School: An-nan Junior High
    Tainan City, Taiwan, R.O.C

17 students, ages 13-16 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on March 12, 2004. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): none

Classes and Teachers: Gan-ru Chen, Ying-pin Hsueh, Hui-chun Shi

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://163.26.8.3/anjhstudent/english/index.htm

1. Description of Our Community

'Shi-er Dian (Twelve Tenants),' located in the rural An-nan District of Tainan City, Taiwan, is about four square kilometers and has a population of 5200. The name originated from the history of twelve tenants who moved here to start their new life a century ago. 60% of the area is comprised of farmlands and freshwater fishponds.  The people of Shi-er Dian are nice and friendly. The way of life in the earlier agriculture-based society in Taiwan can still be found in this incompletely urbanized area.

An-nan Junior High is a secondary school of 1950 students. Its unique location (close to Si-cao Wildlife Habitat) contributes to our strong sense of responsibility for raising a heightened awareness of the importance of protecting wildlife. Hence, since 1995, An-nan Birdlife Club--a unique one among secondary schools here in Taiwan-- has been promoting healthy extracurricular activities for young students and leading them to experience the beauty of nature and show the respect for life through bird-watching.  Since 1998, the students of Birdlife Club have been conducting surveys of wildlife in the surrounding communities. The first one is 'Flying over Hai-wei'(2001), winning the silver medal in a national contest. Shi-er Dian is the target community of our second survey.

2. Summary of Our Project

Our project aims to better understand the environmental conservation in a less urbanized area in Taiwan through a survey of the birdlife in Shi-er Dian in Tainan City. The previous survey (July 2002--September 2002) was followed by a subsequent investigation (September 2003 to December 2003). Our web site provides the species and numbers of birds in the community in our observations. Photos and in-depth introduction are added to help visitors know them better. The threats to the birdlife are also discussed from different perspectives in our interviews with local residents and specialists. Furthermore, our reflections over the course of the project help us to pose further research questions for those concerned about the future of the community. Individual responses to the participation in the project are also offered to show our growth. By visiting this site, people will have a better understanding of the birdlife in the community and thus pay more careful attention to their everyday environment. We hope, in particular, more people will be encouraged to join us to take actions after being more aware of the significance of protecting wildlife.

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):

The Lan of 160 computers in our school is connected to the Internet via a T1 link.

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

Our first and biggest problem is time management and heavy academic pressure. Though we tried to manage our time well to work on our project, we still felt time is never enough. Therefore, most of our free time had to be sacrificed. Holidays were spent on more than thirty field observations. Afternoons and evenings were used for interviews. Meetings, discussion, assembling data, and building the web site occupied our breaks and lunch recesses. We felt exhausted and sometimes fell asleep in class. Furthermore, heavy academic pressure impeded the progress of our project. Teachers and parents were worried about our worse performance on tests and expected us to spend more time on studies. The ninth-graders, in particular, suffered from tremendous pressure because they had to study for the coming Basic Competence Test, the most important one for junior high students. Honestly, it was really tough to maintain the balance between working on the project and studying for tests.

A second problem was due to the difficulties in taking pictures of certain birds. As an experienced photographer, even Mr. Gan-ru Chen failed to take photos of all the species in our survey. After all, it takes good luck, right time, and right place to do this. Therefore, we wrote to Yia-she Publisher to ask for her permission to use the photos in Field Guide to Birds in Taiwan (1998) in our web site. Thanks.

A third problem was translating our project into English. With the attempt to keep people all over the world informed of our painstaking efforts, we decided to turn to our English teachers (Hui-chun Shi and Ying-pin Hsueh) for help. They had difficulties in translating technical terms, so they turned to several field guides in English for related information. They have done their best.

Other problems we had to overcome included the leader's unstable health condition and the accidental damage of web pages. However, we moved on, kept going, and ended up with an informative web site.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

The students have had a better understanding of their community and developed a heightened awareness of the wildlife around their everyday environment. Most importantly, they have a strong sense of accomplishment because they can do something good for their community by contributing their time and skills to the meaningful project.

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

Our project, focusing on the survey of birdlife in Shi-er Dian, is categorized as the issue 'Mankind and Natural Environment' in Nine-year Integrated Curriculum. Five main competence indexes are listed for designing the curriculum:(a)self-understanding and the discovery and development of student's potential, (b)appreciation, demonstration, and innovation, (c)expression, communication, and sharing, (d)respect, concern, and teamwork, and(e) active discovery and research.

Our project fits perfectly with the curriculum requirements. First, the project helps us know better about our everyday environment and cherish everything in their daily lives, thereby leading us to understand our concern about nature and further stimulating our sincere love for nature and life. Second, the project has led us to experience the beauty of nature, thereby bettering our capability of appreciation. We are also inspired by the amazing grace of nature and thus willing to put our emotions into words. Third, we have learned to express ourselves clearly, communicate with teammates and interviewees, and share individual ideas and thoughts over the course of the project. We get broader and renewed knowledge through the exchange of opinions and observations. Fourth, we have learned the significance of mutual concern and respect and the value of teamwork because we relied on each other to complete the project. In addition, we have learned to show respect for and tolerance with different viewpoints, thereby facilitating our social relationships. Fifth, the project helped us cultivate good habits for scientific research, such as actively discovering questions, offering evidence, and carefully doing research. That's why our reflections lead to more further research questions about wildlife.

Traditional teaching methods and using the Internet for teaching have respective advantages. The former encourages the interaction between students and the teacher, and between students.  The latter brings lots of convenience, such as finding related information and communicating via e-mail. Assimultaneous teaching is not limited to time and space. It can be applied to multidimensional learning and thus makes learning more fun.

