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1. Description of Our Community
China is the people that first discovered and utilized tea. The Chinese has made tea a unique “tea culture” and spread it throughout the world. Several decades ago, tea once was the major economical crop that brought Taiwan’s economy a glean hope of survival. There are many different kinds of tea trees, including newly developed breeds, grown throughout the island. Some nutrition contained in tea is good for health. As times change, the importance of tea in Taiwan never changes.
2. Summary of Our Project
Tea is an essential agricultural product for Chinese. In ancient China, tea leaves are even main source of vegetable consumption. In Taiwan, during the Dutch occupation in the early 17th century, tea became the source of foreign exchange earnings.
Based on different methods used to process tea leaves, Taiwan developed various kinds of tea, which played an important role for the island's economy.
The program will discuss in detail different categories of Taiwan made tea. And we hope through this report we may show how representative tea means to Taiwanese history.
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):
There are several computer labs at our school, and we used the lab that is used for the course of “Introduction to Computers”. In this lab, there are 50 computers, most of which are equipped with Pentium-2 CPUs, yet a few of them have the new Pentium-4 CPUs. They are much better in performance when processing motion files, animations, and Web pages. Our school used T1 lines before to access the academic Network in Taiwan. The access speed was not stable, sometimes running as fast as 120 K and sometimes running about only at 3 K. We were not happy about it , but we knew we could go a good job if we worked hard together. We depended on it to win both Taipei and Taiwan Web Page Design Contests last year. Fortunately, the school network was upgraded to the optical fibers and the speed for downloading can reach 1 MB per second. This is great for our job, but the speed is still a bit unstable. Most of our members use ADSL or Cable Modem at home for research and file sharing.
4. Problems We Had To Overcome
We went through many difficulties that were not easy to overcome in different stages of the process, but still we were able to survive each setback. The difficulty we first had was that some junior members of the team were not familiar with this contest. This was the first time for them to be involved in this type of big contest , not knowing much about the game and, sometimes, even not knowing what to do or which way to go. Good thing was that we have senior members and teachers to lead our way step by step for the process. One thing special about this contest was that we had to come up with the top on our own. We did a lot of thinking and were not still on the right track. We came up with many tops, but most of them were not suitable for us. Even the final topic “Tea” came up to us during out chitchat. Listed below were the problems we had and the way we solved them: Data Gathering: The most time-consuming jobs were the on-the-site interviews, with taking pictures and filming. File editing also took up lots of our time. We were glad that our team member, Bo-Hong Chen, even programmed on his own to design online questionnaires and statistical tables. Interviews: Moreover, the weather was not good on the day we went for the trip. We were afraid rain would wet the equipments we were carrying. And when we finally set out for the trip, some members were late, some got lost, and some even got on the wrong train. And when we finally got to the destination, people there happened to be having a tea-making contest, and everybody was busy and nobody would spare some for us for an interview. We were quite frustrated by this, but, luckily, the interview was able to continue with the help and guidance of local people.
5. Our Project Sound Bite
During the process of the research, we have obtained knowledge that we never learned before, from the ancient tea bricks to the modern tea for losing weight and the famous Taiwanese “Milk Tea with Jelly Beads.” Tea has become an indispensable part of our lives. As times change, the importance of tea never changes. Participating in this contest was quite a challenge. For some team members, it was something they never tried. Everybody was working very hard to accomplish this challenge. And no matter what experience we learned from it, at least we have had tried very hard. Although the whole process was not quite smooth from the beginning and was full of frustrations, we knew that we could succeed only when we worked with perseverance and willpower.
6. How did your activities and research for this CyberFair Project support standards, required coursework and curriculum standards?
The topic, Tea, doesn’t relate too much to the coursework at school, but we can absolute relate the computer technical problems we had during the process to the course of “Introduction to Computers.” Owing to this contest, we have learned more skills and accumulated more experience on Web site planning and building and the application of computer software and hardware. The suggestions and ideas that the teachers have given us are something we may not be able to learn in the regular classroom. The research process provided us many things that we would not have chance to learn at school, such as learning how to be a reporter. It was not just about well-designed questionnaires. It was about flexibility and how to deal with a contingency. This is something we would never learn in the classroom. In addition, we will be able to see other competitors in the contest, learning different research planning, approaches, and methodology from a whole new point of view.
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1) What information tools & technologies did you used to complete your CyberFair project?
MSN Messenger: It was the best communication tool that we can use at home. Each member of the team used it for discussions, exchanging ideals and questions, and transferring data. Mobile Phones: It was our best companion when we go out for interviews. There was time when we could not find our interviewee, and it helped to locate the right person. LAN: LAN(local area network) is fast and convenient when everybody was working together at school, editing Web pages and transferring data to each other. PDA: PDA is very handy when we needed to make quick notes during the interviews. Camcorders: We also recorded the interview with a camcorder and planned to use the footage on one of our Web pages.
