1. Description of Our Community
Being situated beside Hou-Jin Creek, closely next to Metropolitan Park, Cuei-Ping Junior High and Elementary School set up the butterfly garden in 2002. With the great ecological environment of our campus being formed as an ecological corridor with Hou-Jin Creek, Cuei-Ping Butterfly Garden built an environment for butterflies to rest and reproduce. Furthermore, under the efforts of our teachers and students on promoting butterfly ecological education on campus, Cuei-Ping Butterfly Garden has become a new paradise for butterflies.
2. Summary of Our Project
The MOXA Foundation fully sponsored our school to establish the butterfly garden. There grew a variety of nectar source plants and food plants in the garden to breed the butterflies, so as to provide teaching materials and close observation. During the time when classes rearing caterpillars, teachers instructed students how to take care of those little creatures together and made the whole school get involved in the activity. We hoped that through the process of learning the lifestyles, reproduction, and living strategies of butterflies, every participant could understand the importance of environment to species, cultivate the concept of caring our surroundings, and also sow seeds of the conservation in Taiwan.
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
4. Problems We Had To Overcome
1.The high difficulty of field visits: Search for the information related to butterfly ecology in the neighborhood. Among plenty of information, we found Jinshi Lake Butterfly Garden in San-min District, Purple Butterfly Valley in Maolin, Muh Sheng Museum of Entomology in Puli, Nantou, and visited the three places at different time to learn more about the butterfly ecology in varied areas. 2.Having difficulty in understanding every kind of butterfly ecology: Select the certain kind of butterfly as our research topic. In addition to having the actual experience of rearing, we were also more familiar with their habits. In order to make the carton book more delicate, we picked three out of the all kinds of butterfly we had reared before to do our research project. 3.Making the carton book: Turn to the teachers for help. After discussing with the teachers, we decided to borrow the carton from our story mother (a kind of volunteering work in our school) to design our own story book. We wrote down what we were going to tell on the back of the papers and put them in sequence, and then practiced for story-telling in lower grade classes. 4.Being unskilled at story-telling: We decided to start our practice from telling a whole story together. Not until every of us had the experience of story-telling did we proceed to the next phase, which was to tell a whole story by oneself. By this way, we were more relieved, and together we could brainstorm more interesting stories.
5. Our Project Sound Bite
1.For Cuei-Ping Butterfly Garden, the Whispering of Butterflies Team hoped to serve as the guardian. 2.For team members, the Whispering of Butterflies Team hoped to serve as the protector. 3.For people living in the community, the Whispering of Butterflies Team hoped to serve as the executor. In the process of making research project, we had a deeper understanding of butterflies. The sustainable existence of butterfly ecology relies on people’s assistance so we made up our minds to cherish and take care of the environment, hoping to provide the butterflies with a safe, comfortable and unpolluted living place.
6. How did your activities and research for this CyberFair Project support standards, required coursework and curriculum standards?
1.Core competence In the process of creating our website, we were cultivated with the abilities of “making use of technology and information” as well as “actively exploring and investigating.” By integrating technology into different teaching fields, students’ learning efficiency improved, so did the information capability. Moreover, through the process of problem discovering, schedule planning, data collecting, problem solving, field visiting, file compiling, and record taking during our exploring journey, we gained lots of lifelong abilities. 2.Learning areas (1)Language arts Through story-making, note-keeping, progress-reporting, data-collecting and analysis, group discussion, and web design, we had an integrated learning and cultivation in listening, speaking, reading, and writing competences. (2)Science and Technology When rearing the butterflies and making the research project, we combined the experience with the knowledge in 4th grade Science and Technology textbook. After understanding the body structure, transformation, and living conditions of butterflies, we practically reared them by ourselves, and learned problem-solving skills in the process. We learned by doing, applying what we had learned into daily life, which was a lesson sucessfully containing cognitve, affective, and psychomotor all of the three domains. (3)Arts and Humanities Via the artistic activity, we cultivated our aesthetic feeling and creativity. From 2D drawing to 3D creation, from simple origami to the caton book, the beauty of butterflies could be presented in a variety of ways. Also, during the process of making artistic creations, we moulded our characters and developed an optimistic outlook on life.
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