School: Kaohsiung Municipal CiShan Elementary School
    Kaohsiung City, none, Taiwan (R.O.C)

7 students, ages 12-13 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on March 16, 2010. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): none

Classes and Teachers: Jean Wen Wang

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://

1. Description of Our Community

Kaohsiung is a populous and the second largest city, with a population around 1.5 million, situated in the southwestern part of Taiwan. It faces the Taiwan Strait on the west. Kaohsiung, officially named Kaohsiung City, is divided into eleven districts. Kaohsiung is one of two special municipalities under the administrative system of the Republic of China, which gives it the same status as a province. Kaohsiung is an indispensable center for all kinds of business, such as manufacturing, refining, shipbuilding, and other light and heavy industries. It is also regarded as the major marine imports and exports around the island. In short, Kaohsiung plays an essential and mandatory role in the economic development and progress in Taiwan.

2. Summary of Our Project

The Port of Kaohsiung is the largest harbor in Taiwan, which is located in the southern part of Taiwan; furthermore, it is adjacent to Kaohsiung City, surrounded by the city districts. Throughout history, Port of Kaohsiung is the door to the international world, which has enabled many shipping businesses to blossom since it was officially opened in Cing dynasty. With the active development of the government, Port of Kaohsiung was once ranked the third place in the world in terms of its imports and exports business. When it comes to its growth and expansion, The Port of Kaohsiung has renewed its city industries, tourism projects, the revitalization of Kaohsiung harbor districts over the past decades. The Port of Kaohsiung has contained many historical and adventurous legends along its development, and that is the research initiative why the team “Takao Boys” would like to elaborate and investigate.

3. Our Computer and Internet Access

A. Percentage of students using the Internet at home:21-50%

B. Number of workstations with Internet access in the classroom:4-6

C. Connection speed used in the classroom:dedicated connection

D. Number of years our classroom has been connected to the Internet:2-3

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

Internet is accessible in the classroom so that we could be able to link to whatever we wish to see.

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

Throughout the project, the first and biggest problem that we had come across was the collection of the data since some of them were lack of record so that we had to seek for the dictations from those elder locals, which brought about other two big problems that, first of all, some of us could not speak Taiwanese fluently so that we needed some interpretations from our parents or teachers, and the other problem that we encountered was that we were not good at interviewing people so many rehearsals were carried out before the real interview. Secondly, each of us was responsible for one single part, however, we found it hard to hold a meeting to present our progress report since we were all occupied with all sorts of matters. Next, we came to realize that we were running out of budgets since we had to do the researches in many distinct places so that we were using up the transportation budget. Thanks to the voluntary offer from our parents and teachers, we could get to many places in a more efficient way. Nonetheless, we attempted to solve the problems within a short period of time since we realized that unity is the key to success so that we sort out the free timetable of ours and made a list for a weekly gathering so that we could know how much he/she had accomplished in the previous week and what obstacles he/she had encountered during the interviews or the researches. After the problems listed out, we would examine any possible means to get those problems solved at once so that it would not delay our research progress. Thereafter, we also realized the importance of teamwork.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

All of the pictures were all drawn by us, and we are proud of our own works!

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

Throughout this project, we integrated many fundamental courses into it, such as social studies, arts and local humanities, information education, and so on. We found it consistent to match what we had learned and then sort out the information to produce this website, and we gradually understood what the textbook had tried to deliver certain knowledge. In addition, we also had the capability of comprehending what our teachers had illustrated in class while doing those researches. What's more, we got to understand and discover what and where our living environment is like since we did not have so much time to appreciate the beauty of our hometown due to the busy schedule every day. Therefore, we regard it as a genuine opportunity for us to admire our local community and advertise it to the entire world through this project. As for the educational system, we thought it very liberal to seek for any information that is of our interest. Our teachers, to some extent, are facilitators or counselors so that we can turn to them for help whenever necessary. Furthermore, our teachers has been using the Internet for teaching and learning throughout our classes and we consider it very innovative and interesting since we could know how rapid the outside world is changing and what we should learn to enhance our own abilities to become an internationalized person, for we are all living in this digital era.

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

During the whole process of this project, we used many kinds of media to help us record various information. First of all, we used the Internet as a basic tool to search for the fundamental data and then we went to the library to further find out what we need; then we used a scanner to scan the key information onto the computer. Moreover, we also interviewed some elder locals via recorders and digital cameras; then we process the file and upload it to the computer as well. From time to time we would need the USB just in case we had to save some handy files wherever we conducted the interview or researches. After the data being uploaded and processes, we utilized some computer software to edit our web pages, such as Windows XP, FrontPage, Office XP, and Dreamweaver. As for the graphics editing software, we managed to use PhotoImpact and Photoshop to make our pictures more obvious so that the entire website will be full of pleasant and astonishing pictures.

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

Through this project, we acted as if we had been the ambassadors since we needed to interview many teachers and other elder locals; as a spokesperson of our project team, each of us had to be very presentable and we had to rehearse how to interview people in an appropriate way. While interviewing those teachers, it finally dawned on us that Kaohsiung is full of historical wonders and beautiful spots waited to be discovered. One anecdote found during our research was that we did not know that the were diminished and forgotten until we were investigating them. It was even more astonishing that our parents did not know the “Old Railways” even though they have been in Kaohsiung for few decades. As ambassadors and spokespersons of our research team, we had been to every piece of the Port of Kaohsiung and we also read through all sorts of material so that we could be the little narrators of the Port of Kaohsiung. In that way, we could touch all the Kaohsiung residents via our website since we are firmly believed that you can experience where we were when you visit our websites!

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

Among our school subjects, we have to do some projects research regarding all kinds of subjects and we are all used to it. Through this project, we unite ourselves to make one big project in a more systematic way. That is, we integrated the images, texts, and graphics to formulate our website so as to make the content more colorful and vivid. What's more, via interviewing those elder locals and collecting the information, we found ourselves more informative and we also realized it would benefit our future learning in the long run. On one hand, the Port of Kaohsiung is where we can relax ourselves on holidays; nevertheless, we thought it more historic and artistic after our researches since we investigated the whole part of it in a deeper and more systematic way so that we could also use it as a foundation for further learning and teaching.

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

In terms of those volunteers and helpers involved in this projects, we had to give our acknowledgements to our teachers, parents, and most importantly, those elder locals since this project would had ended up with nothing if there were not their assistance and help. At first, we found it very tough to contact those specialized elder locals since some of them are not found anywhere so that we had to ask more people to help us find them through phone calls or getting to their houses on our own. Besides, we needed our voluntary parents to drive us to many places while collecting those data. After collecting those data, we would need our teachers for advice since some of the information would need further investigation and our teachers even sacrificed their lunch breaks to discuss and find out the problems we encountered. Last but not least, we had to show our deep gratitude to the director of the Cai Shan Association since he selflessly dedicated his photos to boost up our websites. In a nutshell, this website would be a refining result of many dedications from different perspectives.

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

As local “Takao boys” born in the best marine city-Kaohsiung, we could have a deeper understanding of the Port of Kaohsiung through this study. We were deeply impressed by how much amazement and beauty we had forgotten or ignored in the past, and we could even find out some very fascinating historic landmarks throughout this research project since we did investigate the information piece by piece, craft by craft. It is even more astonishing that the whole port is not something full of mystery and old-fashions, but rather than a port filled with romantic and artistic atmosphere.