1. Description of Our Community
Taiwan, formerly known as Formosa, is an island located in the eastern part of Asia and on the northwestern Pacific Ocean. It is located in the southwest of Japan, north of the Philippines, and across Taiwan Strait from the mainland of China . With an area of about 36,000 square kilometers, it is the 38th largest island in the world, of which seventy percent become mountains and hills. The plains are mainly concentrated on the western coast, and the elevation of the terrain varies greatly. Changhua County is known as 'the granary of Taiwan'. It is located in the central part of Taiwan's main island. It borders Nantou County in the east and the Taiwan Strait in the west. The south side is bounded by Choshui River and Yunlin County, and the north side is bounded by Wuxi and Taichung City. Hemei is located in northwest Changhua, with about 9 million populations as the satellite city of Changhua City. Dadu river is by its north, Shengang and Xianxi by northwest, Lukang and Xiushui by southwest, Changhua City by east. It experiences a subtropical monsoon climate, average yearly temperature is 23?, the rainy season is mostly between February and September, its ratio by type of rainfall in descending order are plum rain, typhoon, southwesterly flow and spring rain. In winter, northeast monsoon brings strong winds. An early name was “Khah-lí-sian”, taken from the aboriginal Babuza language, it means the junction between hot and cold, warm weather and beautiful environment. After Yuanlin is upgraded into a county-administered city, Hemei becomes the biggest urban township in Changhua County. It is also the third biggest township in Taiwan (only fewer than Caotun, Nantou and Zhudong, Hsinchu).
2. Summary of Our Project
Lu Quan-En, the stationmaster of the 'Silver Star Weather Station' in Hemei Town, Changhua County, Taiwan, has set up weather observation equipment on the roof of his house. Through gathering the observations from the 'Weather on the Roof', he has kept updating the weather conditions on the fans page of Facebook' Preemptive Forecasts of Taiwan Weather ' .So far, he has provided more than50,000 fans with the first-hand weather forecasts for free. Master Lu Quan-En’s “Silver Star Weather Station” is the only private-owned weather station with registration certificate from Central Weather Bureau. It used to be the only “weather station” in Changhua and Yunlin area. He once stopped observing for ten years, and the equipments are not good enough for observation anymore. He wishes to rebuild his station by fundraising, and the station can become a pivot for promoting weather knowledge. Inside a normal alley of Hemei, Changhua, a blue sign “Silver Star Weather Station” is on the door of a townhouse. Master has been struggling to keep the station running, and his instruments can only spread around the corners of his house. “Siphon type rain gauge” and “anemomter” (which was destroyed by Typhoon Soudelor in August, 2015) are placed on the platform of tin roof. “Aneroid barometer” is ticking on a cabinet in the worship hall. At the clothes drying yard, a notebook is on the desk and a box of weather chart sheets is on the steel cabinet which contains weather related books and information. However, master Lu isn’t giving up, and he still shares weather information on the internet.
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
4. Problems We Had To Overcome
When we are making the website, we don’t have answers for some questions. We ask parents and teachers to drive us to the interviews. We really appreciate their helps so the project can continue smoothly. Only when we arrive at master Lu Quan-En’s studio and conduct the interview, we can realize success takes a lot of time and effort.
5. Our Project Sound Bite
Through this project, we get to know about Silver Star weather station and to witness his dedication to educate more students on how to observe weather. We believe that his effort will pay off and the seed of weather observation will increasingly grow.
6. How did your activities and research for this CyberFair Project support standards, required coursework and curriculum standards?
(1). Language: The main language is Mandarin we use in school. We speak Mandarin during the entire interview with Mr.Lu, and he alternates with Minnan to explain proverbs about weather for us. Afterwards when we organize the interview audiotapes, through discussions, we learn a lot about weather knowledge. Truly we have benefited a great deal!
(2). Social studies: Social study is a field about incorporating self, person to person, and person-environment relationships. In order to make this project, we browse books, search on internet, interview professionals and teachers, and begin to contemplate its related issues. We wish this project can make everyone learns more about weather and further initiate intentions to join weather observation.
(3). Natural science: In natural science, Mr.Lu leads us to see the weather station on the roof. Our understanding to weather goes from nothing to having a basic idea. Our teachers also enthusiastically teach us about interpreting various observation data of Hemei High School weather station. It turns out that weather is an ever changing and unpredictable master in the natural world.
(4). Information technology: One indispensible process in cyber fair project:collect many written data and pictures for making the website. Doing so, we have to use computer and internet regularly. While we organizing these words and pictures,we also need to use various application programs. We don’t usually have the chance to make and edit website, so this is a rare occasion for us to learn and improve our computer skills!
(5). Integrative area: For this project,we learns greatly about interactions during interviews, mutual assistances in team cooperation, striving to promote weather knowledge to locals in Hemei, and time distribution and management when collecting information.
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