CyberFair Project ID: 8189

Close this Window

NOTE: Due to URL changes, some links may no longer be valid.

International Schools CyberFair Project Narrative
Title: Plants Can Talk: Come Visit Us in Tianwei
Category: 4. Local Specialties
URL: http://librarywork.taiwanschoolnet.org/gsh2017/gsh8189/index.htm
Bibliography: http://librarywork.taiwanschoolnet.org/gsh2017/gsh8189/bibliography.htm

School: Holy Savior High School
    Changhua County, Changhua, Taiwan

8 students, ages 12~15 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on February 20, 2017. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): 2017

Classes and Teachers: Ellen Hsu; Ke Ying-Lan

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://web1.hshs.chc.edu.tw/bin/home.php

Project Overview

1. Description of Our Community

Tianwei Township is located in southern Changhua with Yongjing Township on the north, Beidou Township on the south, Tianzhong Township on the east, and Sihu Township on the west. It is a long and narrow rural village, and a highway passes it. It is famous for its highway garden where various plants are planted. It set up a highway garden tourist attraction in 1973. The production and kinds of plants in Tianwei are ranked top in Taiwan, which makes Tianwei a Flower Township.

2. Summary of Our Project

Tianwei Township is a flower gardening specific area. Its various plants possess highly economic benefits and an artistic value. It has such a rich specialty that we will walk into the field in person to enjoy the beauty of Tianwei. With the help of research methods such as field trips, interviews, and textual criticism, we will make use of photos which combine multiple concepts, including vitality, creativity, aesthetic, and reality, to build the webpage.

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):

At school: There are 296 computers in five computer classrooms connected by 2 ADSL broadband lines (10M/3M, 75M/50M). At home: ADSL Personal device: We go online by using Wi-Fi, 3G or 4G mobile device.

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

Dilemma:Team Situation:(1)The team is composed of one seventh grader, three eighth graders, and four third graders. That’s why it is hard to keep everyone in touch.(2)We face a problem when we try to put everything together through integrated writing.(3)As for how to assign jobs for everyone to do the project summary, we can hardly reach an agreement. How we conquer:(1)Our team leader asked every team member to check on the next day’s work on facebook for this seminar every day.(2)The teacher shows us how to find solutions at the teaching & learning center in the library. We finally decide to work on the topic outline, photo, data, and statement to do the editing work.(3)The teacher explains that the project summary should be based on the initial introduction, project introduction, in-depth discussion, practice and experience sharing as its main structure.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

We are very fortunate to have this chance to learn new different things and some know-how. We work as a team through teamwork, which makes us so united that we name our team — the HSHS Sweet Team. We come from a sweet and huge family (and school). We like to help each other so we can do this project well and get it done smoothly. We come up with this mutual understanding and cheer everyone up, which makes us so united and active. Such powerful strength becomes an invisible force behind us so we can make progress. We surely are very grateful for every parent, teacher, and team member who have joined us to do this project. We want to say thank you for all your support and forgiveness.

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

(1)Language: We wrote down the feedback and contemplation after each seminar held online. We drafted some handouts for the interview, copied down the words taken from the record word-by-word after finishing each interview, and recorded words from our research blog and posted them to the Cyberfair. We did all those writing works. These jobs must require language training on a daily basis. Only with the training can one be able to write down fluent paragraphs, so the words can catch the attention of online visitors. Everyone has made tremendous progress in their writing capability during the time of training. (2)Nature and Life Science & Technology: We understand which element may be required to grow the plant by watching the sprout grow into the flower crop. We figure out that we can use fertilization, water, or sunshine to solve the problem of plant disease. These are the things we cannot learn from the classroom. (3)Social Science: Through understanding the origin of flower crops in Tianwei and its roadside garden, we learn more about the humanity and culture in Tianwei. (4)Computer Information Technology: In the process of designing the webpage, we learned how to use the graphic design software on a computer by using the clip art, photo editing software, PhotoImpact, Microsoft Word, CSS3 Menu, FrontPage, FTP client, and other technology or software to help us finish our webpage. We are able to use the Internet, multimedia disc, and video disc to collect data and then do the analysis.

Top
Project Elements

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

(1)Computer Hardware: desktop, laptop, digital camera, tablet, other mobile devices, T1, ADSL, and so on. (2)Computer Software: Graphic design software, PhotoImpact10, FrontPage2000, CSS3 MENU, File Transfer Open Source Software (FileZilla), Windows NT Server, Word processor, Mail, and so on. (3)Facebook Social Networking Site: 2017 HSHS Sweet Team. (4)Normal Facility: phones and mobile phones, messenger or instant messaging, camera, and so on. (5)Other: Teaching & Learning Center, library, the study room, and the computer lab.

