School: Kaohsiung Municipal Cijin Junior High School
    Kaohsiung City, , Taiwan

8 students, ages 14 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on March 8, 2012. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): 2010

Classes and Teachers: Mrs. Ziling Huang, Mr. Zongyi Wu, Mr. Yingzai Chen

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://www.cjjh.kh.edu.tw

1. Description of Our Community

Kaohsiung is an ocean city in Taiwan, and it is also a world-famous harbor and modern city. The shape of Cijin is like a liner on the sea. The weather in Cijin Island is always shinny and the people are always passionate, attracting tourists around the globe. However, one trouble thing is that, as the typhoon arrives, the driftwood will drift along the bank, making the fish boats or the navy ships so difficult to come to the bank for shelter. When the boats get started, the propeller will get broken due to the driftwood. This would make the boats/ships unable to move. Thus, the government has to devote massive human resources and money to clean out or move away the driftwoods. Well, what we want to ask is, Is there any effective way to solve the Gordian knot of driftwoods that occur—every year? We want to trace back the causes of the driftwood in order to seek an effective approach to solve it.

2. Summary of Our Project

We will examine the cause of the driftwood and its consequences to our life. Moreover, we also propose our suggestion of how we are going to tackle with the consequences of the driftwood and more importantly, how we reuse the driftwood and even make them become pieces of artworks.

The super typhoon Morakot brought severe disaster to Taiwan in August, 2009. There occurred severe landslides and mudflows in the mountain areas both in the central and the southern Taiwan. The driftwood, moreover, covers the whole riverbanks, harbors, and banks. The local government finds it so difficult to clean the massive driftwood. Well, what is the real cause of driftwood? Where should the piles of driftwood go then? Should they, like waste, be thrown away or do they have any better function? We want to use the project to highlight the importance of environmental protection in Taiwan. Moreover, while the countries around the world are promoting the importance of energy saving, we follow the notion of recycle and reuse in order to transform the driftwoods into biofuels, fertilizers, and even pieces of wood sculptures. This, no doubt, re-creates the second life for the driftwoods.

3. Our Computer and Internet Access

A. Percentage of students using the Internet at home:none

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

E. Additional comments concerning your computer and/or Internet access (Optional):

As for the aspects of Internet and computer, our school is equipped with 38 computers with T1 high speed Internet, printers, scanners, etc. At the very beginning, we stored our data on Yahoo (Hong Kong). Then our teacher was afraid there’d be any unexpected problem and she designed another FTP for us to store our data in order to prevent any unexpected problems.

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

Our description is in the following link: http://www.cjjh.kh.edu.tw/cjjh2011eng/narrative.htm#4

5. Our Project Sound Bite

Our description is in the following link: http://www.cjjh.kh.edu.tw/cjjh2011eng/narrative.htm#5

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

Our description is in the following link: http://www.cjjh.kh.edu.tw/cjjh2011eng/narrative.htm#6

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

In the webpage design, we have used many computer techniques, such as camera, computers, the communicative devices and the transport devices. We cannot finish our project without the computer; we cannot communicate without the communicative devices; we cannot take pictures to the real place if without the transport devices. Thus any of the devices is so valuable and necessary for all of us.

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

We will use the driftwood as the raw material as our sculpture artwork after the typhoon seasons. Dwelling of Driftwoods displays its pieces of driftwood artworks to the students, teachers, and visitors. Through the introduction of the Driftwood Dwelling we want to convey the message: we have only one Earth. Most importantly, the resources will die out in the end. Everyone has to understand the importance of “recycling and reusing the resources” and cherish the resources we now possess.

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

While making the webpage, we need a lot of original information and pictures, which are, however, never easy to find. So we have to search for the information we want through numerous websites in order to accumulate all of the data. However, we’ll feel worried if we fail to organize it well due to the stress of time. We have to speed up ourselves. Or we will interview the residents who live near the Dwelling of Driftwoods. Then the interview would then be further organized. The pictures on our websites are what we took by the digital camera. Sometime they were not properly taken and we have to do it again. This will delay our process and need more time to complete the task.

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

The topic of our project is the “driftwood,” which is what we often see from our childhood to the present, especially after the typhoon. We can also hear some information or knowledge from our parents, grand-parents, or the senior neighbors. However, whether their information is accurate requires us further verification. The artisan told us some information about the driftwood, which enriches the content of our webpage. Our teachers constantly discussed with us and expanded our viewpoints.

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

Each group will his/her own discoveries, lessons, and even serendipities. For instance, the Public Relation Group will inspect and record the process of the each group and remind every member of the progress they have to achieve. If one delays, his/her tomorrow tasks will be piled up. Art Design Group has to be careful about the colors they choose and the arrangement of pictures and words in order not to make the whole design of our website too bland or too complicated. We want our website to be resourceful and beautiful.

The task of Camera Group is a type that is easy in the beginning yet tough in the end. The members in Camera Group are not, we have to admit, quite familiar with the camera and sometimes the pictures they take are rather vague and unclear. Our teacher sometimes rejects their task submitted. But after some time, their skill was greatly improved and their picture task would be accepted by our teacher. It seems to suggest that the members of the Group can be the cameraperson!