CyberFair Project ID: 6549

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International Schools CyberFair Project Narrative
Title: When the Frogs Find Their Urban Paradise at Yung Ho Wetland
Category: 2. Community Groups and Special Populations
URL: http://librarywork.taiwanschoolnet.org/gsh2011/gsh6549/index.htm
Bibliography: http://librarywork.taiwanschoolnet.org/gsh2011/gsh6549/biography.htm

School: Yu-Tsai Elementary School
    New Taipei City, Taiwan, Taiwan

12 students, ages 11-12 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on March 14, 2011. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): 2010

Classes and Teachers: Sunny Peng, Tina Yang, Kim Huang

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://www.ytes.tpc.edu.tw/

Project Overview

1. Description of Our Community

Our school resides in Yonghe city, Taipei county. Located near the southeast part of theTaipei Basin, it is linked by three bridges over Xin-Diang River. Yonghe is as properous as Taipei city, and it is well known for its numerous small shops and attractions such as Korean Street, Weekend Farmers' markets, Yang San Lang's Museum and World Religions Museum.

2. Summary of Our Project

In 2002 a group of community volunteers from the Yonghe District of New Taipei City completed the construction of a 6000 ping wetland area under the Zhongzheng bridge. These volunteers are known as the Shiu Dang Dang Volunteers of the Yonghe Ecological Education Park and the Eco-Teacher Training Class. They are committed to the restoration of wetland areas and aquatic plants through the combining of community resources, organizing workshops and integrating the 11 neighborhoods on the banks of the Xindian river to form a management committee. In their conservation efforts, community members give up their weekends to go out and collect wild samples of aquatic plants, then transplant them to the experimental farm for restoration. Later the plants are transplanted to the wetlands on the banks of the Xindian river to be planted. Thus allowing endangered species of plants continue reproducing in their natural environment. The community volunteers have built the Yonghe Ecological Education Park single-handedly. We hope that through the interviewing the volunteers, conducting our own field research and case studies, we can produce this topic website. We also hope to be able to gain a thorough understanding of the effort that the community volunteers have put into exploring the previous ecological resources in Yonghe, as well the involvement of schools, families, community groups to promote awareness of environmental and local issues. During the course of this project, through talking to to the volunteers and experiencing wetland conservation, we hope to learn how to become a good ecology guide in order to promote this area to school children and local residents. Then everyone can use this natural 'ecology classroom', and at the same time get closer to nature and understand the importance of ecological conservation.

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:2-3

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 utilized our school's ample computers to access the Internet: there are 50 computers in the computer lab, 4 computers in the library, each classroom also has their own computer and all of these have direct access to the Internet. Having convenient access to these resources really helped us in facilitating our projects' needs and getting work done.

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

Classtime: Apart from using lunchtimes to complete the work associated with the cyberfair, we also some of our time outside of school time too. However as we can’t forget about our studies, we had to work extra hard in class and not let the cyberfair hold up our school work. Assigning jobs: When we worked on guiding people and making the website, our teachers asked us to form 3 teams. Each team had a leader whose responsibility was to make sure everything progressed on time. Each team member worked together well and so we were able to complete the project on time. Data Collection: The Yonghe Eco-park has been running since 2002 and lots of people have put heart and soul into it. From the beginning there has been a lot of data collected and it is difficult to find. Therefore we spent a lot of time interviewing the volunteers and asking them to provide us with information and photographs. Experiencing being a guide: During the 2 day guide training camp, we had to memorize a lot of information about plants. Also we had to overcome our nervousness. We didn’t have very much time, and this was our biggest challenge. Working together: For this project we had to interview a lot of people. Every time we finished the interviews, it would take us an hour or so to type up a 10 minute interview. So we split up into teams of two. One person would listen to the interview and then other person would type. Working together meant we could finish it much more quickly.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

In making this 2011 Cyberfair website, we discovered our community’s beautiful wetland, the Yonghe Community University Eco-park. We’ve got to know the volunteers who quietly help out there, unselfishly working to protect the environment. We’ve also gained a deeper understanding of ecological conservation. By working as junior guides at the wetland, we’ve realised that being a guide is not at all easy and so everyone should respect all the volunteers who guide people around the park.Throughout this time, we’ve all enjoyed ourselves a lot, and we’ve learned that development isn’t the only thing that is good for people. We’ve discovered that building a wetland park doesn’t just require money or manpower, but it needs passionate people to join in. The most important thing is to continue to care about conservation and we hope that people can learn through this website how important wetlands are to our lives.

