CyberFair Project ID: 7194

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International Schools CyberFair Project Narrative
Title: The oriental beauty tea's growing
Category: 4. Local Specialties
URL: http://librarywork.taiwanschoolnet.org/gsh2012/gsh7194/
Bibliography: http://librarywork.taiwanschoolnet.org/gsh2012/gsh7194/inter%20paging/zbibliography.htm

School: Private Chien Tai Senior High School
    Miaoli City, None, Taiwan

10 students, ages 16~17 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on March 12, 2012. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): 2012

Classes and Teachers: Hsieh Ming Kong, Hsieh Hsin Chou

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://www.ctsh.mlc.edu.tw/

Project Overview

1. Description of Our Community

The climatic traits of hills, the moisture of orographic rain and the mist of high mountains in Hsinchu and Miaoli County are the excellent natural environment for growing Oriental Beauty. We visited around the Emei and Toufen region, where seem to be more scattered compared with downtown, have recently being more popular with tourists due to their local characteristics. They are places where still treasure natural landscapes in possession, which have become known as tourist attractions, and the background of the Hakkanese culture is what our research motivation was. As Hakkanese, Oriental Beauty, moistured by almost the same cultural background as us, really interested us. What is more, there seems to have a gap between tea and the new generation and this motivated us to be more concentrated in this field. Due to the advantage of climate environment, there are tea shops located almost everywhere among ten minutes when driving a car. While we were visiting and tasting tea, the bosses told us everything we were curious about and showed us the atmosphere of warmness and friendliness of the people which has merely existed in cities. In addition, fun incidents also happened while learning with three of the masters we mainly visited and these really had made tour of exploration much more fascinating but also benefits a lot.

2. Summary of Our Project

The society has already been given the stereotyped impression that the 'tea culture' is related to the older generation. And due to the reason that most modern families have lost their connection with traditional culture, thus they provide almost no environment for the young generation to be in contact with tea. We feel sorry for the fantastic and pristine tradition being fast-paced lost from the next generation. Even though we are not really familiar with this age-old inner-beauty that has been accumulated and passed down from generation to generation, out of curiosity, we are driven to know and keep in contact with it step by step. Decided to center around Pong Fong tea moistured in Hakka culture, started from Emei and Toufen, we visited tea farmers and tea traders. From consulting and interview to practical visits and producing, we arranged the information and learning reflection from our practical participation. We explored the method of the pristine taste being nurtured, grasped our taste buds and how it can develop its international potential. We hope that not only can this exploration enhance our cultural knowledge, but also inject a note of vitality to this dying culture.

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:more than 6

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):

There are ten members in our work group, and all of us used computers or laptop supported by school to work on our project. Most of the time, we connected to the Internet access at school to search for information we need and complete our project. Our school even opened the classroom for us at weekend to assist our works. Thanks to the good connection speed and convenient facilities the school had provided, we were able to finish our website smoothly.

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

1. Transportation problem: Due to the reasons that the places we mainly visited were in Hsinchu county, and the Oriental Beauty mainly grow in hills, were not allowed to reach our destinations with ease. We needed our mentor to drive us to each of the tea shops and plantation and it took some time. 2. Timing -- interview: As we relied on the mentor to drive the car, we need to meet everyone's conveniences but also coordinate with the tea traders. The part of making tea in particular, while some natural factors are unstable so there are some processes that could not be observed and learned. 3. in the team: information arrangement and integration are the most essential part after interview and material collection. Also, there were difficulties arranging schedule to discuss. 4. The later period of website producing: Every step were unfamiliar to us since it was our first time establishing website. 5. Setting research direction -- 'Tea' is a profound and magnificent knowledge. There were too many foggy learning worth exploring. 6. Material collection and arrangement: We were not lack of information but the materials were vast and disorderly. In fact, they were not easy to arrange. 7. Lack of experience: It was our first time participation such large-scale team event. Tacit mutual understanding was needed to be cultivated. 8. Translation of technical terms: Translating may not be a big deal for us; however, the technical terms used in articles had to be translated in the right way in order to present our meaning clearer. We must use the word carefully or the whole paragraph would be ruined.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

We’ve been soaked up in the exploration for a long time. The Teacher drove us to several of tea stores. We encountered many different types of business men and farmers, including famous bosses in tea business industry and we interacted and learned directly with them. The bi-directional communication has stirred up our excitement and of course, we learned a lot. They taught us just like our teachers but we acted as friends after getting more and more familiar with one another when they started getting involved with our research with curiosity and were willing to provide helps. We also did survey to neither friends nor strangers. In addition, more and more relatives and friends are also curious about the research, and they got to know tea with different point of view step by step.

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

The category we had signed up for is the local specificity- Oriental Beauty. We not just merely learned from books; along with our teacher’s leading and the opportunity given by International CyberFair, we dug in the tea culture and were closed to our community. Through practical observations, we discovered the profound and knowledge of Mother Nature, improved the communication skills between people, and got to understand how toilsome the processes of tea are. It was the first time for us to participate in such a competition; we had no idea how and what we should put into our project to compose a completed website. After a great deal of discussion, our members had figured out a set of methods, and realized the importance of software that had appeared in our usual computer classes. All of us were getting more and more familiar with our assignments, learned how to cooperate with one another, and presented our achievement with computer software. Our teachers and classmates were all curious about our project, giving us lots of useful advices and positive feedback. Carrying the mission to promote our local extraordinary characteristics, we hope to catch everyone’s eye on the value of traditional culture and our country home. Let us promote the potential glory of Taiwan-- Oriental Beauty, and even obtain the opportunity to introduce our painstaking efforts and the further understanding to the public.