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

Software→Ulead PhotoImpact 8.0(Image processing), Microsoft FrontPage 2000&2002(HTML creation), Microsoft Word 2000&2002(Assembling data), Outlook Express(E-mail), Internet Explorer (Consulting related information online), Messenger／Msn 6.0(online meeting）

Hardware→

Computer room (20 PCs): meetings, image processing, and HTML creation

V8 camera (SONY): photos of birds

Digital Camera (Fuji 602): photos of interviews

Camera (NIKON): photos of birds

Camera (CANON): photos of interviews

Scanner (MICROTEK 5900): scanning pictures

Laptop(Asus): PowerPoint presentation

Laser Printer (EPSON C900): printing our work

Jet Printer (HP 1180C): printing our work

Telescope (KOWA): observation

Binoculars (NIKON): observation

Tape Recorder (AIWA): recording interviews

Tape Recorder (JVC):playing the recordings of interviews

Field Guides→

Field Guide to Birds in Taiwan (Yia-she Publisher, Taipei, 1998)

Field Guide to Birds in China  (Kingfisher Publisher, Taipei, 1995)

Stokes Field Guide to Birds (Eastern Region) (Donald and Lillian Stokes, Little, Brown, and Company, Boston, 1996)

Birdwatching (Rob Hume, Dorling Kindersley Limited, London, 2003)

Tropical Birds of Southeast Asia (Morten Strange, Periplus Editions, 1998, Singapore)

Others→

Cell phone(Nokia8250): arrange interviews and meetings

Telephone:  arrange interviews

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

   Interviews with local residents in Shi-er Dian provide us with lots of valuable information. We made appointments with these individuals on the phone or by e-mail. We also asked Mao-qi's father or the borough chief Cheng for help to arrange the interviews. Through the preparations before interviews, we learned how to greet interviewees in a polite way and, most importantly, how to lead them to have a clear idea of our needs and the assistance they can offer. Besides, we learned how to design interview questions and pose the right question at the right time in formal interviews.

Several interviewees were impressed with our project. Quan-lu Cheng (the borough chief) was active in offering information about local specialists in wildlife and history and promised to help us arrange the interviews with them. What cheered us most was that he promised to promote environmental education for local residents by using administrative resources and help them to pay serious attention to the wildlife around them. Shang-qin Chen (a wildlife specialist) and Bao-ren Huang (a former member of Birdlife Club) came to our school to give us interviews. The former was impressed with what An-nan Birdlife Club has been doing and praised our efforts in the project. The latter encouraged us to move on and even made a field observation with us.

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

 The first immediate impact of our project was the promise of Quan-lu Cheng (the borough chief) to promote environmental education for local residents by using administrative resources. With a better understanding of our project, he shared our concern about the significance of a heightened awareness of protecting the wildlife around the community.

Over the course of the project, we have come to better know the community of Shi-er Dian. We used to pay little attention to our everyday environment around Shi-er Dian, but now we have had a clear idea of its history, its unique location, its cultural heritage, and the birdlife around us. Now, we are eager to share our findings and discoveries with our family and classmates.

We hope that this project will educate the community of Shi-er Dian on the environment. In our Chinese web site, we present the latest information about the birdlife to help local residents to better understand the habits and characteristics of birds around their everyday environment. Furthermore, hopefully, the awareness of such rich birdlife around the community will stimulate and encourage more residents to devote themselves to join us in the protection of wildlife. It is strongly recommended that teachers at An-nan Junior High and An-dian Elementary School use our website to educate their students about the history, cultural heritage, and wildlife of Shi-er Dian. In doing so, an awareness of loving the community and protecting its wildlife will be instilled in children and adolescents who will play an active and critical role in the future.

The creation of English version of our project will help Shi-er Dian speak to the world. By visiting our web site, people all over the world will be able to have a clear understanding of the community, such as its history, its geographic location, its cultural heritage (the Almighty Banyan and Nan-Tien Gong) and the birdlife there. Moreover, the world will also know the threats to the birdlife there: the ways farmers and fishermen use to scare birds away, the dwindling farmlands, the influence of the ultralight airfield on the birdlife, etc.

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

 Without the help from all the following individuals, our project will never be finished before the deadline. Mao-qi's father (Zhi-long Cheng), as the only parent joining us, assists in arranging the place and time for interviews. Quan-lu Cheng, the borough chief, offers the valuable information about the local specialists, Ding-you Cheng (past Shi-er Dian), Zhen-Jia Gao (history), and Shang-qin Chen (wildlife), thereby making possible the interviews with them. Their knowledge and information makes our project more comprehensive and informative. In addition, local youths (Zi-qing Gao, Pei-ling Gao, Pei-qi Huang, Yu-ting Gao, Jia-ning Gao, Bao-ren Huang), mostly An-nan alumni and alumnae, also help us better understand the perspectives of young generation on the wildlife and the future of their community. We really appreciate your contribution to our project.

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

We learned a number of lessons concerning project planning, project management, teamwork, collaboration, time management, interviewing, and communication. We also acquired many computer skills with HTML, image processing, and integrating short video clips into our website.

We discovered a lot more about the community of Shi-er Dian. We now appreciate the role of local specialists who are concerned about the past, the present, and the future of the community. More understanding and knowledge of the rich birdlife around the community also helps us realize that the beauty of nature can be experienced without driving a long way to national parks.

We also found out conducting researches on the wildlife is never an easy task. Though our project took us plenty of time and painstaking efforts, it still failed to represent all the species of birds living around Shi-er Dian because of inadequate equipment and limited time span. Some expected birds, such as order Galliformes, birds of prey, nocturnal species, etc., were not sighted. We believe huge efforts should be put forward to protecting the wildlife around us. Consequently, your active participation will be welcome and encouraged.