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

(1)We visited the town chief in Tianwei Township and the general director of Farmers’ Association. We visited the chief executive at the local government and showed them how we cared about the development of the local cultural industry. We also let the local government know that we use the Taiwan School Cyberfair to show people all around the world the local culture features in Tianwei. (2)It was when we walked into the field that we found our plant topic for this project. We used lots of photos to illustrate our points to introduce the featuring flower crops one by one so that the visitors browsing online can have the same experience as we do in the real world. (3)It was after listening to the plants whispering that we found our plant topic. We created a topic of listening to the plant whispering. This topic perfectly fits in our narratives to illustrate the well-developed agro-speciality in Tianwei. The town folks know their advantages quite well so they grow the local specialty and further develop its own feature by integrating with the industrial development. After our discussion, we found that our topic can give online visitors real presentation through DIY project. So, we worked on 4 topics to experience the work we do in this DIY project: 1 day visiting florists, growing plants, experiencing miniature gardens, and talking about how to grow mums by using photos to introduce each topic step by step. We want to invite online visitors to have a closer look at the flower crops in Tianwei. (4)We try to promote the feature of local industry in Tianwei by using the Internet.

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

Because we join this research project planning, we get to know Tianwei Township, known as the hometown of flowers, through data collection, onsite interview, webpage making, and so on. Many florists who run business to grow flower crops, the agro-speciality, will hand over the business to their generations. This project “Plants Can Talk: Come Visit Us in Tianwei” can allow more people to know Tianwei Township. People can also travel Tianwei Township, and they can even know and learn how to grow, produce, manage, and sell the flowers and plants. We’d like to invite friends who may be interested in the flower crops and plants. They can come and visit Tianwei, and learn or know how to run business well. We hope it may help promote the business development in the flower crop industry, so it can run more smoothly and may become a sustainable business in Tianwei Township. We find that the Tianwei Roadside Garden, our topic, has evolved and been transformed into one of the most popular tourist attractions in Taiwan. All flowers are now available to visitors. We hope we may attract visitors to come to Tianwei and have fun, and they can buy some flowers to help the local business grow and prosper.

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

Our summary of this research project planning: We introduced the features of local specialities to people through research interviews and field survey. We interviewed the local gentry, government officers, and organizations to get to know more about the industrial structure in Tianwei. We also went through the literature on the project, Plants Can Talk: Come Visit Us in Tianwei, to help us put data we need together. Research Method is narrated in brief as below: 1.Get to know where the specialties come from in Tianwei: We visited the next generation of Mr. Kai-Liang Hu who told us the story behind the history of Tianwei Roadside Garden. 2.Development of Tianwei Township and its vision: We visited the town chief, Wen-Hua Lin, in Tianwei Township. 3.Get to know what the flower crops and specialities in Tianwei Township are: We visited the general director Mrs. Chun-Zhi Yang at her office in the Farmer’s Association in Tianwei Township and the director Zheng-Xian Wu at the promotion office. 4.This is a great place to give them a great big thanks: (Town Chief Wen-Hua Lin)(Mr. Zheng-Xian Wu)(Mrs. Chun-Zhi Yang)(Mrs. Ya-Ling Wang)(Mr. Jia-Sheng Zhang)(Mrs. Wen Guo)(Mr. Yong-Ji Zeng)(Mr. Shi-Long Xie)(Mr. Mu-Shi Luo) (Mr. Gao-Wei Hu)(Mrs. Shu-Hua Liu)(Mrs. Shu-Xian Lin) (Mr. Luo)(Mr. Qi)(Mr. Fan)(Mrs. Zheng)

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

Half of our team members are quite familiar with the project we do this time because we already have a prior experience with our last project. As for how to create a webpage or how to clip photos, we can do it after running a few rehearsals. Yet, there are three new members who just start to learn how to do the webpage design. Our teacher also spends a lot of time and effort giving instructions to them, so they can catch up with the teamwork. In addition, our senior will show the junior how to do it, so we can save a lot of time. First of all, we use Microsoft Word to create our layout for the documents, and then we use FrontPage to help us convert the files into html files. We don’t know much about the encoding part because FrontPage is a kind of software called What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG). I also learn from each interviewee through interaction: No one knows how to interact with each interviewee, or no one can guess how the interviewee would respond to us, or how to take minutes word by word. Certainly, we did meet with a situation when the interviewee was not sure what to say. When the situation came, we as the interviewer would have to take courage to break the ice. We kept smiling and changed a new topic, so the interviewee wouldn’t get nervous. This is what we have learned and it impressed us a lot.

Top

View our CyberFair Project (Project ID: 8189)

Close this Window