School: Hsing-Chuang Primary School
    Hsing-Chuang City, Taiwan, Taiwan

8 students, ages from 11 to 12 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on March 21, 2001. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): 2000

Classes and Teachers: Inshow Yen, Anne Yu, J.J. Chiang, Chin-Sen Lee

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://www.scps.tpc.edu.tw

1. Description of Our Community

Originally, Hsing-Chuang was one of the earliest developed areas in the north of Taiwan. In the early Ching Dynasty, uncountable sails and shops around the ports made Hsing-Chuang a thriving trading and agriculture center of northern Taiwan. In front of the new and historical background, Hsing-Chuang is speeding up her paces by compromising her traditional culture with modern living style. Nowadays, the residents have been leading by a group of enthusiastic and experienced artists to create artifacts for publics. The residents and artists work together to glamorize the living environment. This kind of participation is a new trial. And we believe, it will be successful.

2. Summary of Our Project

The story of this project started from a big ceramic map in Hsing-Chuang Culture & Arts Center. We have been searching information by surfing the Internet, interviewing and discussing with people. During the researching process, we¡¦ve experienced some valuable stories that also emphasized the relationship between residents and public arts. How was the big ceramic map displayed? Why this map? Why was it done by a group of people instead of artists? What are we going to do in the future? Lots of questions was asked about this project. We are going to summarize the information, do the field survey, and interview artists, designers, volunteers. And display all the results by our Website.

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:dedicated connection

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

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

Our obstacles 1.When we went to visit the site, some people couldn¡¦t go, some even forgot! Which meant a great setback. 2.When we came together to make this site, some people couldn¡¦t come, so we couldn¡¦t work as planed. 3.This was the first time we made a website, so we had to learn how to do so. 4.When we made this site, it sort of influenced our classes.

How we overcame them :1.We took classes off and went together. 2.We gave up our recess time too and came together to make this site. 3.We asked our teachers how to make web sites, and worked hard to get used to using the software. We just had to work hard to catch up!

5. Our Project Sound Bite

We all feel that we not only came together to make a website, but also preserved a part of Hsing- Chuang¡¦s art and culture in digital form. ¡§We changed technology into an art¡¨ in Our project sound bite.

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

From this project, we learned how to develop the web pages. We all had our own duty and everyone dedicates their best efforts during interviews . Mr. Wu and Yen were all very kind to explain the terminology for us, therefore, we had better understanding on pottery. With their help, this project became easier to us. Because our web pages would presented in our school web site, we all were very excited and tried to do our jobs best. We used some skills which our teacher taught us at computer lessons to make our web site during our noontime rest. Furthermore, we also used eggshell to simulate this artwork by puzzle spelling, which was quite different from the fine art. It was an unexpected gain. To experience and identify the pottery map from true geography environment, we visited the location of all roads and rivers in Hsing-Chuang. Now I am a little expert who knows Hsing-Chuang well.

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

Digital camera, scanner, FrontPage 2000,PhotoImpact V4.2 & V5, Library of Taipei County Culture Center, Library of Hsing-Chuang, Elementary School Books, newspapers, Interviewing tourists, volunteers of Hsing-Chuang City and environmental guidance.

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

We have implemented the role of speak man by personal contact. We had an appointment with Mr. Wu, Peng-Fei, a famous artist in Hsing-Chuang. We also visited Master Yen, Yin- Hsiu who participated this event. We visited Culture Center and Yong Ni Street. While we were taking pictures with the big map, an old man passed by. He talked to us with a very proud tone:" I was the author too!" This made us feel so intimate.

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

When we visited Mr. Wu, he said:" it is so great to have you study the different of Hsing-Chuang from others. I firmly believe I have done the right thing to our community. I also hope young people will participate the work, therefore, I am so glad to see you show your interest in this project. I surely knew the meaning of this event to our community and I was very willing to dedicate my efforts. We will continue to hold the art activities, which has been lasted for five or six years. We hope someday we will make our community difference! this is not just a dream, it will come true if you ask more classmates to join us. "

It was so exciting for us to put our web pages on our school web site. This artwork was the essence of many people¡¦s efforts. We will share this civil art through internet and promote the art events to visit the art season activities.

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

Mr. Wu, Peng-Fei, Master Yen, Yen-Hsiu and Mr. Hsiu, Sen ¡V Kai have all provided us their experience. We understood the organization in Art Center from the 2nd issue of ¡§Cultural Hsing-Chuang". While we visited Art Center on Nov. 18,2001, the volunteer worked at information desk conferred us many preferential treatment. He smiled and opened the main door for us after we explained our purpose. He allowed us to visit there as long as we needed and we also could take pictures wherever we requested. He helped us to have the photo with the great map.

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

1. Clare: Art¡¦s always around us. We sometimes spend a lot of money and go to far-away places just to see a piece of art, yet forget about the art in our every-day lives. How sad! We selected three rows of clay out of the ninety-four pieces to decorate every page.

2. Sam: I learned how to work together flawlessly. one really has to understand what their teammates think and be patient with them.

3. Cherri: I used to be very shy ,but since I¡¦m the only one in our team who has worked on the map, I had to talk to a lot of people. It made me braver than ever.

4. May: ¡¨no matter how busy a person is, they can always get all the time that he or she wants if one has the passion for some thing¡¨¡C That¡¦s how my mom said. I worked hard on this site, and learned a lot about scanning pictures and web making. Also, learning computers need a lot of extra money, but I was taught computers for free!

5. Sam: This project taught me a lot about teamwork and how to succeed

6. Michelle: I learned a lot about how to use FrontPage 2000, which I didn¡¦t get to use before. I even taught my friends how to use it!

7. Eric: this project helped me to learn how to work together with my friends as a team. I really liked to work with them!

8. Yi-peng: It¡¦s a great honor to be the translator in our team. I used to live in U.S. and learned my English there. But I couldn¡¦t do it very well without a good dictionary and the trustworthy spellchecker of Word2000. My English rusted quite a bit after four years, so if you see any miss-spelled word around, it¡¦s me. After finishing this job, my English was much better. Listening to what Cherri said about making the clay map was great fun too.