School: Kang Chiao International School
    New Taipei City, New Taipei City, Taiwan

10 students, ages 11-12 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on February 27, 2020. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): 2015-2020

Classes and Teachers: Yousyuan Chen, Jie-Sz Tsai, Yi-Hua Tsai

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://www.kcis.ntpc.edu.tw/EnglishWebsite.html

1. Description of Our Community

Located on the Taipei basin, New Taipei City surrounds Keelung City and Taipei City, the capital of Taiwan; these three cities form the Taipei Metropolis. New Taipei City, a typical populous city, is the biggest municipality in Taiwan, and Xindain District is one of the inner city districts in the southern part of New Taipei City. In early days, Xindian was uninhabited, but because it was close to Taipei City, Xindian attracted many enterprises to come to the area to build and develop their business industry. Kang Xuan Enterprise is one of the successful enterprises in Xindian area.

Wan Ji Li, the chairman of Kang Xuan Enterprise, enthusiastically promotes sports, such as swimming, marathon, mountaineering, and triathlon to Kang Xuan Enterprise due to his passion for sports. Mr. Li believes that sports can unify the entire enterprise, so he further brings the sports to Kang Chiao International School, a school that Mr. Li established. Kang Xuan Enterprise has become the enterprise with the most Ironman triathletes. Nevertheless, Mr. Li’s Ironman mindset: “Success is attained with preparations, while failure is caused without.” and “To keep it up, and become the oldest triathlete on the field.” has great influence on the entire Kang Chiao International School, from the elementary school to the high school. Mr. Li’s Ironman mindset is not only the symbol of the Kang Xuan enterprise, but also the hidden future skill of the Kang Chiao International School students.

2. Summary of Our Project

Through materials reading and collecting, videos watching, interviewing, personal experiences, ect, this project discusses the history of the Ironman Triathlon and its differences from other sports. This project also further studies the chairman of Kang Xuan Enterprise and his passion for Ironman Triathlon and how his passion of the sport impacts our school community as a whole.

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):

Currently, our school provides us with an adequate e-learning environment. Not only do we have two well-equipped computer labs available for our use, but each teacher is also provided with a desktop computer for his or her personal use. In addition, there is Wi-Fi throughout the entire school. All the sixth-and-fifth grade participants of CyberFair this time are enrolled in our e-learning classes at school in which the classroom instruction, homework, and projects are all done with the use of a Chromebook. In terms of our Internet accessibility, we can use the wireless Internet within our school campus with ease. We can access and store our work in the school-wide server. We can also use the Internet to conduct our research as well as share our work and finding with our teammates.

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

1. Collecting and categorizing mass amount of information Before interviewing Chairman Li, Coach Wang, and Teacher Chiu, it wasn’t too hard to collect their information online. Therefore, we needed to first discuss the main ideas of our project and how we wanted it to be presented on the mindmap. 2.Arranging the interviews Our second challenge was how to conduct the interviews, collecting the information, and leaving a good impression on our interviewees within a limited timeframe. We listed out the questions after some studies of the topic. We prepared for the unpredicted situation that might happen in the interview. We asked the academic department to assist us with picture taking, sound recording, and video taking in order to keep the full record of the first-hand information for further use. 3. Challenges in learning about Ironman Triathlon To avoid affecting our normal academic schedule, we tried to organize the interviews during the designated club periods. Great thanks to the collaborations from different school departments to help us organize the meetings with our interviewees and provide us with the opportunities to learn in an environment rich with triathlon-related events like the IronKids race, Water Sports Day, and Snow Mountain climbing trip. So that, from our interview, we have the first hand-knowledge about the lessons and struggles these men experience and try to spread their “Ironman Spirit” to our school life. 4.Teamwork This project takes the effort from all of the members involved. Too many times that we realized even if we finished our individual parts, when the whole thing was put together, many problems appeared as the content may not correspond to each other or conflicting information. Our ten-member group didn’t work as a team in the beginning. It’s only when we started to examine each other’s information and discuss the project as a whole, then we were able to clarify what was amiss and work together to solve all of the problems.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

“The one who keeps on running is the one gain the most wisdom.”

