CyberFair Project ID: 3901

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International Schools CyberFair Project Narrative
Title: The Legend of the Migratory Fish--Mullet
Category: 4. Local Specialties
URL: http://gsh.taiwanschoolnet.org/gsh2005/3901/index.htm
Bibliography: http://gsh.taiwanschoolnet.org/gsh2005/3901/bibliography.htm

School: Kaohsiung Municipal Ming-tsu Junior High School
    Kaohsiung City, N/A-Does Not Apply, Taiwan

11 students, ages ages 13~14 years old worked together to complete this CyberFair project on February 28, 2005. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): 2004

Classes and Teachers: Mr. Kuo-Chiang, Wu ? Mr. Kuang-Hsiang ,Liao and Mr. Po-Han, Wu

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://www2.mtjh.kh.edu.tw/~cyber9303-1/index.htm

Project Overview

1. Description of Our Community

Hsing Ta Harbor extends across three townships of Kaohsiung Hsien, namely Chien Ting Hsiang, Yung An Hsiang, and Lu Chu Hsiang. It lies on the coasts of Chi Lu Bay, Chieh Ting Hsiang – the north end of Kaohsiung Hsien. It is the second biggest harbor in the greater Kaohsiung region and a major operation base for coastal fishing vessels in the southwestern coasts of Taiwan. Abundant with catch of mullet or 'black gold', as local people call it, Hsing Ta Harbor is a major mullet trade center in Taiwan, hence also known as 'land of mullet' or 'harbor of mullet'. It is the biggest inshore fishing harbor of our country and the biggest deep-sea fishing harbor in Far East Asia. The period around winter solstice each year is the prime mullet-fishing season. Local fishermen all get ready to set out into the sea during the prime time, hopefully returning home with heaps of mullet.

2. Summary of Our Project

Wow! So many silver fry in black and transparent blue coats. And so much golden roe…and so much white soft roe as tender as bean curd…I'm dazzle! How amazing! Where do all these things come from? I guess they are gifts from heaven. Mid through late December is the best time of the year to catch mullet. People flood in Hsing Ta Harbor's seafood market. We kids mix in the crowd with wide-open eyes and strong curiosity to discover the varied and interesting products of the shining migratory fish.

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:more than 6

C. Connection speed used in the classroom:dedicated connection

D. Number of years our classroom has been connected to the Internet:more than 6

E. Additional comments concerning your computer and/or Internet access (Optional):

1.Our school has two computer rooms equipped with 82 personal computers. 130-plus personal computers along with server and others available for administrative purpose form a regional network which is connected to the city network center through ADSL (upload velocity 512K/bps, download 3M/bps) connected to Kaohsiung City Information Center. 2.Home: ADSL and Hinet.

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

In choosing a category: Hsing Ta Harbor is located in Chieh Ting Hsiang, Kaohsiung Hsien, about one hour's drive from our school. Because media propaganda about Hsing Ta Harbor is successful, because we are deeply impressed by the delicious mullet roe dishes in wedding banquets, and because every winter is the season for fishermen to catch mullet, we decided to choose 'it' as the topic of our research project to compete in Cyber Fair. However, before we made the decision, there was an episode. We had thought to give a complete report on features of Kaohsiung – a place in the vicinity of our school. By introducing scenic spots in Kaohsiung Harbor, we had planned to report from the viewpoint of tourism and therefore chose the category 'local tourism resources'. But after participating in Kaohsiung Harbor Festival, we found the topic too big with too many details for us to finish in a few months. So we had more discussions and analysis. Finally we decided to choose mullet as our topic in the category 'local features' to compete in the fair, which was approved by the fair committee. All members of our research team, whether before or after the approval, worked hard to organize our topic features into a web page model to present what we intended to express. Our efforts not only met the goal of native education – to develop school community features through native education – but also carried out major contents of our nation's nine-year compulsory curriculum. In collecting information: Information about mullet that we collected from the Internet and books was rather generic. What we lacked were details about mullet growth, mullet-fishing ship operation, mullet roe factory operation, mullet culture, etc. Everything started from zero, including knowledge of mullet, growth and distribution, mullet fishing methods, distinguishing and production of mullet roe, migratory routes, propagation of mullet, mullet recipes, lost schools of mullet, etc. The web page was, in fact, built up bit by bit with local professionals' kind assistance after we telephoned them to arrange for interviews and recorded what they said. People integration: The location was far from our school, about two hours' drive to and fro. Thanks to the teachers' guiding and the parents' accompanying. They sacrificed their holidays to visit the location with us, acted as our drivers, and helped us handling related matters.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

The development history of Mullet fish in Taiwan, is worth people who are living this island, thinking deeply that ' Mullet fish ' brings the great economic benefits, laughing and offered helping to the value of life. Mullet fish, as a part of the earth resource, will shift, change and depleted, how make it in efficiency most, which is need people's intelligence. So, this is an initial point that we set about and carry on a series of discussion and research. The parents of every family all invested great mental and physical efforts, transportation, the scheduler of journey, time, certainly the money. All hopes expected that children can learn the attitude of research approach and doing things in this course. The enthusiastic participation of parents was not complaints,so even their vacation was sacrificed, which is very great too to give one's own harvest that is “heavy and happy load '.

