School: Ping He Elementary School
    Changhua City, Changhua County, Taiwan

7 students, ages 11-12 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on March 2, 2014. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): 2012,2013

Classes and Teachers: Chia Fen Hsu, Sherling Chiang, Fang Min Liu

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://www.phes.chc.edu.tw/xoops/

1. Description of Our Community

Our community,Changhua City,is located within Changhua County,which is the central part of Taiwan.The population of Changhua city is over 236,000. People are mostly involved with industry and commerce within an area of 65.69 square kilometers. Ping He Elementary School,located in Jhongjheng Rd.,Changhua City,has 70 years history.Thanks for the hard work of principals and teachers yearly,our students make prosperous records in the fields of language,art,athletics,dance and music.Especially in the field of music, there are chorus,band, children orchestra,string orchestra,and etc.We can find musical harmony air in campus owing to the promotion of numerous musical teachers who devoted to music a lot.

2. Summary of Our Project

This project is about children orchestra. After interviewing the first instructor and principal ,the founder, we understand the history of our children orchestra. We also visited the NTSO, National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, and their concertmaster to learn about the structure of kinds of instrument and how to make musical sound. One time, we participated in a TV show,Taiwan Kids, Great!, to talk about Ping He children orchestra. We want more people to see the marvelous orchestra.

3. Our Computer and Internet Access

A. Percentage of students using the Internet at home:21-50%

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):

Our school has three well-equipped computer labs with one hundred and five computers in total. Plus, there is one computer in each classroom at least. The network in school is part of Taiwan Academic Network (TaNet), and internet access is available in each classroom. Besides, the wireless coverage is around seventy-five percent of the campus. While discussing the project at school, we can search information and print data online and we would also collect data and make process report through the access to broadband.

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

1)Time: There are 7 members from different classes and 6 of them are members of children orchestra. Due to morning time on the weekday was practicing hour for orchestra, we didn’t have much time to do the project. We could only meet and make progress after their practice. For doing the website, we tried our best to get progress in vacations and after school. In addition, We also discussed online and made records of our process and reflections on facebook. 2)Poor interviews skill: To understand more about the children orchestra, we interviewed the found principal (Mr.Wang Ching), the first instructor (Ms.Lin Chia Yu), and concertmasters of other bands or music clubs. We were very nervous about the interview because of our inexperience. We took turns to be interviewee and interviewer through our draft and had lots of interview drills to work out any possible answers. After that, we seemed to be able to interview the principal and teachers easily. 3)Members drop out: to reorganize Step by step, every member had to keep record about what they learned after every section. Some members dropped out because of pressure from class and orchestra’s practice. Surely, we were very disappointed. But we did not quit in the middle but reorganize and distribute the workload.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

We have learned a lot since we decided to join the International Cyber Fair 2014. We were grouping, studying, learning computer software, editing website, and etc. We knew better about children orchestra and it seemed to become their second home. The routine practice is hard but that never bother them at all. In order to joining in the children orchestra, everyone has his/her own story .They even try harder in class to keep their membership and to make excellent performance. We want to make more people know better about this extraordinary orchestra and welcome everyone to join the family.

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

Grade 1-9 Curriculum is to involve all aspects of daily life that correspond to the students’ mental and physical development and aim at developing core competences which a modern citizen should possess. Such core competences may be categorized as follows: 1. Arts and Humanities: We visited NTSO which let us enjoy the beautiful music and get to know more about symphony orchestra instruments. Furthermore, we designed our posters, thank-you cards, personal logos, and illustrations to improve our website. 2. Social studies: Through a variety of activities, we knew better about the organization of our orchestra and responsibility of everyone such as the conductor, the general director, deputy director, concertmaster, and so on. Participating in the TV show, Taiwan Kids, Great!, of the PTS and visiting NTSO widened our horizons. Performing in our school and community concerts enhanced the communication and connection between school and neighborhood. 3. Integrative Activities: We realized the importance of cooperation and learned to care for each other after holding school concerts and completing the project together. Besides, we also learned to try our best to help others by performing on charity event. 4. Information Technology: We spent a lot of time doing the research by surfing online to finish the project with a variety of editing software in computer classroom. Such as, browsers, office software, drawing software. We also used multimedia equipments such as: digital voice recorders, digital cameras, scanner, smart phones to improve the project. 5. Language learning We focused on listening, speaking, reading and writing of languages, developing basic communicating competence. We simulated the interviews and listened to the digital voice recorder and typed the record on the computer. Besides, organizing and arranging the notes, photos, reviews, and sharing opinions with each other increased our linguistic ability.

