School: Taipei Private Fu-Hsing Junior high school
    Taipei, Taiwan, Taiwan

8 students, ages from 12 to 14 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on March 31, 2002. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): 2000,2001,2002 in Taiwan

Classes and Teachers: Yi Ping Lin

E-Mail contact:

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

1. Description of Our Community

The scope of Railway Express consists of the railway tracks that are north of Tsu-Shei brook to north of I-Lan. They include Trunk Line, Ping-Shi Line, Nei Wan Line and Bei-Yi line. If someone departs from the Taipei Main station, all of the spots are reachable within one day on train. The five routes that we recommend have their own characteristics and specialty. The m route has Bei-Yi line, Ping-Shi line and Trunk Line intersect here to form a busy railway network. Meanwhile, the m line goes through the tourist spots that have the most waterfalls, mountains, old streets, harbors and coalmines in Taiwan. The r route has Nei-Wan line and Trunk Line intersect. The former line is the route for transporting wood, cement and glass, the latter has the spectacular coastal line view of Trunk Line and old train stations. The h route has the northern mountain line and coastal line of Trunk Line intersect. There are the light and signage hall, the Railway Museum, ancient stations from Japanese colonial period and other special spots along the route. The y route has the southern mountain line of Trunk Line, the costal line and Cheng-Chui line intersect. The rare Chang-Hua fan-shape engine warehouse and Chei-Gen and Jih-Nan petite stations are spots that are worth seeing. The b route has the abandoned old mountain line from the last century and Trunk Line intersect. Tai-An, Sheng-Hsing are particular spots with originality. The new Tai-An station, Tung-Lo and Hou-Li have the individual architectural characteristics and township personality.

2. Summary of Our Project

Railway express is a website for showing teenagers how to take train journeys and which scenic spots to choose. Taking trains is the most convenient and safest vehicle for traveling for teenagers to conduct countryside fieldwork or to travel in groups. However, only few railway travel books in the market were written specifically to meet teenagers’ needs in the past. The northern Taiwan is often where we go for field trips on the weekends. Based on our own outdoor traveling experiences in this area in the past three to four years, we have “created” “m, h, b, r, and y” railway routes. After doing the fieldtrips for three to four years, we have selected an average of four to five stations on each route and used “one scenic spot per station” as the theme for local specialty. For every stop, we will emphasize our own unique observations and use them to come up with some methods for visiting the spots and ideas on how to know the stations in interesting ways. We will also include interesting and refreshing notes on their architectural characteristics, local custom, and historic background.

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:1

C. Connection speed used in the classroom:dedicated connection

D. Number of years our classroom has been connected to the Internet:4-6

E. Additional comments concerning your computer and/or Internet access (Optional):

School: we use the T1 line to connect to the academic LAN via the National Taiwan University. The students used their time for lunch breaks, after school and holidays to make the web pages in the computer classroom. Home: the eight team members got online through 56K modems, ADSL and cable modem and they exchanged information.

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

In the aspect of data collection, it was not so easy to gather information or to do interviews due to the scope of the introduction. Many thanks to the modern technology, the team members were able to collect information on the internet and send messages to each other. 　Regarding the web site production, since the team had some experiences from the last year, the skills and efficiency this year improved a lot. However, some problems came unexpectedly. While we were hard at work, the computers were attacked by virus. After scanning for viruses several times and a couple of software reinstallation, the problems were finally solved. 　Another motivation for us to increase the efficiency is that we were pressed for time due to the increasing academic responsibility since we are now in middle school. We often didn’t even get enough sleep, so we had to work on the spare time on weekends. Thus, we have developed the mutual understanding like brothers and sisters.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

When there is a will, there is a way.

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

Taking a train ride and visiting various railway stations had given us a deeper understanding of the geography, towns, historical custom and traffic construction of the northern Taiwan. The learning from the fieldtrips is related to the content of the textbooks for geography, history, and social science. Through the real on-site interaction, we not only broadened our knowledge, and the experiences also increase the interest and fun for us to read textbooks. When we were doing the fieldtrips, we not only had to gather related information prior to the interviews, we also had to summarize the notes afterwards. The pre and post interview work has turned us all into small railway fans. We started liking train rides and felt that train ride fieldtrip is the happiest one in the world. The information available on the internet regarding the Taiwan railway system was abundant and every group found a lot of useful information for reference. We had to have these details prior to our departure because they helped us focus on the key points for our visit and investigation of each stop. Due to the big scope of the areas visited, there were five routes and over thirty stations that are worth introducing. Thus, we divided the team into four groups and each group was assigned a route for interviews. However, we did work together on the main route and finished the content for the main route jointly. Doing partial group work and the entire teamwork at the same time wasn’t easy, but it provided various cooperation and learning opportunities.

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

Hardware: Computers, scanners, printers, digital cameras and cameras, etc.