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

The contents of our research are about 'the legend of a migratory fish'. It helped students better understand their neighboring communities and cultivated their sense of place to achieve the goal of native education in the nine-year compulsory curriculum. In the activities, students were given opportunities to learn many things that could be learned in their courses, for example, knowledge of interview techniques, information collection methods, on-site investigation methods, web page production, participation in Mullet Festival, visiting manners, etc. Besides, 'the legend of a migratory fish' not only reflected the development and research of our school's native education courses but also strengthened the relationship between the school and communities with more frequent interaction.

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Project Elements

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

(1)Oral interview and personal visit:Be understanding more matters concerned about Kaohsiung’s Qie-Ding township and Mullet culture (2)Internet:Looking for the related web page and communicate the topic progress via Messenger. (3)Book and magazine:Searching for the origin and architecture of Mullet culture-related publications to make up our insufficiency. (4)Digital camera and camera:Take the image involving the Mullet culture, and to keep a diary with photos. (5)Multifunction printer:Applying the scanner to image processing and the printer to data printing. (6)Telephone, cellular phone and e-mail:Make communication and contact possible through telephone inquiry and e-mail. (7)Computer software:Namo, FrontPage, Photoimpact, Microsoft Word, Outlook Express, Internet Explorer, ACDSee, CuteFtp, Flash, Media Player. (8)Computer Equipment:The computers available in the school’s computer classrooms, the personal computers and notebook computers belonging to teachers and classmates at home. (9)Tape recorder and digital recording pen:In order to avoid omission and distortion, we used tape recorders and digital recording pens to record what was said by professionals and experienced workers during field interviews. (10)Library:We went to libraries to look for related information and reference books to make up for the lack of academic materials.

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

(1)Visit:Explaining the research topics and contents to the respondents and then getting their oral history, people and things concerned through their experience and involvement recollection. (2)Parents’ participation:Encouraging the parents to be involved in interview, research and events for web page production. (3)Field investigation:All of teachers, students and parents deep explore and understand the actual process through contact and visit. (4)Community participation:The teachers, students, and parents involved in this research project all participated in community activities such as Mullet Festival, Agriculture and Fishery Products Exhibition, Mullet Culture Express, etc. Through community participation, we let more community residents know the topic and contents of our research project and made our project to become a popular event.

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

(1) Parents:In the process of busy research and interview, our parents give us the greatest motivation. All of them always provide the funds, accompany their children to interview, prepare report and solve the traffic problem. Especially, they spare no effort to interview with senior residents and experts, collect the data and so on. The parents spared no effort in helping us, especially in visiting factories, professionals, and field workers as well as in collecting information. (2)Community people: (A)Mr. CHEN, Yao-kun, Mr. CHEN, Min-hsiung, Mr. CHEN, Yu-ho, and Mr. KUO, Nan-hsiung: They offered many valuable comments and ideas concerning our research contents and presentation methods and assisted us to gather related cultural and historical information. Their assistance really benefited us a great deal. (B)Mr. HUANG, Min-yung, Mr. YEN, Lung-shou, Miss WU, Hsing-chuan, and Mr. YEN, chin-chao: In practical operation, they provided us with the best demonstration and experience sharing. Not only are they experienced workers, but they are professionals deserving respect. (3)Professional and the learned:Mr. WU, Yang-ching, who allowed us to use his own research materials and books. (4)School team:The principal Tien-Hung ,Yeh, provides us with the greatest backup and counseling service all the time. (5)Web page production team:The topic research project changes us to view the things from different angles, enables us to learn how to prepare a comprehensive report, and be more familiar with computer operation and homepage composing. (6)Relationship with the community:We understand the community and cherish the community resources all the more through the execution of research project. The school and community have turned into the interdependent partnership. To present the research results in the form of web page intangibly makes the community known to people throughout the country and even world, connecting the community with the world to join in the global village.

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

(1)Parents: During the research process, we often need to use weekends to do the interview work, with parents helping us with the interviews, writing the reports, solving transportation problems, etc. Their support is our most valuable part of the project. (2)Community people: Mr. WU, Yang-ching?Mr. CHEN, Yao-kun?Mr. CHEN, Min-hsiung?Mr. CHEN, Yu-ho?Mr. KUO, Nan-hsiung?Mr. YEN, Lung-shou?Mr. HUANG, Min-yung?Mr. YEN, Chin-lang and Miss WU, Hsing-chuan,who have helped us with giving us many valuable opinions and provided us with written information.

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

We adopt the way of visit to proceed with research through prior inquiry and telephone contact. During the interview, we are impressed and pleased with the following: (1)A funny thing happened during a trip to the location. The teacher misspelled a word in the notice that informed us of a meeting place. The name of place was supposed to be 'Yu Yi Convenience Store', but it was misspelled as 'Yu I Convenience Store'. As result, every parent involved was looking for a convenience store called 'Yu I'. That was crazy. (2)When we went to Chieh Ting for the second time, we visited Uncle Wu (Mr. WU, Yang-ching) again. He almost provided us with all the mullet information he collected in his life. What impressed us most was the fact that a female mullet produces 4~6 million eggs per spawn. If all these eggs were to be hatched and survive, mullet might crowd the ocean. Then fish might swallow us instead of being caught by us. Thank God the biological food chain is balanced. (3)In Mullet Festival, we kids from the urban Kaohsiung seemed to be starved for months. We couldn't wait until mealtime. The savory dishes of 'Tsung Pu Shih' raised our appetite. No sooner had the foods been brought to table than they were all gone to our tummies in an instant. We seemed so hungry that we could even swallow the plates. It was like we had joined in '30-Hour Famine'.

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