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

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:more than 6 E. Additional comments: The internet and computer software were very important during the group discussion, such as finding the most relevant information with different search engines, making project reports and interpretive signs with software and transforming handmade paintings into pictures, etc. Experience mentioned previously not only improved our abilities but taught us how important and useful the information technology is.

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

1. We hope to become the seeds of music we interviewed other concertmasters and enjoyed music with them and also held three Christmas Eve concerts at school and let more students and teachers know the instruments and the beautiful melody through the performance. We want more and more people to join the vivid orchestra and become a part of the family. 2. We hope to become the broadcasters of music. In order to let more people know the orchestra, we tried very hard to get invitation of performing from outside of school. PTS filmed our practice in Oct, 2013. Then, we participated in a TV show, Taiwan Kids, Great! of the PTS. We succeed to pass on our passion of music. We also got invited to perform in the opening show of county annual sports meet 2013 and the 24th New Year Eve Appreciation Luncheon sponsored by Zen An Homeless Social Welfare Foundation. We hope to become the broadcaster of music and show people our passion to bring them the warmest heart.

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

There are many characteristic clubs in our school and the efforts of the instructors and club members are touching. Because of the project, we held three school concerts for teachers and students who all showing their enthusiasm. In each concert, we performed 2 to 3 pieces and invited the concertmasters to introduce their instruments. By using questionnaire, everyone understood more about children orchestra and how to enjoy the music. They also realized that we spent lots of time on training and practicing. By performing in the community concert, our neighborhood got to know Ping He Children Orchestra again.

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

1.Interview with Mr. Wang,Ching and Ms. Lin,Chia-Yu: We would like to thank Mr. Wang and Ms. Lin for sparing their precious time to receive our interview in their busy working hours. We learned a lot from them about the history of children’s orchestra.

2. Visit NTSO: We want to thank teachers for assisting to solve the problem of transportation from school to NTSO. And we also want to thank Ms. Chang, narrator of NTSO, for narrating kinds of musical instruments in details and letting us to touch and play many high quality instruments. The visit to NTSO really widened our horizons. 3. Film in PTS: We would like to thank principal, teachers, dancing class and hockey team for sparing time to help and assistance. We would also like to thank the PST for their well prepared transportation and shooting. We were deeply grateful for the help moving heavy instruments and support from teachers and parents.

4. Christmas Eve music concert: Many Thanks for the hard work of children’s orchestra members and the instructor. We also thank principal and teachers for their support.

5. Community music concert: We’d like to thanks the Zen An Homeless Social Welfare Foundation for providing cars and truck. And we thank parents of members for helping us to move musical instruments.

6. Group discussions and website edition: We thank Information Technology Section for lending us the equipment and providing the place to practice. We also thank teachers for guiding us to edit skill of website.

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

1)we always keep practicing our own instruments without noticing other kinds of instruments. By interviewing other concertmasters, we understand more about other instruments and how they makes the sounds. We also share the experiences with each other. 2)The training is tough. Besides the passion of music, our instructor, Ms. Fang-Min Liu, teaches us in an interesting way. We have fun a lot in our club, our family. 3)Ms. Liu wants to train us as musicians. She arranged many performing activities such as the opening show of county annual sports meet, Christmas Eve concerts, community concert, and etc. We are honored to be a versatile orchestra, not just a contest band. 4)We never thought to have a chance to participate in a TV show filming. It was kind of interesting. The director visited our school in advance and carried with a big video camera to film our practicing in campus. We really admired the director because he didn’t only film but also arrange things in details. It was exciting and nervous when we went to Taipei studio of PTS. The studio was rather small than our imagination and filming work took us all day long to finish all the filming. We all knew it would only present on TV for less than 1 hour. We were impressed.