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1. Description of Our Community
Sanmin Village is the smallest village located by the left bank of upstream Shuiliutung River at an altitude of 302m above sea level and it is also the access to the first village in Fuhsing Township. Sanmin Village sits north of Cheren Village and is adjacent to Dasi Township on the north and east side, where the borders are still undefined and remain disputable. In addition, Sanmin Village is the accessible location among villages in Sanmin Township and also has the most population of Han descendants. In current days, Atayal descendants scatter from north of Sanmin Bridge to the mountain hills along the creeks. The original Shuiliutung, Kyak-Pai tribe has been divided into 6 tribes and the village now has a total of 718 households with approximately 2261 people. Though the village has the most population, it is physically the smallest village. Major groups of population are Fukienese, Hakka, Aboriginal, Chinese Mainland descendants, and foreign spouses in an order in which populations are numbered. Because of the diversity in the population, Sanmin Village has always been a battleground for votes during elections.
2. Summary of Our Project
“Tuba - qalaan ma gu”, the historic “Kyak-Pai”, was named “taba” because of its local Derris. There are approximately 600 Atayal descendants, among which 69 children are attending San Min Elementary School. Though most of Atayal residents in tuba made their living by farming in early days, majority are now cement workers, factory workers, and bamboo farmers. In general, residents are content with their less-affluent lifestyle and enjoy their country living. On December 15, 1963, a stone-built old chapel was completed in Sanmin and has become the spiritual and religious resource for Tuba’s residents since. Along with the fund-raising efforts of PastorYa-ge Sun, Pastor Jhun-hui Chen, and American youth troop, Pastor Rong-chun Hwang designed the building main entrance using special stones and the concept of “The Key to Heaven”. Council for Culture Affairs now lists this traditional chapel with elegance as one of the 100 historic landmarks. In addition to the old chapel, the spectacular Bat Cave presents a nature terrace and water-curtain cave while tourists find irregular rocks, a range of mountains and misty fogs through the narrow opening in the cave similar to the “Sky Line” in Kenting Nation Park. This area with serene beauty attracts many visitors on weekends and adds a new look to the secluded nature. To renew the spirit of the old chapel, residents founded a cultural workshop and a culture museum will be open to the public at the same location. In addition, the fitness trail from Bat Cave to Guanyinshan has been completed and available for the public. These accomplishments not only strengthen Tuba residents’ religious believe but also give a boost to the local economy for tourism. Without a doubt, Tuba’s future is full of exiting potentials.
3. Our Computer and Internet Access
A. Percentage of students using the Internet at home:21-50%
B. Number of workstations with Internet access in the classroom:1
C. Connection speed used in the classroom:not sure
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 school connects to TaNet through FastEthernet dedicate line by Taoyuan County Internet Center. The computer lab is equipped with 31 Pentium 4 computers powered by the special projects for disadvantaged school children by Ministry of Education. In addition, the school has two servers, one is freebsd and another one is Windows 2000 server. All computers are accessible to Internet and servers for various Internet services with great connections. Each class is allocated with two computers utilized by the students during the lunch breaks or weekends.
4. Problems We Had To Overcome
This team is made up with students highly interested in computers and students from Tuba and all members meet at the computer lab with a designated teacher for learning computer skills on every Wednesday and Sunday afternoon. During the process, team members learned not only the features of their local communities but also web page building programming basics. During the project, the team visited many places and people who are relatively shy. Though they were too shy to ask questions at first, they came around quickly and participated in the interviews productively later. Because we were required to write reports and comments after each interview, we got to a point where we were totally frustrated and often thought about giving upon the project. While individual members have improved their typing skills in Traditional Chinese, essay writing has become a second nature. However, the team encountered challenges during the project such as: a.: Challenges in deciding the topic of the project. b. Improving interviews skills and confidence. c. Lack of written documents.
5. Our Project Sound Bite
The making of this project not only benefited both participating teachers and students but also improved the team’s web page building skills. Most importantly, this project study provides resourceful information for similar future study. Moreover, through the concept of valuable tourism resource, the public will be educated about invaluable benefits of culture preservation and innovation, great lessons for tourist attractions.