Sofeware: Windows 98, Me, XPPhotoImpact 5.0, 6.0Ulead GIF Animator 4.0FrontPage 2000, 2002Word 2000, XPPowerPoint 2000, etc.

Reference books

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

This railway special topic website making activity, we have to thank a lot of people. Among them, Mr. Gin Ming Hsu, the captain of the Railway Police Team, who is closely related to railway. Inorder to do this activity, we had to collect various information pertaining to railway, including the historical background, origin, social and geographic features, and local customs for each station. It was really difficult for us. Just when we thought we were running out of luck, Mr. Hsu showed up. He was surprised to see the types of information we gathered on the railway system. He thought that the Railway Bureau itself didn’t seem to pay the same level of attention to preserving the information as much as we did, a group of middle school students. It was because his continuous support and assistance in helping us collecting the data. He even reported us to the Railway Bureau for them to pay us a compliment. Even though we don’t know the results of the contest, but at least we have received encouragement, which means a lot to us.

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

　Through the information we collected, we have developed a deeper understanding of the train stations. We used to look at trains as simply traffic vehicles, now we treasure little details about the railway system. Little things like a train ticket and a regular lunch box are things in life that are worth remembering. 　Our ways of knowing the stations are very different from the railway fans in the past. The railway fans in the past emphasize on the learning of the engines and railway culture. We, on the other hand, put a stress on the feathers of stations and the surrounding environment. And we created routes for learning the local scenery from our own perspectives, which differ from the instructions in regular travel books. 　After traveling with the entire family and team to complete the trips for the railway stations, we have all fallen in love with this safe and precisely scheduled train rides. In addition, due to the choices we made on the local scenic spots for the fieldtrips, we had also avoided the contact with the crowd of tourists. Railway rides refreshed our view on the outdoor activity in Taiwan. We deeply believed that the unconventional railway fieldtrips will let teenagers experience the kind of happiness they have never experienced before, and to gain a lot of unexpected knowledge and learning. This is also the primary reason for us to produce the web site to share with everyone.

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

We did a field trip for every station to gather information.Regarding the information on the railway stations, we frequently asked the railway expert: Mr. Tzu Wen Hung for help. Mr. Hung is like a museum or a dictionary, and he knows everything about the historic and contemporary background about the stations. Another scholar, Mr. Ko Hsiang Liu, also knows a great deal about the stations that are located in various places in a big area, local features, and customs. He was also very supportive. Doing the field trip to every station, all the staff persons from the stationmasters, the station crew, volunteers and scholars, have all let us show their warmth. We can’t thank everyone who helped us. We would like to thank the following: Railway stations: .aptain of Railway Police Team:Mr. Gin Ming Hsu .Chang Hua Engine affair deputy supervisor:Mr. Zeng. .Chang Hua Engine maintenance supervisor:Mr. Ching Yuan Chow　 .Chu Tung stationmaster:Mr. Ming Chuan Huang .Pa Tu stationmaster:Mr. Tzu Hung Fu .The Chi Tu station clerk:Mr. A Duang Chen .The Keelung station clerk:Mr. Lung Shong Lin .Tung Lo stationmaster:Mr. Wen Der Lee .Tai Chung station supervisor:Mr. Hwei Huang Lin .Chui Fen station clerk:Mr. I Chuan Ko Volunteers: .Sheng Hsing station:Mr. Cheng Ching Lai .Keelung station:Mr. Hua Kai TuAssociations/Schools: .Mr. Tzo Yuan Chen .Tai Chung County Cultural Hall .Miao Li Hsing Long elementary school principal: Mr. Fu Ging Lai Local people: .Chu Tung resident:Mr. Gin Chuan Chung

We especially would like to thank Chiao I Com., LTD., Ching I Com., LTD, Hsin Gin Advertising Com. LTD.,and Chinese Cable Modem Technological Applications and Promotion Association for providing the technological support. 　Of course, we would like to thank Ms. Yi Ping Lin and Li Chuang Ko who helped us during the whole process. We thank them for their continuous support. We love them.

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

Through the station interviews, we learned a lot of interesting and technical knowledge about the local areas. Normally, people wouldn’t even notice many spots if it were not because of they are train stations. For instance, why is the warehouse near Chu Tung station so huge? Why is Ching Shui station so far away from the downtown area? Why is it that there are so many taxis near Shuang Shi station? We saw a lot of unique features that are not known to a lot of people from the station’s perspective. Through the interviews, we also learned that great interpersonal exchange comes from serious conversations. And not everyone is willing to talk to strangers. We often got bumped and thought about giving up the interviews several times. Sometimes, we were even afraid of interviewing people. However, if we ran into someone with warmth, we got really results form them Things that we didn’t expect prior to the trips. For example, some stationmasters would take out their collection of cardboards for us to see and some station clerks would take us inside the stations to visit the interiors. These are the beautiful memories during the making of the station section.