserving Chinese music by sharing their experiences of the services in our community and performances in other countries. These Chinese musicians encouraged us to do our best to make more people build up the concept of keeping Chinese culture. So to have people know more about Chinese Culture, we took many pictures of we holding the instruments in our school and dressed up with Chinese costumes. But we had never thought it was so exhausting to be a

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

To promote Chinese music and our project, we hold a concert at the McDonald's near our school. We invited our parents, friends and neighbors to our concert and shared our project with them. Although some of them know little about Chinese music, they were very interested in our homepage. Mr. Chen, a businessman living nearby, said that our page was interesting and easy to comprehend because he could really hear the melodies of Chinese music, which was different from the traditional abstruse introduction in the written form. Besides, they also thought our concert was an very creative presentation of combining Chines and Western Culture. One of our parents said that it was really great and special to hear Chinese music while she was eating hamburgers. During this activity, we got a lot of encouragement and suggestions. We were glad that our project and concert could be recognized by so many people, which is a great advancement in music and computer education.

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

In the process of doing the project, we got a lot of help and advice from a lot of people. For example, our teachers taught us how to collect information, edit our page effectively and use different resources to make our project more convincing. Our alumnus, now studying in junior high schools and colleges, were also willing to help us with English translation or sharing their experience of making homepages. Besides, the US company Adobe Systems' branch in Taiwan sponsored our project and Mr. Chen, the expert in Multi-media homepage design, helped us make our English website more systematic. Most important of all, it is our parents' love and encouragement that support us to achieve our goal. With the aid of these people, we learnt a lot from them and finally finished our project. We can't show more gratitude for what they have done for us!

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

Within these three months, we have learnt that, as the modern citizens of Taipei city, some abilities or concepts are required： 1. Combining what you are learning with the Internet. Since the speed, reliability, and availability of the Internet improve, now we should take advantage of it to expand our knowledge by surfing this vast repository of information. When gathering information related to Chinese music, surprisingly we found a lot of Chinese music websites, which are much more than we had expected. We didn't have to spend a whole day in libraries. After all, the Internet is just a click away! 2. Cherish and promote Chinese music as we can. We found most people don't like Chinese music because they know little or even nothing about it. Once they can get rid of the stereotype that Chinese music is only an old and boring music, they will try to appreciate the beauty of this local music. 3. Share what you have learned with others. After finishing our project, we realize that students are not only the receivers of knowledge but also the givers of what they have had learn. Through Internet, it is easy to share what we think with others and exchange opinions. Many people learn many details about Chinese music through our homepage. And we also get many ideas from others. We believe it is the best way of learning!