School: Taipei Municipal Changan Elementary School
    Taipei City, Taipei City, R.O.C.

9 students, ages 11 to 12 years of age worked together to complete this CyberFair project on February 17, 2018. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): 2015,2016,2017

Classes and Teachers: Yung-huw Hsueh

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://www.caps.tp.edu.tw

1. Description of Our Community

Taipei Municipal Changan Elementary School is located Zhongshan District and south of the downtown Taipei City. School is closed to the business district and has convenient transportation. There are Songjiang-Nanjing MRT Station and Jilin-Nanjing bus Station. Take the metro to depart from Changan Elementary School to Songjiang Nanjing Station and you can see the public art work connecting the 5 metro lines. We can also get to any public art place set in Great Taipei Area due to the convenience of metro.

2. Summary of Our Project

The public art is the artistic behavior occurring in the public area. According to the provisions of Culture and Arts Reward Act, the setting budget of public art shall not be less than 1% of the building cost. The work of public art of Taipei Metro has already become the object existing for a long time in our life. We hope to discuss the significance of public art and artist’s professional knowledge and listen to the stories about public art through the development of metro public art, so that everyone can have a better understanding of Taipei metro public art and slow down their space in the busy life to appreciate these pubic arts.

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:none

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 teacher built the Changan CWSC (163.21.146.116) web platform for us to upload and update data as well as handing in assignments. When we had no time to meet together, we also used the website discussion forum to discuss. Our teachers also let us use the computers in the classroom of gifted students during lunch and recess to complete our study progress.

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

Turning point of process During the research process, we have encountered many difficulties. For instance, the transcript is not completed and the guide of metro public art is not found; the interviewees change their journey temporarily to cause the changes in the whole plan; we are too rushed in the journey and we forget to take pictures. In spite of many difficulties, we can always face and solve them together, which has also strengthened our friendship. We have harvested a lot from this tough journey and it is really a blessing in disguise!

Data compilation After interviews, we had to organize the data. We divided tasks, such as writing scripts, writing interview thoughts, and compiling data. The data was very helpful for our research. After the survey, we did statistical analysis and created bar graphs to help us study data. The process for discussion and reading graphs was very time-consuming, but we became more efficient as time went by and our experience grew. It proves our abilities did grow.

Teamwork Work distribution is a very important procedure. The principle is distributing our work according to our ability and expertise, so that we complete each job easily and more efficiently. We first chose our jobs according to our own expertise, and then took our teacher’s suggestions. Teamwork is very important; we couldn’t have gotten our jobs down without the encouragement of our supervisor and each other, thus, we created strong relationship of tactful understanding and cooperation within ourselves.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

During the research process, we have found that the setting of public art needs to consider lots of things which can be completed through the efforts of decrees, artists and establishment agencies. A piece of good work of art can bring lots of surprises and admiration to the city and the surrounding people, and the combination of public art, the public and the community means that the art has been rooted in people’s surrounding environment. When you take the metro, you might as well stop and spare the time to understand metro public art and listen to the stories behind the public art!

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

Language Arts /Mandarin: The interview manuscript, records, afterthoughts and research data all need the language understanding and integration ability learned in the language field. While making the questionnaires, we need to consider how to make the respondents know our expression meaning or key points and the options cannot be repeated or contradictory. The good oral expression is necessary to interview others or conduct the interview survey. Moreover, we cannot be either nervous or tongue-shy. After the interview, we need to listen to the sound record to transcribe the interview contents. But as the children, we usually cannot understand the language of the adults easily. In this case, it is also our new challenge to recognize new words. Mathematics: During the questionnaire counting, we also have to learn to calculate the quantity and make the histogram, so as to use the numbers to express the results and explain the meaning represented by the numbers. We are amazed that the numbers can be used to express so many meanings. Social Studies: Metro is the public transit tool frequently exposed to us and metro public art is also the object often exposed to us. We are usually in a hurry to ignore the public art, but it plays an important role in our life. It makes the single-colored metro stations become more beautiful and add the color to metro stations. We are interested in these works of art, so we have conducted the further research. Arts and Humanities: The sense of beauty of public art is a kind of feast of visual sense and it needs to be appreciated and tasted to really experience its implication. In addition, the concept of color matching learned in the art class is also needed to make the webpage and give a presentation, so as to make the webpage and presentation become more beautiful. It is the sense of achievement in beauty when we see the edited photos shot by us take on a new look after the repair. Science and Technology: The public art is …

