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1. Description of Our Community
Changhua County is situated in the mid-western part of Taiwan Island. It has a beautiful scenery. There are well-known scenic locations like Bagua Mountain, Wanggong Fishing Port, Tianwei Highway Garden, the Baiguo Mountain, Gushan Temple, Qingshui Rock, Hushan Rock, and Taiwanese Folk Custom Village, etc. This place provides all kinds of flowers, whose amount and species come first in the whole island, earning it the reputation of the “Hometown of Flowers”.
2. Summary of Our Project
Wan Jing Art Gallery is known as the first Park in central Taiwan. It is located in the Township of Changhua County Sijhou. The park planted thousands years of native trees, as well as potted countless, and collection of a wide range of antique treasures. It is filled with beautiful gardening, and a wealth of precious private collection, making it like the Imperial Garden. Buddha poems and statues are everywhere in the garden, full of the beauty of artistic conception.
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:4-6
E. Additional comments concerning your computer and/or Internet access (Optional):
Because there is only one computer in our classroom, students usually come to school office and use teachers' computers. Sometimes we also do our researches at home.
4. Problems We Had To Overcome
(1) Time:As this project requires group discussion, it would be hard to proceed if one or two persons were absent. After repeated adjustments, we decided to use noon break on Wednesdays and whatever free time after school we have for our discussions. (2) Computer use and technical issues. Since our team is composed of students from the sports class, we don’t have computer lessons. Some members don’t have regular access to internet and thus have difficulties using computers. These students would need to take some time off to take lessons from computer teachers, and need their support as well. (3) Division of work:At first, everybody was responsible for five topics. But due to frequent changes later on, some people had to be responsible for more, while some people made do with less. Work progression was not uniform, causing some distress. In the end, we quickly divided unfinished work to those who had completed their share, which gave everyone a breathe of relief.
5. Our Project Sound Bite
Everyone learned about things not taught on textbooks through their participation in Cyberfair. People also developed good cooperative spirit, and learned about team work and division of labor, and realized the power of synergy. When we interviewed Wanjing Art Garden, we understood the director’s attention to detail. Although we did meet a few little issues, we managed to complete our project in the end. We have a consensus that the most important thing we are after wasn’t the results, but the fact that everyone put in effort. Rough reefs produce beautiful waves. When we carried our interviews, wrote our reports and made the websites, we endured our teachers’ nagging and chain calling. It was an arduous process, but we acquired a lot of treasured knowledge. All these efforts were truly worthwhile.
6. How did your activities and research for this CyberFair Project support standards, required coursework and curriculum standards?
Chinese: When we interviewed Wanjing, there were many poetic couplets along the road to describe the scenery. Literature combined with beauty scenes inspired our thoughts and investigations to search the meaning behind these lines. Mathematics Required pricing for visits… each of these details and ratios must undergo mathematical calculations to ensure better growth for the plants. English: Because the websites require us to translate Chinese websites into English, we thus acquired more vocabulary. Nature: Wanjing preserved many indigenous species of Taiwan: Chinese yew, Taiwan pine, etc. The park also contained ecological pools. The pool would need to consider ecological islands, flowing water, sunshine and other specific characteristics. Social Studies: 1. History: a. The origins of Bonsai art in Taiwan; b. The modern dilemma met by Taiwanese floriculture; c. Future developments of Taiwanese floriculture and Bonsai; d. Origins of floriculture in Changhua. 2.Geography: a. Transplanting and introduction of tropical plants, alpine plants, aquatic plants; b. Collection of rare art pieces from the mainland. Civics: 1. Wanjing has not demanded entrance fee payments from locals during their development, and helped to forge the fame of the village. Thus, they made contributions to their community. 2. The director’s piety to his religion is the reason why he is interested in collecting Buddha statues, artistic woodwork and stone sculptures. Humanities and Art:1. Wanjing has a collection of representative works of woven bamboo art as well as intricate embroideries with beauteous figures of maids and ladies. 2. One must be well versed in matching of floral colors, themes that match the season and period, lighting design and photography when participating in floral fairs.
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