Origin Data: Books: During the data gathering process, most of our references were from the books and magazines from the libraries. Newspaper: We also obtain information needed from Newspapers, especially news and general knowledge about tea. The Internet: The Internet is the most convenient and fastest way for doing research online. Computers: Of course, we had use computers for the contest. Beside our computers at home, we also used desktop computers, notebook computers, and hand-held computers from the school. Scanners: We used scanners for related pictures we gathered from newspapers and magazines. Digital Cameras: A digital camera was a must for interviewing and editing pictures It was much more convenient and faster than the conventional cameras. Web Page Editors: FrontPage 2002 Dreamweaver 5.0 Speed HTML 2000 Programming Tools: JAVA ASP CSS
2) In what ways did you act as "ambassadors" and spokespersons for your CyberFair project both on-line and in person.
There are many ways for gathering relevant materials and information from the society. During the preparation for the contest, we were able to get in touch with many different people, matters, and objects. People have been helpful to us, and we have many special thanks to： People Interviewed: Tea Growers: Thanks to the experienced tea growers that we have learned so much from them about how to grow tea trees, about different kinds of tea and their characteristics and how they grew in the nature. Owners of teashops and teahouses: We had to visit several teashops and teahouses during the interviews. The owners were very hospitable to us and told us all about the current market and how they started and run their business. We also learned a lot from them. Mr. Ming-Yuan Lin at the Farmers' Association in Nan-gang: Mr. Lin was the person who provided us the most sufficient, up-to-date, and complete information about tea.He also explained to us how various kinds of local tea were different.Many thanks to him! Friends from the Internet: Thanks to friends from the Internet for their support and permission for citing their materials from their Web sites. Relatives and Friends Thanks to them for providing books and information for interviews, and for their moral support from the very beginning to the end. People from The Society Thanks to all the people from the world for sharing their knowledge about tea with us through our questionnaires.
3) What has been the impact of your project on your community?
Through this project, we have gained so much knowledge in many fields. We learned many things that we had never get in touch with. It was not just about getting more skills and knowledge. It was also about learning how to process a thesis research. Knowledge, skill, and experience are the three elements that we have actually won in this contest, and this excited us. ‘Interview’ is the core of our research. How to interview people was the most important challenge we went through. We spent the most time on it, and we also obtained lots of precious experiences from it.
4) How did your project involve other members of your community as helpers and volunteers?
There are too many people that we have to express our gratitude to, for helping us to accomplish this job. First of all, we would like to our teacher, Mr. Shing-Chao Lee, who provided us not only his ideas and experiences but also his enthusiasm. Under his leadership, all the members, from different backgrounds with the same goal, worked together efficiently and did our very best to accomplish the mission. Secondly, we would like to thank those juniors who helped us. They were experienced and have taught us many things. They were also the main action planners for this project. Our research would not go smoothly without them. Finally, we would like to thank all of our relatives and friends, people interviewed by us, and Mr. Lin in Nan-gang. Our Web pages would be so complete without their encouragement, support, and information provided. Many thanks to them!
5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)
Discoveries: For this contest, we have sacrificed our personal time for pleasure and have been working really hard and trying to show the best of us. It amazes us how infinite the human potential could be. And the greatest discovery is: interactions between people are one of the very important parts of our daily lives. This society of ours is still full of caring and warmth… and Knowledge is immense and profound. Only the knowledge about tea is already too much for you to imagine! Lessons: Although we thought we had prepared well enough for the interviews, our preparation was still not perfect. For example, we thought we had brought everything we needed with us, but we didn’t think of the power supply. In addition, we didn’t do our homework well enough for the local information, so we had had some unexpected situations when we got to the destination. And for data protection, if we had thought about scanning viruses and backing up data, we would not have to waste so much time recovering the damaged data. Time control was another thing that we should have done better that we did. Time waits no man. We didn’t realize that we had much less time than we had thought until we took out the time for preparing regular school exams. Therefore, we should control our time well. Surprises: We first thought that tea was just a drink that quenched one's thirst, or at most just a refreshing drink. However, tea does much more than that. According to Chinese medicine, tea is healthful and even has healing effects. It contains plenty of nutrition. Most people know that tea helps digestion and cleanse grease in your stomach, but most people don’t know that tea also help to beautify the features and prevent cancers, flu, and periodontal disease. All the new knowledge about tea we have learned from this project really surprised us. There is no doubt that tea has become an important part of our lives.
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View our CyberFair Project
(Project ID: 2720)
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