6. How did your activities and research for this CyberFair Project support standards, required coursework and curriculum standards?
The topic for our project is focusing on the study of local tourism, closely related to the “Native studies Culture” course. In Grade 1-9 Curriculum, “Native studies Education” plays a very important role. Through “Taiwan Schools Cyberfair Project”, our team utilized “people interviews” and “on-site visits” to further explore our local communities and get to know people and places we are surrounded with. In additions, our team members were able to apply our computer skills in practical projects through web page building experience. Therefore, our project demonstrated the concept of “integrating native studies education into technology”, the basic concept of “Grade 1-9 Curriculum”. Moreover, the project also fulfilled some requirements of the ten basic skills such as applying technology and information, accuracy, safely and effectively utilizing technology to collect, analyze, integrate and apply information. Next, because the project required on-site visits, the team was divided in groups to gather information. The individually collected data was integrated for the team project. Through such experience, our team learned the importance of teamwork and the joy of success sharing.
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1) What information tools & technologies did you used to complete your CyberFair project?
Desktop Computer:Online Search Information Notebook Computer:Search Information, build web page, organize data Scanner:Scanner was used to digitize our project pictures. Digital Camera ADSL Graphic Software:Picture making and editing (including photos) Word2000, DreamwearMX, FrontPage2000:Used for editing page content and building new web page. TV:Gather relevant information from TV programs. Phones and Cellular Phones:Communicate with team members and contact visiting facilities. Digital recording pen:Used for recording important interview conversions and saving them in electronic format. Others:News Clips, Magazine, Introduction, Library, Verbal Interview, Conference Room and Computer Lab. Among them, new clips, magazine, conference room and computer lab are provided by the school.
2) In what ways did you act as "ambassadors" and spokespersons for your CyberFair project both on-line and in person.
Our initial goal was to introduce the “entrance” of Fuhsing Township, “Sanmin Village”, to the public. Through Internet, the beauty and local features of Sanmin Vilalge is just a few clicks away. With the help from our principle and participating teachers, interviews and field trips were arranged for this project. Though we prepared tools and interview questions ahead, face-to-face interviews were still somewhat intimidating to us at first. In some occasions, we attempted to gather some information through survey data completed by interviewees. In additions, we were required to record the interview conversations for subsequent processing.
3) What has been the impact of your project on your community?
We often take things for granted and show little gratifications to what we have. Or we tend to ignore the existence or importance of our surroundings. Through this competition, we are able to experience new experiments, new discoveries, and new challenges for the first time. We were determined to make the best of it. Without this project experience, we would be less likely to pay special attentions to “Sanmin”’s history, culture, traditions, and local specialty. Overall, we all were committed to unveil Sanmin’s beauty to students, tourists, and even local residents. Hopefully, the world will appreciate our efforts in promoting Sanmin. Fortunately, we inspired some of the parents to join our team and help our project.
4) How did your project involve other members of your community as helpers and volunteers?
Because this project required supports from a variety of resources, we started out with existing resources through websites, news and magazines, consulting with participating teachers, and words of respectable local residents. In addition, a series of field trips documented by photos and recordings complemented the project fantastically. Along with the genuine supports from local residents, our team was able to obtain invaluable information about Sanmin and successfully completed the project. We would like to give thanks to those who supported our project. Because of the pouring supports from many individuals, it is our pleasure to present this amazing website to our community.
5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)
Discoveries of participating teachers: Education materials shall not be limited to textbooks. Promoting local tourism resources is indeed a great example for native studies curriculum. Through a series of field trips, students were able to obtain hand-on experiences in various interesting learning activities lead by participating teachers. Following the concept of practicing classroom knowledge in educational activities, students learn effective problem-solving skills. Through helpful mentoring, students with poor academic performance were able to complete individual assignments. Students’ Comments: Cheng Tang: Although the web page building process was challenging, our team were totally committed to the project whether in picture takings or data finding. Fortunately, the project is about to complete. Through this website competition, we have learned so much, especially computer skills.
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View our CyberFair Project
(Project ID: 3768)
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