Our Chairman Li once said in our interview, “If I keep my heart and soul young, the age and distance will never stop me, will never become a problem or a difficulty.” Also, Coach “Starfish” Wang said, “A mighty determination is the key how a triathlete overcomes any future challenges.”

These are the essence of the lesson we learn. Age or a failure in a race event is never the factor in determining if an athlete was successful. Only when we keep on running, keep a young and healthy soul, and keep our goals ahead, then we can achieve any milestones they set in life.

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

1.Language: visit, interview, write about the special topics, and write about our opinions 2.Social studies: plan the research, create the project framework, design the interview questions and the survey, and organize the interview transcripts 3.Integrated activities:integrate the information and data from the interview, survey, online and printed research, and others to complete the project 4.Computer science: research, web design 5.Independent study:learn the research skills, such as brainstorming, mindmap, survey design, interview skills, organizing data and information, and many others

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

Phone, e-mails: We invited the people we wanted visit and collect data from through phones and e-mails. The Internet: We used the Internet as a second reference to collect our information. In addition, we used the Internet to download and upload files for sharing of personal reflections or other data. DV, voice recording pen: We used DV recorders and voice recording pens to record videos from our visits and make transcripts of the conversations from our visits. Chromebook: We used Chromebooks to send e-mails, arrange pictures, articles, and data. Then, we compiled them into Web pages.We also made short clips to document the highlight of our visits. Digital cameras: We used digital cameras to record videos of our visit, interviews, and field observations. Computer software: We used different types of computer software, such as Google Drive, Google Doc. Coggle, Mindmup 2.0, etc.

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

Before doing the interviews, the students firstly wrote down the invitations and emailed the famous 'Ironman' triathletes that we would like to interview. One of the great Ironman triathletes was the chairman, Wan Ji Li. Chairman Li is the founder of Kang Hsuan Educational Publishing Corp. as well as Kang Chiao International School. Chairman Li has great passion for triathlon sport and he is very satisfied with his experiences in the sport. Chairman Li brought the sport to Kang Chiao International School, but he did not know that this sport has already had great influence on the students. All of our interviewers, our project students, have attended Ironkids triathlons. During the interview, Chairman Li was so surprised to learn the students' stories, and some of them even got the championships in the races! Chairman Li was very impressed by Kang Chiao students as well as the power of triathlon!

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

Triathlon and Ironman are sports that people know about in general but may not have a good understanding of it. Our project and website not only serve as a brief introduction to the sport to those who want to learn more but also provide examples of how people in our school community have done to help us develop the Ironman Spirit. This is also the first time we students get a chance to learn more about the people who started and inspired the Ironman mindset in our school community. We also want to share our findings to the community at large in the hopes that more people will participate and support the sport. Moreover, when we, with the help from other school departments, organized and conducted the interviews, many pieces of the puzzles have to come together to effectively get the information we need in the least amount of time possible as, you know, everyone is busy in schools. This can be a chance for future collaborations within our school community to work together to achieve a goal bigger than each individual.

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

Chairman Li, Coach Wang, and Teacher Chiu all volunteered their time in their busy schedule to help us understand the sport and their experiences. Also, when we needed technical assistance in our website design, Teacher Lai from the IT Department took his time off and patiently explained how to outline the website, adjust the layout, and many would-be frustrating issues we encountered. Also, we need to give thanks to Mr. Luo to help us record the interview so that we have a record that we can always refer back to.

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

The fact that the Kang Hsuan Educational Publishing Corporation and our Kang Chiao Schools put a lot of emphasis on sports and physical education isn't too surprising to us. We have so many in-school competitions every year. But what truly surprising for us is the fact that there are great triathletes around us, teach us, and we have never been told of their stories. For us, teachers like Teacher Qiu, is just another PE teacher who is super fit from the appearance. We would never have thought his name is so popular in the triathlete world in Taiwan. Also, after learning that there are students not much older than us joining the Xiugang Triathlon Ironman team, it truly makes us feel becoming a triathlete isn’t just a dream. If those students, some of them we know personally, can do it only a year or two after elementary school, then there isn’t any reason for us to limit our goal. All of us in the club this year feel empowered by our research and all look forward to one day have the heart and dedication of a triathlete.