School: Elementary School
    Tainan, Taiwan, Taiwan

7 students, ages 10-11 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on March 21, 2003. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): 2003

Classes and Teachers: Ying-Lan Chang, Pearl Wan-Chu Huang, Pei-Ying Chan, Chin-Ying Chan, Shi-Chang Chang,Hung-Pai Chen

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://www.sges.tn.edu.tw

1. Description of Our Community

The community of our school is called “Wanli”，located in the southern Tainan City, Taiwan.. The beautiful beach called the Golden Coast is in the west of it. The Er-Jen River, which is the border between Tainan City and Kaohsiung County，is in its south. In the early days, Wanli was famous for its “Mixed Scrap Metal reprocessing industry”, but the government later banned the practice. Recently, Wanli has undergone several changes due to the collaborative effort of the government and the local people. And we would like to show the world our hard work, and the rebirth of the prosperity of Wanli.

2. Summary of Our Project

Wanli, a beautiful name, yet it carries a painful history behind it…. For a while, the suburb of Wanli was closely associated with the burning of mixed scrap metals in many people’s mind. Dioxin air pollution caused a distinct odor on Er-Jen River. Indeed, during 1970-80s, there was an influx of cheap mixed scrap metals. By burning up the cables or wires, precious and valuable metals such as gold were left. This allured almost every Wanli ‘s resident to burn the discarded cables in front of their houses. At the same time though, no one was aware of the environmental damage it would cause because all the remains of burned cables were dumped into the Er-Jen River. As environmental awareness grew, the government became to pay more attention to the problem of environmental pollution, and banned the import of mixed scrap metals. Thus the once striving industry ended, and also left behind an environmental disaster. Wanli has since become an example of environmental pollution, which it still carries the reputation of today. In order to change this negative image, local Wanli people have gone to great lengths to clean up the environment. Now, we want to introduce to the world the new face of Wanli. The followings are the core elements of our project: 1.About Wanli: (a) geographical location (b) history (c) religions 2.Glorious era: (a) background (b) the glory (c) the decline 3.Reborn prosperity: (a) educational gardener (b) local communities (c) makeover activities (d) conservation effort (e) Wanli tour 4.Future: local people’s expectations of Wanli.

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:4-6

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):

Every classroom is Internet accessible via ADSL. There are five servers in our school: web and FTP server, mail server, DNS server and Proxy server, bbs server and virtual CD software server. There are 40 modern computers for pupils in the computer lab. And more than 60 other computers serve different classrooms and offices. Laser printer is accessible to everyone in school. With the most current technology and equipment, we are able to gain easy, and fast access to the World Wide Web.

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

The first problem we had to overcome was the research task and its classification of research materials. We had a hard time consulting our teachers, many community elders, neighbors, and specialists to assure the accuracy of facts and description. The second problem involved the photography. The input and output of our research pictures by the computer technology was not an easy job especially when we dealt with the animated photos. We had spent too much time on dealing with technical issues before we used digital still cameras instead of digital video cameras. The third problem was concerned with how to design the web pages. As we were not familiar with FrontPage 2000 in the beginning, we had to employ much school spare time such as after-lunch naptime and one-hour morning reading time. We also designed the web pages on weekends and holidays. The fourth problem was about oral interview. We had to interview many people. Before each interview, we had a lot of preparations. There were so many details and stuffs for us to consider when making good preparations. The fifth problem was the budget of the computer software. In order to make our work efficient, we had to use the state-of-the-art and legal edition of computer software. Fortunately with the support of our school and the association of the parents, we solved this problem. The sixth problem was concerning our teamwork. In individual and collective tasks, each member of our team perceived the importance of cooperation.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

Our Project aimed to record our community Wan Li. Wan Li is a beautiful site located in southern district of Tainan City, which is also called Culture City in Southern Taiwan, the Republic of China. In order to participate in this CyberFair, we revisited several beautiful sightseeing spots, and explored human and economic resources in our community. The more we did our best to work out our project, the more we found Wan Li’s glory and prosperity, the better we understand our community, the stronger feelings we had for her. In fact, our community people suffered and eventually survived from a hard period of environmental disasters. Now, we would like to share our experience and survival strategies with you and the people in the rest of the world.

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

First, our project fits well into our national curriculum guidelines. According to the curriculum guidelines, our students are supposed to learn how to specify the natural and humane features of our own community, to be alert on the environmental protection problem of our neighborhood, and to have a better understanding of the people, organizations, activities, shops, stores, public facilities, business, and development in our own community. Second, we believe that it would be more effective to use the Internet for learning and teaching in many aspects. As we worked out this CyberFair project by doing much exhausting field study, we came to realize that we had paved a smooth and fast road for our schoolmates to learn about our own community. It is also worthwhile to do such a delicate project that many learners or teachers, people around our own nation or the whole world can share our discovery. Third, the Internet is really a powerful tool. With the help of this tool, our students who used to play a small role can do more now for our own community . Finally, we are delighted that our educational system is so flexible that many measures are taken to encourage teachers to adopt more computer technologies in classroom instruction. That’s why we can give our best show now by this CyberFair project.

