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1. Description of Our Community
Our communcity is situated at Chiuchuang Village, a southeastern district of Taipei. Though it is near the most densely populated and prosperous city in Taiwan, this community once had been loathed and then gradually forgotten because it was overwhelmed by tons and tons of waste delivered from every corner of Taipei. In detail, the community used to have a big landfill in it where toxins emitted in the air, land, and water, from dawn to dusk. However, based on the concepts of environmental proection, the residents and authority used their wisdom and cooperation to transform this village to a green world ecological park, called Shanshuilu Eco-Park. The transformation of our community is like “the ugly duckling is no longer a clumsy, dark, and ungainly duck; it is a becaustiful swan.”
2. Summary of Our Project
In recent years, global warming is getting worse and worse and people started paying great attention to environmental issues. Good management of natural resources and the environment has been regarded as fundamentally important. However, implementation of environmental legislation and other environmental measures seems not that strong in many developing and transitional countries like us. Even though we have the concept of environmental protection (EP), we do not really know the exact example around us. Therefore, our project aims to introduce an ecological park, Shanshuilu Eco-Park, built in a garbage-processing field and with power supply from farm biogas, to make people know “cooperation between residents and authorities can make a difference in the world.” With the aim in mind, we first surveyed and read a lot of literature about EP. Then, we did numerous times of field observation. Moreover, besides interviewing the related people and officials, we conducted a questionnaire survey. Apart from the introduction to the history and development of Shanshuilu Eco-Park in Chiuchuang, stated in our website, some findings are worth discussing. Many tourists who visited the community were attracted to the green, open environment. They enjoyed hanging aournd here with their children. The only thing they were not satisfied is transportation. Thus, we concluded that the implementation of EP is possible, but it needs to be more concerns. That is, the officials can do more marketing—making their effort familiar to the public such as improving the transportation to Shanshuilu Eco-Park, so that people will come here and appreciate EP.
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):
We feel satisfied living in the small but abundant island, Taiwan, because we have a wide array of digital, Internet-connected devices and applications, like computers, smallphones, tablets, and the likes at school (www.slhs.tp.edu.tw). We used synchronous and asynchronous communication with our team members and teachers. The Internet brings us closer together and its convenience is obviously awesome.
4. Problems We Had To Overcome
We faced three problems while doing this probject. First, it was communication. Almost every time we encountered questions, we had different opinions. We needed to search more information and study more materials to convince our team members. Second, it was time. We are high school students in nigh school, so many of us had a part-time job to support our family or ourselves. It was not easy for us to find time to do discussion and field survey. Thanks to the Internet and weekends and holidays, we made it eventually. Third, it was the technical problem. We did not really have problems of the equipment, but we did in using it. We major in international trade, so we were inexperienced in website establishment and animation production. It took us plenty of time learning these skills from books and from teachers.
5. Our Project Sound Bite
We appreciate for participating in doing the project because, besides gaining knowledge, we have more chances to know ourselves and our lands as well as knowing what we can do for the world.
6. How did your activities and research for this CyberFair Project support standards, required coursework and curriculum standards?
We are students, majoring in international trade. In school, the computer knowledge that we have learned is limited; we learn basic concpets and operation of the computer. However, with the global awareness that we’ve established at school, we hope to advance ourselves not only in the computer techniques and knowledge but also explore the world via doing a project about the global issue. In addition, using the website we established, we aim to introduce the idea to the world, that is, a small, old community can really do something to the world. We believe this is what our education hopes us to learn. Therefore, in order to participate in this competition,we spent a lot of time learning more about computers, including setting up a website, using software and apps, and strengthening related knowledge. We found that the more computer literacy we acquire, the closer we get to the world.
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1) What information tools & technologies did you used to complete your CyberFair project?
1.Five desktop computers and three laptop computers: establishing a website and data collection and analyses. 2. Photocopy machines: xeroxing related materials 3. digital cameras and SLR and Smartphone: picture taking. 4. one recorder: interviewing our subjects 5. USB: saving data 6. Notebook: Hutchison progress 7 Ms word2007, 2010, 2013: collating information 8.Facebook & Line: communication. 9. Internet Explorer & Google Chrome: searching for online materials 10. PhotoImpact x3: photo editing 11. Macromedia Dreamweaver 12. PowerDirector and Ulead VideoStudio: editing films.
2) In what ways did you act as "ambassadors" and spokespersons for your CyberFair project both on-line and in person.