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Project Elements

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

This is the first time for us to make such website like this; due to the unfamiliarity, we were not able to complete our project efficiently. However, with the software and other technical tools, we got to know more about the right way to make those things done. Our computers use WindowsXP operating system; Microsoft Internet and Mozilla Firefox 3.0.5 for web browser. We also use Photo ImpactX3/Photo Impact10 to modify pictures, GIF Animator5.05 to produce animations, Microsoft Frontpage2003 to make website, and Microsoft Word2003/ Microsoft Word2007 to edit main article and do word processing. In addition, we use Canon S95, JVC GZ-HD500BU to take our photos. Most of our information resources come from our oral interview; we took notes and photos, and later recalled our memories of those knowledge and information we need when making our project. And, of course, the greater part of our project was completed using computers and Internet. Photo ImpactX3/Photo Impact10 and Microsoft Frontpage2003 were the most helpful and were used most frequently. Art designing and website content editing were all done by them. We made good use of our resource and worked together to finish our website!

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

At first, we didn't like to drink tea just like everybody else. But after some interviews with tea farmers and doing tea harvesting; some inquiries with tea traders and making tea; some visits to the masters of tea and tasting and brewing tea. During the researching time, there were a lot of people sparing no efforts helping us. After a day of the special experience, each of us obtained a bottle of tea as reward from the proprietor and proprietress. We were even invited to have meals together! From the first foreign contact to becoming friends, not only did we gain a lot of knowledge but we also learned many skills of consulting and inquiring with an open mind. The way to communicate and interact with professionals and exploring the deeper areas of layer -- these extra gains will definitely benefit us in our future. Due to accepting this assignment, people around us, from family to friends have been fascinated by tea. Different chemical reactions caused by different viewpoints have made the researching procedures much more fun. 'Tea' is a magnificent and profound knowledge; we hope that from this exploration would let much more people inherit the ancient culture and through the internet would arouse more people's attraction. We are thankful to those who taught and guided us; after all, we hope that every youth like us can brew a pot of hot and healthy tea instead of having a pearl milk tea in his or her hands.

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

We knew nothing about tea before this project. However, we not only assimilated knowledge about tea, but also learned about skills of interaction between people. We had arranged a great deal of interview questions and answers in our content of our project. Those are the priceless gifts derived from those days we got along with tea dealers, tea growers, and the master of tea. From being totally unfamiliar with each other to becoming friends, we exchanged our opinions and stories with one another; what we shared were not simply about 'tea.' During our producing, we stayed at school for hours and hours at night, thus caught the attention from other teachers in the office. They were concerned about our progress and gave us some helpful suggestions. The progress of learning was not all purely about ourselves; our friends and relatives were actually followed our step to explore in this fascinating kingdom. Even now my father, who loves brewing tea all the time, also asks and discusses the knowledge with me. Of course we also directed our wrong thoughts to the right way. We introduce almost everything in our website, from the basic knowledge of tea to the process of making tea, hoping that users of our website can begin from this and gain more interest to search for 'tea culture.' It is our purpose to lead more and more people sharing this traditional culture and inheriting from one generation to another.

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

We visited many tea shops, such as Xing Hung, Yi Ming, Hsu, Yao-Liang, the master of tea Chou, Deng-Feng, and etc. We experienced producing, packing, and even sale in tea plantation of the possessor Hsu; in Yi Ming tea plantation, not only did we solved our problems and corrected the stereotypes, but we also harvested tea tips to become the beginner of tea growers. The tea growers helped us friendly and paid close attention to our project at the same time. As for the master of tea, he was actually a ceramic artist. However, he had studied tea for over ten years and had his own reflection. Also, he is a friend of our leading teacher. It was said that he seldom received strangers, but he begun to like us after we visited him over and over again. He taught us how to taste and brew tea; while we were chatting happily together, the master even shared his 'number one tea' for us. Because of the numerous visitors, we had our pleasure meeting many friends with different ages and careers. We were thankful to the tea dealers and tea farmers for their sharing and kindness. We had to appreciate our teachers for teaching us in such a busy harvest season, too. In addition, the master taught us not only knowledge about tea but also his attitude of life. Last but not least, we definitely had to show our highest respect to our leading teacher, for his guidance of taking us to visit around during his onerous work tasks. And, of course, the long-term spirit support of our parents gave us the biggest motivation. We hope that the journey we went on can eventually achieve the goal and present the excellent fulfillment to deliver our deepest appreciation.

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

Compared the short-term experience to the daily works tea dealers have to do, we were able to realize how toilsome the jobs are, as well as how mellow the taste derived from the hard-work is. We traveled the world of tea, from its fascinated history to its geographic knowledge, and got to know more about it. From the first understanding, along with visiting every single tea shop, to brewing a pot of tea that is almost perfect by ourselves, we learned step by step, and all of these are not easy at all! Before getting the opportunity of making this research, most of us must had heard about some rumors as a child, such as knowledge about tea. After we visited a couple of tea plantation and interviewed some of the proprietors, all we thought was supposed to be was actually totally wrong. While learning the processes of making tea, something interesting happened. A bus arrived at the plantation unexpectedly, and the boss got his hands full! To our surprise, we became probationers and helped to take care of guests and visitors; as for our teacher, he became like a real master of tea to brew hot tea to the guests! “Tea” is really a magnificent and profound knowledge; though we merely explored a tiny part of it, we were able to understand the cultural history, the fantastic taste, and the organic property of Oriental Beauty. It is worth to be cherished and has infinite potentiality. We hope every youth like us can brew a pot of hot tea instead of having a pearl milk tea in his or her hands, since the after-taste is colorful and wonderful cultural history!

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