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

In order to complete our project, we first did much research by Internet Search Engine. Then we shared research materials and discussed with other partners by School E-mail System and through FTP Space. We often contacted each other by Internet Message Bulletin. In order to work out our project more efficiently, all the members were divided into four teams： Oral Interview, Audio-Video, Paperwork and Information. First, Oral Interview team designed the questionnaires and mailing lists, and dealt with materials by Word2000 and School Computer Printers. They also used Digital Still Cameras. Second, the Audio-Video team was equipped with Tape Recorders, Digital Still Cameras, Digital Video Cameras and Digital Voice Pen Recorders. They took charge of connecting the sound recorded into the Computer WAV File, and photos and films into Computer Image file. Third, the Paperwork team was responsible for word-processing with Word2000 and translation. Fourth, the Information team mainly designed web pages by FrontPage 2000. This team workers adopted and learned computer software including CuteFTP, Photo Impact 6.0, and ACDSee . With the help of the software, they scanned pictures and photos by Scanners and did Image Processing. They overviewed and classified pictures, and transferred pictures into the form of computer images. We are excited to use the Digital Voice Pen Recorders and Digital Cameras to record precious information. These two tools indeed made our work efficient. We also found that ACDSee was a powerful software especially when we had to deal with so many images on the computer.

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

We’d like to introduce the good things and good people in Wanli to people all over the world via our web pages. Not only looked up the data about the past history of Wanli from Internet and libraries, students also visited the aboriginal inhabitants to know the course of change and development. Once we had set about this project, there were follow-up supports from students’ parents, our school principal, teachers, and people in Wanli who concerned their homeland, which made us realized how deep anticipation we had been given Through CyberFair project, we contacted with other teams and talked things over with them to see their views and learned their experiences. We also got a lot of information about Wanli from enthusiastic people who saw our web pages. We even sent mails to other CyberFair teams to let them know how beautiful our country, Wanli, is and will be.

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

Through this project on our community, we hoped to improve our neighbors understanding about our community, Wanli. We did deeply research about the history, the background, and the influence of burning scrap metal on Wanli. For a while, people in the suburb of Wanli used to earn a living by burning mixed scrap metals. However, although that high-polluted industry has disappeared now, there are still some inhabitants who don’t have the importance of the environmental protection. They don't know how dangerous the environmental pollution is. By the involvement of our school in this project, it will stimulate the inhabitants' affection for Wanli and pulls all the inhabitants together to make a new prospect for our community.

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

We started searching the related information on the Internet at first. However, information regarding our community was not widely available. Therefore, we turned our focus to the school library and to the community. Fortunately, the Parents Association of Sheng Gong Elementary School had kept detailed records pertaining to the community of Wanli. Based on these documents, we started to collect related information.

Many members of our community also contributed. Wanli elders were very helpful with providing us with the answers to questions pertaining to the history in Wanli. For example, we met some temple keepers who were very enthusiastic about our interviews and provided us with many useful written documents. Also, there were many managers of snack bars whom introduced us to the local snacks. The manager of Gi-Shang Ecological Farm even showed us the design of each section and tells us the mission statement. Because of their involvement in this project with us, we can now finish a complete narration about our community.

Finally, we really appreciated all the staff of Sheng Gong Elementary School. They provided the technological equipment, such as the cameras and the computers. Owing to their technological support, we can now present the research on the website in a well-organized and cognizant manner.

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

Although Wanli used to be a highly polluted place, it is not just in 10 or 15 years. We discovered Er-Jen River is getting cleaner; it is not as polluted as it used to be. The air is not foul any more. We now have The Golden Coast Park and the Marsh Park is presently under construction. In addition, we also learned how important environmental protection as a result of studying Wanli history. Therefore, we do the recycling in our community and educate children the environmental and ecological protection since they are young. We are surprised to see all that you can see now. Only if the residents make efforts, Wanli can also be a model community with rich ecology.

Through this research, we have learned that our environment and our lives are interconnected as well as interrelated. In the past, the residents of Wanli were perhaps blinded as to the negative effects of the scrap metal industry on the environment due to the high economic incentives that offered by the industry. The realization is that it ruins the environment the next generation lives and even has bad influence on their physical situation. Fortunately, all the members of the community have learned a lesson from the history. We all are aware of the responsibility we need to carry for our environment.