Our students emphasized that they are international trade majors and they want to do something valuable about the globe now and even in the future. We are glad that they have developed the vision of being global villagers and appreciate for their doing kindness to the world. They started bewaring small but significant things from their surroundings. When they decided to introduce Shanshuilu Eco-Park, also called as Green World Ecological Park in Chiuchuang, Taiwan, we told them that not many literatures of Shanshuilu Eco-Park they could find; the only thing they could do was to explore it individually in the field. They said that they wanted to be a pioneer and be a spokesperson for the community. During the process of doing the project, there were some anecdotes worth mentioning. First, they did all the arrangement of the interviews with the officials. Next, when the officials explained the history and development of the eco-park to them, their concentration and involvement convinced the officials, who explained patiently and enthusiastically, to believe our students’ willingness, commitment, and ability to fulfill this job. Our students promised to show their website to them when they finished it. It is a rare situation that the officials agreed to meet some unknown high school students and gave them presentation and demonstration. Then, our students sacrificed their weekends and holidays to do all the field survey and observation. Our students laughted at one another, saying that it was pleasant for them to do a project and have a field trip with suntan at the same time. This indeed is not easy for students who are studying at night school. We are really impressed by their humor, courage, and enthusiasm. Hereby, we would like to say that our students are qualified to be ambassadors.
3) What has been the impact of your project on your community?
Doing this project indeed makes a difference in our life, our community, our school, and even more. First, for us, it helps us develop not only the component skills of technology and communication but also the needed knowledge to perform a research-based task. Next, because of our web-based project, people can know more about Shanshuilu Eco-Park, the green world ecological park in Chiuchuang, Taiwan. To be honest, we did not really know the community, Shanshuilu Eco-Park, because little sources did we find about it online. Likewise, many of our classmates did not know it well, either. For example, when we were suffering searching information about it and asked many of our classmates whether they knew the community, many of them said, “Not really”. If the ones said yes, they just knew it is a recreation place for them to hang around there, not one of the environmental actions and outcomes. Most importantly, our web-based project helps us comprehend the facts and methods of environmental protection (EP), promote an outstanding effort of EP in a small village, and further educate the public the concepts of EP. Before doing the project, the concepts of EP for many people like us seem to be words in a textbook only. Now, it is crystal clear and concrete. Some other students in our school even want to do a follow-up task. All in all, the community that used to be an undesirable place, now it apparently becomes a pearl of great value. Many people in this community in fact are concerned about the EP issue and we, small potatoes, hope to use our project to help them pass through the voice for nature.
4) How did your project involve other members of your community as helpers and volunteers?
The completion of our project would not have been possible without the help, advice, and encouragement of many people. To begin with, we would like to thank the residents and Environmental Protection Administration officials who helped us understand our community, the green world ecological park. In addition to the detailed and patient explanation of the history and development, they even taught us how human wastes are transformed into a valuable resource for the environment. They also made us know it possible to love the earth like them. Second, we thank each of tourists who visited our community for helping us fill in the questionnaire. They stated their thoughts and reflections about our community to better our understanding. Third, we express my profoundest appreciation to our two advisors, ChiaLan Chang and Yu-Ying Chang, for their guidance and patience throughout this project, not only in technical knowledge and skill but also in language and research-notion consulting. We still remember the time when we were struggling and proceeding our project, worrying about how we should do, they always stood by us, offering timely help and keen insight into the significance of our project. Fourth, we present big thanks to our each team member for their tolerance, support, and heartfelt expressions of love when fights and disagreements happened all the time doing the project. The friendship made us feel working with each other an unforgettable and wonderful experience. Last but not least, becoming one of the Cyberfair teams is not easy, but it is meaningful. Thank you, Cyberfair!
5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)
We were stumbling along while doing our project. At the beginning, we spent a lot of time deciding what project we wanted to do. Then, finding time for one another to get together was not very easy because we are high school students in night school. Many of us had a part-time job in the day time, so we used many weekends and holidays to conduct the project. In addition, although all the team members are familiar with one another, disagreement and arguments occured inevitably, which challenged our esprit de corps. With our enthusiasm, we made it, though. Furthermore, interviewing the officials in EPA was challenging and nervous because, except for school faculty, we’d never talked to any official in the government. Last, each activity in the project must be done with its good value and significance, so comprehensive planning consumed us a great deal of energy and time.
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View our CyberFair Project
(Project ID: 7906)
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