CyberFair Project ID: 5676

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International Schools CyberFair Project Narrative
Title: Yunlin Farming Specialists
Category: 2. Community Groups and Special Populations
URL: http://librarywork.taiwanschoolnet.org/gsh2009/gsh5676/
Bibliography: http://librarywork.taiwanschoolnet.org/gsh2009/gsh5676/farmer.html

School: Junior High school of Victoria Academy
    Douliou, Yunlin, Taiwan

15 students, ages 13-15 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on February 25, 2009. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): 2006, 2007, 2008

Classes and Teachers: Henry Su, Jimmy Lin, Roy Lin

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://www.victoria.ylc.edu.tw

Project Overview

1. Description of Our Community

Where we live is called Yunlin, its old name is Douliouman. It was originally Hung-Ya Formosan Doulioumanshe’s territory. Douliouman is aboriginals’ phonetic translation. Afterwards, it was called Yunlin (means “clouds” and “forest”), because its eastern mountain are usually surrounded by clouds. Yunlin County is located in central-south of Taiwan, the northern most tip of Chianan Terrace. Widest length from east to west is 50 Km, from south to north, 38Km. The square measure is 1290.8351square kilometers. 90% is terrace, 10% is mountains. The whole county is almost alluvial terrace. Our school is in Douliou City, which is close to the mountains with Gukeng Township and Linnei Township. It’s a little higher. The other 17 townships are all terrace. Yunlin is Taiwan’s big county of barn. It is said to be agricultural capital in recent years. And our local community doesn’t only refer to Douliou, but also whole Yunlin County.

2. Summary of Our Project

Our topic “Yunlin Farming Specialist” is mainly focused on the agricultural development and characteristics of farmers, in order to understand the difficulties of developing agriculture and also to honor the best farmers for their dedication. The outline of our website is classified by 1. Yunlin Farmers’ History: Basic introduction to the agricultural development in Yunlin, Taiwan. 2. Yunlin Farmers Never Regret: Problems that the developing agriculture industry may occur in Yunlin, Taiwan. 3. The Brilliance of Yunlin Farmers: Hard work the farmers put into their line of work and their achievements. 4. Yunlin Farmers Smile: Showing our students and their contribution to the development of agriculture.

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

To interview farmers as we’ve decided to do is not a problem for us especially in Yunlin County. However, both the students and teachers need to find time to meet and interview seven winners of the Farming Specialist award. We also need to help promote nine related activities, a seminar meeting once a week, write reports, which became extra burdens to us as students who already had homework from school. Although we spent our weekends writing our reports to make it in time for the deadline, we started to find that it was an interesting topic when we got more involved with it. Therefore, we feel a great sense of accomplishment by completing this project.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

In our daily life, we mostly meet teachers and fellow students. Although we receive information through the internet and TV, we find we are still lacking a connection to the outer world. After interviews, we feel so real. We didn’t have any feelings of guilt when we heard the news of people wasting oranges by throwing them away until we’ve talked to the farmers. So now, when we are watching the news from the TV or listening to people, we pay more attention to them to try to understand what problems they face. It helps us to be aware of whom we are and now we are able to distinguish from the virtual and real world.

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

To do the research, we were involved in many kinds of activities such as marketing investment on studying abroad, making a scarecrow on Halloween, studying documentary films, sales of the agricultural products, writing to government officials, investigating price differences with the origin of the plant and its marketing, and helping to pick honey tangerines. The curriculum we covered ranged from history, geography, biology, economy, and humanity….etc. Therefore, the topic “Yunlin Farming Specialists” brought us all kinds of experiences and helped us learn a lot more about this kind of industry.

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Project Elements

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

internet, telephones, books, news, recorder, digital and mechanical cameras, scanner, printer, laptop, portable hard disc, software: FrontPage2000, Dreamweaver3.0, PhotoImpact7.0, Golden wave 3.0

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

In the unit “Yunlin Farmers Smile”, we have a detailed description on how we played ambassadors, we have completed “Overseas Study Group Agriculture Marketing Survey,” “The Experience of Being a Farmer,” “Halloween Scarecrow Making,” “Study of the Movie The Last Rice Farmer,” “Inviting Director Lu for Speech,” “Agricultural Promotion in Sport’s Day,” “Interview with Chen Wu-Hsiung, Chief Committeeman of the Council of Agriculture,” Investigating the price value of location and Its Market,”…etc. These are all associated to agricultural activities in Yunlin, and which also could prove our work related to our topic.

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

After participating in the agricultural activities, the local people can have a better understanding of what the development of agriculture in Yunlin means. Simply, we created a curriculum about the development of the agriculture in Yunlin, which will benefit other schools as a teaching reference.

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

We searched the internet, and found some agriculture experts whom were involved in this subject. We gave them a call to invite them for the interview, provide us the information. We pay homage to them through our project website, post an article to tell their stories.

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

We found that it is fun to interview people face to face, because it seems too far from our real life but it turns out to be fabulous stories when they talked about their lives. We feel quite emotional listening to them talking. Surprisingly, this happened in our daily life and we never really paid attention to them before. Therefore we now will pay more attention and try to understand the news relating to agriculture, vegetables and other fruits on the market.

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View our CyberFair Project (Project ID: 5676)

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