School: Taipei Municipal Guangfu Primary School
    Taipei, Taiwan, Taiwan, R.O.C

13 students, ages 10-12 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on February 25, 2011. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010

Classes and Teachers: Zou Yushiu, Shu Nengshian, Wu Zhangfeng, Chen Zhiwei

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://www.kfps.tp.edu.tw

1. Description of Our Community

Taipei City, located in the north top of Taiwan, is a big city with 2,620,000 populations. The city has been set up for 120 years. The industry and commerce in Taipei has been highly developed. It is an important center of culture, economy and politics in Taiwan, too. In addition, it is worthy to mention about Feitsui Reservoir, which is less than 30 kilometers away from Taipei and supplies 5 million people in the greater Taipei areas with water for livelihood, for fire fighting, and for industry. In other words, the project of Feitsui Reservoir areas covers not only the whole Taipei City, but also the counties of Xindian, Yonghe, Zhonghe, Sanchong, Danshui, and Sanzhi. Moreover, it supports the using water of Banqiao and Xinzhuang, too. That is, Feitsui Reservoir accounts for 50% of the water for livelihood in Taipei City and New Taipei City. There is a close relationship between the greater Taipei area and Feitsui Reservoir. The reservoir is not only to protect people’s property, but also to maintain people’s living, including eating, clothing, housing, and traffic.

2. Summary of Our Project

Feitsui Reservoir, which supplies the residents in Taipei with the drinking water, has the water sources from the rural areas of Pinglin, Shuangxi, Shiding, and Xindian. The wellhead has covered about 303 km2. The conservation of the wellhead will directly affect the water quality and quantity of the reservoir. For example, Wenshan Boazhong tea in Pinglin plays a pivotal role to protect the wellhead of Feitsui Reservoir because the greater proportion of organic farming is, the better reservoir water quality will be. If the farmers, in the areas of the wellhead, plant the tea with conventional farming, the pesticides and fertilizers will flow into the reservoir with rainwater and affect the quality of the reservoir. In particular, after the application of chemical fertilizers, it will increase the nitrogen and phosphorus content in the water and easily leads to reservoir eutrophication. Moreover, the use of herbicides will easily lead to lose the topsoil. When the heavy rain is coming, the topsoil would flood into the reservoir. It would result in shortening the life of the dam. Due to the disadvantage of the conventional farming, Ci Xien Foundation has promoted the organic planting and called the tea in Pinglin as “Jingyuan Tea”, which means to enjoy the healthy tea and to protect Pinglin’s beautiful landscape. They hope to keep water always clean in Feitsui Reservoir.

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: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):

Our school provides ADSL for linking to internet with an upload speed of 100Mb and download speed of 100Mb. We have completed a wireless internet in 2004 and can receive the internet message in the campus everywhere. There are four computer classrooms and a multi-media center for making teaching materials in our school. In each computer classroom, there are 35 computers for the students to have the computer class. Also, the school provides every teacher a notebook for teaching use. The staff is more than 200 people. So, approximately, there are more than 350 computers in our school, including the computers for the administrative use. Every computer can use the wireless internet in the campus. The administrative departments still use the desktop computer which is provided with an exclusive line for connecting to internet and various web services are available for application through the server. The school’s servers include Web Server, Mail Server, DNS Server and Proxy Server that provide convenient online application environment. Every student has his or her own E-mail address and has the capability of web making.

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

(1) Tea Trip, Inconvenient Traffic We had a trip to visit the tea garden, located in mountain areas. The country road was so narrow that we had to rent a medium-sized bus for students to ride. The instructor felt a lot of pressure because she not only worried about students’ traffic safety, but also feared that the students got motion sickness. Fortunately, everything was under the control. The students had a good time. (2) Bad Weather, Hard to Experience The weather was rainy when we had the trip to visit the tea garden in Pinglin Village. The vision was poor. We almost got lost in the thick mist. It was hard for us to have the field exploration. Fortunately, the master of the organic tea garden received us friendly. We drank cups of warm and organic tea and had the hot tea meal. The tea farmers shared with us in the progress of planting the organic tea. All of us felt that it was a significant journey to visit the tea village. (3) Busy Student, Slow Progress Our team members were outstanding in many extra-curricula. They were the members of the Chinese orchestra, the chorus, the sport team and the language association, too. Our team members were always too busy to attend the research activities. Therefore, the scheduled progress of the research often got behind. We encouraged students to attend the research because they could learn a lot of knowledge and skills from the research, such as the skills of interview, interpersonal interaction and result presentation. That is why we arranged the trip to the tea garden in the day of school-off, on 15th November, 2010.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

To promote the organic farming of tea trees in Pinglin area is not only for personal health, but also for protecting the reservoir. Moreover, it is a kind of concern for nature and human life.