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

By completing the project, we’ve had to integrate virtually all disciplines of knowledge. In the area of language, we used the internet to search for information, learned to how to design a questionnaire, how to type up results, how to write a progress report etc. In our guiding activities, we had to use our listening, speaking, reading and writing skills. In the area of math, we used Excel to analyze the results of our questionnaires. In the area of social studies, we gained experience of the hard-work that the volunteers put in at the park and we learned about the importance of ecological conservation. In the area of art, we combined lamination, image editing, painting, art, typography and photography to create our web pages. In the area of natural science, we experience maintaining the park and guiding people around it too. Finally, after doing the research, every student all learned how to express their own opinions. We also learned to nurture our own confidence when interview people and giving guided tours of the park. Additionally we all learned about the concept of eco-conservation.

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Project Elements

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

Interviews(Computer hardware :camera, microphone, earphones, Voice Recorder pen;Computer software : Word, Excel, PhotoImpact, Skype), In school Ecology Lectures(Computer hardware :camera, microphone, earphones, Voice Recorder pen), Junior guide training camp(Computer hardware :camera, DV; Computer software : Word, PhotoImpact), guide(Computer hardware :camera, DV; Computer software : Word, PhotoImpact), Welcoming the birds(Computer hardware :camera, DV, megaphone; Computer software : Word, PhotoImpact, Internet), 2030 River Future Forum(Computer hardware :camera, DV; Computer software : Word, KMPlayer), Website design(Computer Software: Microsoft Office FrontPage), Image process(Computer hardware: scanner computer Software: PhotoScape, Photo Impact, Photo Shop), Data Collection(IE ,Microsoft Office word), Data Backup(Computer hardware: Flash drive?DVD R/W)

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

Interacting with the Yonghe Community University’s Shuidangdang Volunteers: We made appointments with people to interview them and then explained to them why we were conducting the interviews and what the interviews would be about. This taught us how to communicate with other and to have courage when speaking in public.

Interacting with the public: Our “Welcoming the birds” event gave us an opportunity to enter the community. We took placards, sang songs, and as we walked along the road, we handed out invitations and balloons. We hoped that the public could come with us and join us in taking a tour around the eco-park. Additionally, we made a questionnaire and in doing so met lots of enthusiastic people, but we also met some people who didn’t want to take part. However all of this was a valuable experience for us.

Interacting with our teachers and classmates: One of the volunteers, Uncle Pan, came to the school to give a lecture and introduce the eco-park to everyone. We dressed up as aquatic plants and modeled for Uncle Pan as he talked about each plant. This helped the teachers and students to learn more about the endemic plants that grow in the eco-park and it also helped everyone to realize the taking care of the environment is everyone’s responsibility.

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

Our questionnaire told us that there are some people who live in Yonghe but don’t know about the Yonghe Community University Eco-park and some know about the park but have never visited it. Therefore we wanted to do something to promote the park. By giving guided tours, we could let the public learn more about the eco-park and about the plants that grow in it. Besides this, we also wanted to do something to thank the volunteers who have worked so hard create this beautiful wetland in our community. We hope in the future that the park will continue to be sustainable.

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

Personal visits: We used our spare time in the evening to hand out invitations at Yonghe Community University and to interview the volunteers there. We to learn about their thoughts and hopes. Phone calls: We had to call up the volunteers before an interview to schedule a time to as not everyone could come at the same time and sometimes the bad weather would force people to cancel. Internet phones calls: Teacher Chaoren was very busy so we used Skype to interview him. We talked for a long time about how he has worked at the eco-park from the beginning all the way to now, Email: Every time we did a guiding activity, we used email to discuss how it went afterwards. Uncle Jianci and the Volunteers President also used email to send us photographs of our activities.

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

Discoveries: 1. The power of teamwork: Teamwork and cooperation are very important. If we relied on only one person, we would have no chance of complete our project. 2. Website building: In making a website, we not only had to combine everything that we had learned about software, but we had to learn about analyzing the information we gained by handing out questioners. 3. Junior guides: Becoming a junior guide not only means having a lot of knowledge, you must also react quickly and speak loudly and clearly in order to attract people’s interest. Lessons: 1. Preparation: Before the interviews, we must the questionnaire and tape recorder ready otherwise it will be chaos! Also when guiding we must to get all the props ready first so that everything goes smoothly. 2. Don’t procrastinate: After every activity or interview, we must get everything recorded. If we leave for too long, our workload will pile up and we’ll start to forget some of the things that happened. 3.Practice again and again:The first time we got to be junior guides, we were all very nervous and got tongue tied. However after repeated practice, everyone got over their nervous and everything went well. Surprises: It was a surprise to find out that Yonghe has a beautiful man-made wetland, and that it was built by a group of passionate volunteers. However even more surprising was to find out just how much hard work those volunteers put into maintaining the wetlands. They really are truly amazing! Inside the park, there is a man-made stream and the water that runs through it is actually waste water from people’s homes. However as it is filter by the plants, it is very clean and clear and we thought that this was incredible! Taiwan has so many special plants that need our protection. Relying on the work of a few isn’t enough. One river can produce and support many plants, animals and fish. Everyone should work together to help preserve this delicate ecology.

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