1. Description of Our Community
Description of 'Our Community' Erchong Floodway starts from the south of Sanchong District, goes next to the bank of Damsui River, extends toward northwest, and then gets into Wugu District; however, Zhouhou Village, located in the reserved area for the floodway, had to face the nightmare of relocating the village. Along with the construction of Erchong Floodway, “Zhouhou Village” has disappeared in Taiwan and became a historical term. In 1968, the government announced “Northern Area Flood Control Project” and classified Chou
2. Summary of Our Project
Zhouhou Village was located in today’s Erchong Floodway. Due to the construction for flood control of the government, the entire village was forced to move to another place in 1984. Today, less and less people remember the history and original look of the Chouhou Village. For this reason, we would like to evoke memories of the forgotten history with this Cyberfair project “Reappearance of the Village on Reed Fields - Zhouhou Village”. We hope to help people review the scenery of the simple
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
4. Problems We Had To Overcome
(1) Difficulty finding common available time slots: Most team members have after-school programs or campus club activities after school on weekdays; they often have busy schedules on weekends and holidays too. Therefore, we had to use the early morning study and lunchtime, two hours per weekday, or Wednesdays after school to meet in the advisory teacher’s office or computer lab to work on the project. Moreover, we sometimes asked for leave of absence from the after-school programs and campus clubs to meet for the project.
(2) Difficulty finding historical photos: We hardly found any photos, except the ones from the Internet. When we visited the elders, most of them said they were unable to bring photos with them when forced to leave.
(3) Limits of language: Most of the team members do not understand the local dialect very well. When interviewing the elders, we talked in both the local dialect and official language. Since the poems and songs are written in the dialect, there are obstacles of listening and speaking for us.
(4) Searching for the look of the disappeared village: The first problem we encountered for reproducing the look of Zhouhou Village was the map of the village. We didn’t solve it even after many discussions with the teachers.
(5) Difficulty finding the elders of Zhouhou Village: Not many people around us know people from Zhouhou Village, so it is difficult to find people to interview.
(6)Organizing information: We did our best to search and collect lots of information, including books, masters’ theses, newspapers, magazines, website information, and photos. With so much content and photos on hands, we faced the problem of organizing the data.
5. Our Project Sound Bite
We learned a lot from working on the Cyberfair project, which not only enriches our knowledge and ability, but also gives us an in-depth knowledge and understanding of our history. When reading the story of Zhouhou Village, we cannot help but admire the villagers’ great courage that they dared to speak out for themselves in the period of the martial law. Through the “Reappearance of the Village on Reed Fields - Zhouhou Village” project, the teachers and we realize many things are unpredictable; however, we all agree with the followings: 1)The history of Zhouhou Village must be recorded and known to the public. 2)The tears of the Zhouhou Village must be comforted. 3)The sacrifices of Zhouhou Village for the majority should be remembered by the people living around Erchong Floodway forever. As for merit or demerit, let’s leave it for the future generations to evaluate!
6. How did your activities and research for this CyberFair Project support standards, required coursework and curriculum standards?
Participating in this activity, we’ve seen the growth in everyone. Not only the students, but the teachers also learned a great valuable experience. Through a series of events, we see the students truly put in their efforts; we believe their achievement definitely will be sweet.
The entire activity includes collecting data, reading books, writing journal, organizing webpage content, designing questionnaires, on-site interviews, visiting Forestry Bureau, campus promotional activities, poetry writing, music adapting and recording, and organizing exhibitions. This series of activities improved the students’ abilities in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. The students discovered problems during the study of the project. Then they improved the situation or found solutions by themselves, which helped them develop critical thinking, value judgment, and problem-solving abilities.
The students made posters to promote the events on campus, decorated exhibition sites, and adapted and recorded music, which integrated art skills into the events. Also, the design and art of the webpage production built students’ creative and aesthetic awareness and improved the artistic knowledge.
We input the received cosignatory information in an Excel file and used the statistical analysis in math to draw charts and analyze the data. We also applied the knowledge of the scale in interpreting scales.
Through the protests of Zhouhou Village, the students learned the importance of human rights. Through the parade for appealing to build the memorial, the students learned to hold a peaceful and rational civic event. Through the cosignatory event, the students learned to seek support of the public.
Through visiting Erchong Floodway, the students reflect the relationship between human and the environment; they learned the consequences of man-made environmental damage and will look for a better way so that humans and nature can live symbiotically.
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