1. Description of Our Community
Our school, Min Ho Elementary School, is located in Shia-keng village, Fen-lu Township, Chiayi County, Taiwan. This village is near the foot of famous Ali Mountain, and close to Ren Yi Reservoir and Ba Zhang River. The average rainfall here is quite ample; so many farmers grow fruits, especially persimmons, which become the main agricultural products in our community. The green area of the campus is over 70 %, and there are lots of varieties of land living plants. After building these four wetlands, we have found more and more water living plants and animals. Therefore, the ecosystem in our campus grows more prosperous. Most of the plants are provided by the parents and people from our community, the story of these four wetlands has got much concern from school and community
2. Summary of Our Project
In summer night, we can hear the sound of toads in the wetlands. The original place of wetlands stood some old buildings, but nowadays we can see and hear lots of plants and animals in the wetlands. In the beginning, this place even attracted mosquitoes which were not welcomed, so we put some fish like, gambusia affinis, macropodus opercularis, and then we can hardly see mosquitoes. Besides fish, we can also see other animals, for example, hundreds of dragonflies always fly near the wetlands. In the part of plants, we have known 66 kinds of plants which we know their names, and still lots of more unknown plants in the wetlands. The prosperous plants attract students and people from our community to watch. By the reports of newspaper, more and more people know our wetlands, and many people including some former students come back to visit and see the wetlands. The theme of our project is to study how the plants and animals interact with the wetlands. During the time, we interviewed our principal, teachers, and people who help build the wetland, and we keep doing the research on the wetlands. We will continue putting more efforts on the wetlands and we do hope more and more people can perceive the importance of ecological balance and can appreciate the beauty of nature.
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: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):
We use Chunghua Telecom fiber network to download and send information. In our school, we have computers (35 in the computer room, 5 in the library, 3 in teachers’ office, and 11 more for computer course) which are used to support to finish our project. At home, we can use ADSL to continue the research .
4. Problems We Had To Overcome
Problems we have to overcome: We are curious about the wetland, and they are also strange to us. So we try as hard as we can to observe them and collect relevant information about wetlands. We keep high interest on them, from different animals, plants, to species’ numbers; all make us learn a lot. Because we didn’t know much about the wetland, we try a lot of methods to learn more. Our teacher instructs us how to search, compare and check the information on the internet, look for relevant articles on newspapers and magazines in the library. Every time we observe the wetlands, we would record the change by taking photos and notes. In the beginning, other students did not understand what we were busy with, and then we told them the project and wetlands. Then more and more people joined us to study on this field. We had more people to ask and got more ideas about wetlands. Our four wetlands get more and more concerns from teachers, parents and students. However, some people thought wetlands are suitable for every kind of animal and plant, so they put them in the wetlands. This incorrect thought results the wetland ecological environment being damaged and we had to catch some outside habitants, or the balance of the ecosystem would not able to be maintained managed.
5. Our Project Sound Bite
Creation: Before these four wetlands, there were some old and decrepit buildings. After they were torn down, an idea of setting a water plant ecological area was agreed by the principal, teachers and students. So the form of these four wetlands becomes a very special character in our campus. Respect the life: To manage these four wetlands, we planted hundreds kinds of plants and there were several tens of animals made habitats there. We have seen the process from nothing to these wetlands. We hope that these wetlands can be managed well and respect every life in this area. Nature ecological environment is a larger outside classroom. We are lucky to have these four wetlands in our school so we can learn more in the biology and ecology field. Substantive management: Managing these four wetlands should not be a temporary plan, so we should consider about substantive management as we deal with water source, plants, peripheral areas and extension.
6. How did your activities and research for this CyberFair Project support standards, required coursework and curriculum standards?
How did we combine your activities and research for this International School Cyber Fair project with the Nine-year integrated curriculum in school? The following explains in two parts, teachers and students: 1. Teachers: The teachers who join this project work as a team. They discussed and communicated with one another and with the professors in Chiayi University. This team planned to make this project practiced and learned in an integrated way. Besides the study, teachers spent holidays on leading and instructing students on this project. The devoted teachers prove their profession. 2. The Nine-year integrated curriculum emphasizes on using technology and information to activate study and research. Through doing this project, we can see the following learning effects: Science and technology subject Students learn the ecological environment about the wetland as well as species, characteristics, living environment of water plants and animals. They also learn the correct attitude toward ecological environment protection. By using technology tools, students love studying and exert themselves on this project. Language subject To do this project, students have to listen, read, interview, and write lots of information, this has made their language ability better and better. Basic abilities 1. To be able to develop the ability of planning, organization, and practice. 2. To be able to increase the ability of using technology and information. 3. To be able to motivate to actively study and research.
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