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1. Description of Our Community
Beitou is filled with abundant natural resources such as the acclaimed hot springs, Guandu Waterfowl Reserve, Xiabaxian, and Yangmingshan National Park, which offers a variety of different activities and attractions for people in Taipei to relax and have fun. That being said, when we talk about Beitou, the first thing that comes to mind is always the famous hot springs there.
Beitou's hot springs come from volcanic eruptions underneath Datun Mountain, where the groundwater is heated by the volcanic heat; this water then leaks out through the cracks between the rocks. There are two kinds of hot springs: green sulfur springs and white sulfur springs. Green sulfur springs can get as hot as 100 degrees, while white sulfur springs are only around fifty degrees.
Besides hot springs, Beitou is also famous for Gueizikeng, a place that is known for producing white porcelain clay, an important substance when making porcelain products. Gueizikeng has been famous since the Japanese occupation area.
It is refreshing to find such a natural place in the midst of the busy Taipei City. Beitou is certainly a place worth discovering
2. Summary of Our Project
Hokutolites were very unique stones, which could only be found in Beitou and Japan. Hokutolites were the first minerals to be named after its place of origin in Taiwan. Hokutolites were also known as barites, which could be found along Beitou River. What you may not know is that along the streaks in Beitou, Hokutolites were formed very slowly. Due to the amount of time it took to form, Hokutolites were very rare, and therefore very expensive. It was once reported that it could cost up to four hundred thousand New Taiwan Dollars for a kilogram of Hokutolites. Because of its rarity and the illegal quarrying, nowadays you can’t find Hokutolites anywhere except in the Beitou Hot Spring Museum. We can do something for the Hokutolites, and hope that it’s not too late to do so.
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):
Our school uses the fiber speed internet broadband system, with a hundred megabytes storage capacity for each computer. Therefore, most students used the computers offered in school after class to process the data and save the web pages they created. Students also used the broadband internet at home to communicate or send processed data to each other via instant messengers or emails.
4. Problems We Had To Overcome
A. Difficulties encountered while gathering the information.
Our topic was Hokutolites, and there was very little information we could find online about it. Finally we went to Beitou Library, where they happened to hold a local community history exhibition. We found a lot of information there, dating from the Japanese occupation area to the present day. We also visited Beitou Hot Spring Museum and interviewed a volunteer there.
We also found a thesis on Hokutolites by Nobel prize winner Dr. Yuan Tseh Lee. It became another source for us to understand more about Hokutolites.
B. Clash between school work and the contest We were in the elite class in school, so we already had a lot of school work and tests to prepare and study. Therefore, it was very challenge to balance this with the time and hard work it took to prepare for the contest. C Progress monitor This was the first time we created web pages on a particular subject, so we weren’t very familiar with the framework and process. However, with the assistance from many teachers and our leader, most members were able to complete their assigned tasks in time.
D. Problems with scheduling interviews. We couldn’t go to Beitou Hot Spring Museum during school hours, and the museum could only be interviewed on weekends. Fortunately, our school gave all the students a day off because of the school anniversary celebration, which allowed us to finally conduct the interview.
E. Problems with designing the web pages. The initial mock-up for the web pages weren’t particularly inspiring. Fortunately, it was time for the winter break, and we were all able to relax and recharge during this time. When we got back, we all shared our thoughts and finally came up with a unified idea for the project.
5. Our Project Sound Bite
By entering the competition and choosing Hokutolites as our subject, we’ve come to a better understanding of these unique rocks and hopefully teach our community to cherish this nature’s wonder. And for us, we’ve learned the beauty of persistence and hard work, which ultimately helped us to become more mature.
6. How did your activities and research for this CyberFair Project support standards, required coursework and curriculum standards?
I was very much intrigued when I first heard about the Cyberfair from my teacher. However, my initial ideas kept getting rejected by my teacher. I was very frustrated. Even so, my partners and I never gave up and finally chose a topic. The Cyberfair helped me to be a better communicator, and I learned to listen and cooperate with other people. The utter feeling of satisfaction that all the members in our group worked so hard for a common goal was incredible. You could never learn that in the everyday school life. This semester in school we had courses about designing web pages and conducting special projects. The school also held several competitions regarding these areas, which helped us tremendously with our project for the Cyberfair. The Cyberfair was also a great opportunity for cross-department cooperation. Through our teachers, we’ve recruited a student from the Department of Information Processing. We’ve learned a lot from him. This competition not only helped us to improve on our technical skills, we’ve also made a good friend out of it.
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