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

Using the topic of “Drinking Tea to Protect the Reservoir” to teach the students who majored in the project, the research design would be organized as follows: ? Art & Humanities: Exploration and Creativity?Illustrations?Making Video?Background Music ? Language Realm: Speaking Ability?Writing Ability?Listening Ability?Reading Ability?Impromptu Speech?Reflection Presentation?Writing Interview Draft?Searching data ? Synthetic Activities: Managing the Life?Persons Interaction?Interview Skills ? Society Realm: People and Space?People and Time?To Protect and Use Water Resources?To Understand Taiwan’s Topography?The History of Promoting Organic Agriculture ? Science and Technology: Science and Technology?Process Skills?To Compare the Features of Tea?To Understand Ecological Resources in Ping Lin Mountain Areas?To Understand Mountain Climate in Ping Lin ? Math Realm: Statistical and Probability?Information Application?To Interpret the Charts

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

1. Writing the Interview Draft. In this research, we used the methods of interviewing, visiting, observing, and experiencing. How to edit the variety of materials to be a touching story was a hard test for us. We did our best. First, we recorded the interview content and typed with the record carefully. Second, we decorated the interview draft after discussing with team members. Finally, with the guidance of teacher Miss. Zou, the counselor of the research, the interview draft became more and more vigorous. 2. Interviewing skill. Before the interview, the background data about the interviewees must be collected and we had to design the interviewing items. At the interview, get ready for a recorder and camera. Questions should be made randomly at appropriate timing. In the beginning of the interview, the moderator should deliver the welcoming speech, and the grateful speech in the end of the interview. 3. Imaging Arrangement. We used the software of PhotoImpact to arrange the pictures taken by us. In process, we learned lots of skills to arrange images which would tell the truth and beautify our report. 4. The Skills of Collecting Materials. The data on the Internet and newspaper were very abundant. How to collect the useful data was very important. In this research we learned the skills to collect the data. We typed the key words and searched for the data on the Internet. The skills we learned to search for the data on the Internet were interesting and useful for us to do the other research later on.

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

1. Interviews on the Spot. In the researching procedure, we visited Taiwan Pinglin Tea Museum, and the organic farmers, Mr. Wang Youli and Mr. Chen Luhe. They received us very kindly. We appreciated that they explained how to cultivate the organic tea trees. Their interpretation made our research go smoothly. 2. Academic Lectures In addition to field interviews, we invited Miss Wu Xue Mei, who was working in Ci Xin Foundation, to have an academic lecture. Miss Wu interpreted the plan to clean the wellhead of Taipei Feitsui Reservoir. After the lecture, we got a concept more clearly to understand what was the plan and how was difficult to implement on the organic tea cultivating. 3. To Experience We enjoyed the fun experiences to cook noodles with tea oil, to wash bowls with tea washing powder, and to drink a cup of tea after a meal.

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

1. The First Time We had learned a lot of precious experience in the research process. There were a lot of first times to do something. For example, it was our first time to visit Pinglin Village, the first time to visit Taiwan Pinglin Tea Museum, the first to drink tea, the first time to eat a meal with tea, the first time to use tea washing powder, and the first time we learned how to clarify the different varieties of tea…, etc. 2. Changing the ideas In our stereotypical ideas, the organic was representative of expense and health. But in the research, we had learned that the organic farming had the meaning of paying attention to the protection of the natural environment. 3. Being Grateful to… When we enjoy the best quality water in Taiwan, we should be grateful to have the tea farmers who were devoted their life to maintain the way of organic farming. Since their devotion, the water in the reservoir could keep clean, and the reservoir had been maintained for a long life. Therefore, we should be grateful to the organic farmers and cherish the water resources.

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

? Miss Wu Xue Mei, who was working in Ci Xin foundation Miss Wu Xue Mei, who was working in Ci Xin Foundation, had an academic lecture to us. Miss Wu interpreted the plan to clean the wellhead of Taipei Feitsui Reservoir. After the lecture, we got a concept more clearly to understand what the plan was and how difficult to implement on the organic tea cultivating was. ? Taiwan Pinglin Museum To visit Taiwan Pinglin Museum gave us an opportunity to get a lot of knowledge about tea and to understand the different features of tea in Taiwan. ? Mr. Wang Youli – the organic farmer in Pinglin Village Mr. Wang Youli, the farmer in Pinglin, explained the natural environment of tea garden, and made the description how he decided to maintain the way of organic farming. He was so kind to prepare an organic tea meal for us. We got a lot of knowledge about tea from Mr. Wang. ? Mr. Chen Luhe – the organic farmer in Pinglin Village Mr. Chen Luhe was the organic farmer in Pinglin Village, too. He had a demonstration not only to make hot tea, but also to make cool tea to drink in summer. ? Taipei Feitsui Reservoir Those who received us to visit Taipei Feitsui Reservoir were very friendly. They showed us the exhibition of water ecological education, and the introduction video about Feitsui Reservoir. In addition, we mounted the platform in the dam top to take a view of the reservoir scenery.

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

1. It was very hard to cultivate the organic tea plants. The reason for the farmers to maintain the way of organic tea cultivation was because they loved the land and life. 2. Although we didn’t know the organic farmers in Pinglin Village, they really let us have the clean water to drink. We hoped the government could provide the good policies to encourage the farmers to maintain the way of the organic cultivating. 3. We have learned that we could use tea not only to drink, but also to cook, to wash dishes, and to do many things in daily life.