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

The most information homework for us is form the “CWSC digital platform”. Using these network platforms in school, we can upload our work and interview information. We can also discuss our thoughts in this place and share all kinds of information. With CWSC digital platform, even if we could not attend research meetings, we can keep up with everyone's progress.

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

In order to make us contact with the people related to metro public art, our teacher helps us arrange many different activities, including meeting with and interviewing Associate Engineer of Civil Engineering and Architectural Design Division and Department of Rapid Transit Systems in Dimension Endowment Of Art and studio of Mr. Hsin-chien Huang and inviting the professional guide teachers to help us guide the works of metro public art. We have gone all over the works of public art of 5 metro lines and meanwhile also learned much precious experience and knowledge! There are not too many people understanding the public art, so we hope to promote the public art through this project, so that the value of art can be scattered in our surrounding environment.

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

“What has been the impact of your project on your project team members?” Metro is our indispensable transportation tool and art turns out to be around us. This project inspires our interest in public art. Through this project research, we have learned lots of ideas and characteristics of public art and meanwhile it also deepens the friendship between our team members. During the research process, we gather together to talk about the progress and work status every day and challenge ourselves to spare no efforts to complete the interview transcript. Some students often forget to hand in the homework, but we finally conquer all the difficulties to complete the complicated work!

We always spend lots of time to complete this project after class or during noon break and holidays, and the toil cannot be described by words. But we are still willing to pay for it because it feels great to work hard together. Although it takes us a lot of time to complete the project homework and our original life pace has been affected, it also makes us have a better understanding of the knowledge in the aspect of “metro public art”!

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

During the research of the entire project, we have been helped by many people. For instance, Assistant Engineer Chien-ni Yin and CEO Peng-chu Hsiung of Dimension Endowment of Art provide the practical experience for the setting of metro public art, so that we can have a deeper understanding of the operation of metro public art. We also feel it thankful that the experts in various artistic fields answer our questions carefully and provide us with the valuable ideas and opinions. We’d like to show our thanks to Mr. Ching-tsung Hsu for instructing us the technology of light projecting the glass sheet during the process of art in-residence plan. Besides, thank the people in Daan Forest Park for their willingness to spare the time to provide the most authentic first-hand data for our questionnaires. We would like to thank all the people having helped us to add the infinite glory to our research!

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

Prior to our project research, we know nothing about the knowledge of public art. We have found it difficult to understand the public art. Although we have spent much time in collecting the materials, we still cannot know the core of many things. We have found that the setting of public art does not mean placing the artwork in the public places and they should be also set according to the regulations and then the setting of public art is completed after the strict examination of Department of Rapid Transit Systems and governmental agencies. Prior to the interview, we usually prepare the questions well for the interviewed experts, but there is one interviewee not following the common template. In this case, he cannot answer the questions according to the original order. Our teachers hope us to listen to all the interview contents carefully, but we feel it troublesome and we are slow to complete this job, causing the delay in work progress. For this reason, we have realized that we need to be down-to-earth to conduct ourselves and business and complete the job step by step. During the research process, we have found many surprises. For instance, Dimension Endowment of Art has contributed a lot to the public art; the setting of metro public art has provided us with more artistic sense of beauty. The stories behind the information conveyed by each work of art to the public always amaze us. The workers who are willing to sacrifice exist in every field and Mr. Chi-fu Yang’s persistence on and attitude towards art really admire us!