1. Description of Our Community
The agricultural production of Kaohsiung basically located in Chi-shan, Mei-nung, Da-shu, Da-liau, Da-she, Yan-chau, A-lian, Tian-liau, Nei-men and Jia-shian. The items of agricultural products are rich and diverse, such as rice, vegetables, honey, fruit, meat, eggs and milk, etc. The products are also in good quality. With the promotion of the city government, local foods are promoted not only to reduce food mile but also to save energy and reduce carbon to love the earth. Moreover, to help local farmers promote their agricultural products and make Kaohsiung a more friendly and better city.
2. Summary of Our Project
After the Kyoto protocol was signed, many countries started to realize the hazards of greenhouse gases to the earth. Therefore, governments in the world are anxious to achieve the goal of carbon reduction. Under the globalization of food systems, we expected to remind people to purchase local and seasonal food, take actions to reduce food mile, save energy and reduce carbon and cherish the earth as a smart and responsible consumer.
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:1
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):
The computer classroom and classroom in the school are equipped with 7 desktop computers with fiber optic Internet. Every participants has his/her own e-mail account and has basic capability of Word, Excel, PhotoCap, PowerPoint and web page design.
4. Problems We Had To Overcome
(1)The problem solving of calculating food mile: At first, we expect that the food mile can be easily obtained while knowing the production place of food. Unfortunately, it is a wrong answer. The location of production place is usually represented by an area or a country (ex: Lin-yuan onion, American onion) instead of a specific place. As a matter of fact, the area of the production place is too wide for us to determine a specific production place. It is hard to determine which 'point' as the correct production place. In addition, there is a large diversity in the 'places' marked by everyone. However, the slightest difference leads to a huge loss. As a result, to design a program for finding and calculating the distance between two points on the map is far beyond our ability. As a solution to the problem, we hope to calculate the distance by existed websites on the Internet. The website should be easy to use, and most important of all, to obtain the same result when calculated by different users. We choose the Google Map and http://www.etn.nl/distanc4.htm to calculate food mile for us. Although the results may not be as accurate as the actual transportation distance by air, by sea or by land, it may be a reference to the distance of food mile for the general public.
5. Our Project Sound Bite
From the present study, we learned the complete process of determining a research topic, planning the research direction and schedule, implementing the research plan and completing the whole research project. With the promotion of grade 1-9 curriculum, the research activities were designed based on the main structure of the seven learning fields. We expected to carry out the spirit of grade 1-9 curriculum by the research. And we found the agricultural development in Kaohsiung is so prosperous, and the products are excellent. It is such a rich land! We should eat more local food. Not only for reducing food mile, but for supporting the local farmers!
6. How did your activities and research for this CyberFair Project support standards, required coursework and curriculum standards?
This is our first time to team up and attend the CyberFair contest. From the process of deciding topic, planning our research direction, problem solving and designing website, we completed the project with a humble and modest attitude in learning. Surprisingly, the results are beyond our expectations! First of all, we visited the superstore, the consumer shop, the stores and vendors to accomplish the investigation of the place of origin and transportation of food products. Next, we overcame the limitations of our ability and found the way to calculate the 'distance' of food mile. Accordingly, the carbon dioxide emission and environmental impacts can be obtained by calculating the formulae. By doing this, we may show the quantitative data to people and bring the concept of 'carbon reduction' to reality instead of a slogan. In addition, with the help of the Agricultural Bureau of Kaohsiung City Government, we gained insight into excellent local food ingredients with 'low food mile'. We also planted some Chinese cabbages in the campus, in order to achieve the ultimate goal of zero food mile. We may speak proudly and say, 'We've got the freshest vegetable in our home!' However, conducting questionnaire surveys and holding promotion activities for the teachers, students and residents was truly a big challenge for us, but we still completed the tasks smoothly. Everyone learned to express ourselves and became more self-confident. From the beginning to the end, we experienced the true value of teamwork and the courage to breakout. With these abilities, we believe that we may continue our study with more stable footsteps in the future.
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