School: Wen-Kei Elementary School
    Zhanghua County , Taiwan Province, Taiwan R.O.C.

13 students, ages 11 to 12 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on March 18, 2003. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): 2002

Classes and Teachers: Mr. Ching-Cheng Huang, Mrs. Xiu-Dai Xu, and Mr. Wen-Chin Huang; The second, and the fifth classes of Grade Five.

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://www.wkes.chc.edu.tw

1. Description of Our Community

Lugang is located in the center of the western seacoast in Taiwan. It is also in the northwest corner of Zhanghua County. On its east side, it was bounded by Xiushui Village with the branch of Yangzaicuo River and Andong 2nd Ditch. On its west side, it closes to the Taiwan Straits. On its south side, it and Fuxing Village are separated by Fulu River. On its north side, it is contiguous to Xianxi Village and Hemei Town with Fanya Ditch. With regard to longitude and latitude, it is at between longitude 120° 29min and 120° 23min 52sec east while its latitude is between 24° 2min 20sec and 24° 7min 45sec north. Its length is a little bit longer than the width. The distance is less than 8.8 km and the longest distance is almost 9.8 km. Just like a trapezoid dustpan, Lugang faces the Taiwan Straits. In terms of topography, Lugang belongs to Plain of Zhuoshui River. The lay of the land is low and level. The whole area is at an altitude of less than 10 meters on average. The southeast part is tall while the northwest part is low. From southeast to northwest, most rivers flow into the sea. Due to the sediments from rivers and gravel sand along the coast, the land reclaimed from the sea in Lugang grows up rapidly. From southeast to northwest, the seashore was continuously expanded outward. The whole area could be divided into three parts, including an alluvial plain, seashore lowlands and lands reclaimed from the sea.

2. Summary of Our Project

In Lugang Town, which was the only Matsu Temple with the statue of Matsu from the first Temple in Meizhou, Fukien Province, was built in 1950. Her pilgrims go and fro to worship Her in constant streams from all island wide throughout the year. From the first lunar month to the third lunar month per year, the boom season of pilgrimages will attract stream of believers and an awful traffic jam in neighbor area. In Tianhou Temple, not only Meizhou Matsu’s divinities are illustrious but also Her fame spreads far and near due to the fact that the time-honored temple was built magnificently. Therefore, Tianhou Temple are always in a period of great prosperity. Firstly, the study is to introduce the origin of Tianhou Temple, and then the history of restoration, etc. The structure of Tianhou Temple will be introduced by the order of San chuan Hall, the main hall, the back courtyard, and the back hall. Besides, teachers and students will study the cultural and historical relics, including horizontal inscribed board, steles with carved inscription, seals, and so on.

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:2-3

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):

Presently our school adopted ADSL 1.5M on net and there were three net sections: the computer classroom in our school, 3 sets of classroom computers, and PCs in our homes. First, we keyed in our assignments with the classroom computers or at home, and then took it to computer classroom for word processing. In addition, we also used ADSL lines (512K) or dial-up modem (56K) in our homes.

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

(1) Choosing subject

Till the end of the summer vacation, we decided to participate in this activity again. We had many subject matters under consideration, such as important person for making lantern of bamboo framework and the one famous for Chinese knot. In Lugang, we have many subject matters to research, and finally we chose the 'historical landmark' as our subject again. After solicit the teachers for this project, we finally decided our title 'The Priceless Palace with seal characters and burning incenses---Tianhou Temple in Lugang'.

(2) Difficulties of interviewing with the committee numbers of Tianhou Temple

There are many works for the committees and archaeology commentators, and we must make a appointment with them. For the schedules of students are limited to Wednesday afternoon and the weekend, we have little time for the interview with the experts. Before we interviewed with the experts, we must prepare for it. We try to find the book for the knowledge, and for the reason that there are two much information from the Internet or the books, the teacher choose the useful information and arrangement it. For the arranged information, we can prepare for the interviews.

(3) Time pressure

We decided to go in for this project in the beginning of September, and therefore we have only four months to make this web site. In addition, there is only a technical book, and for it being intricate and obscure, we must spend more time to realize what idea the book want to tell us. So we did this project at leisure, even on the weekend.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

A student Wang Yi-Ting said that 'I am shy of interviewing others, and therefore I was asked to key in the assignments. As a result of this experience, I can typewrite faster than before.' A student Shi Zheng-Yuan said that 'I dared to ask questions, and therefore the teachers want me to serve as the general spokesman and the chairman of conference. As a result of this experience, I dared to ask in Taiwanese, and had more understanding of our community. ' As for the advisors, they also benefited a great deal. Mr. Huang Ching-Cheng was responsible for building up the web site; Mr. Wen-Chin Huang for supervising the students to typewrite and take the pictures; and Mrs. Xiu-Dai Xu, for coming into contact with the experts. Originally, students and teachers considered that this was an impossible mission. Even we had the experiences about it. We finally overcame the difficulties.

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

(1) In the field of language:

First, The persons we interviewing with were all the Taiwanese elders, and therefore we must ask questions in Taiwanese. In addition, they always talked too happily and strayed from the points. So our interview skills were all progressing. Second, recording for the interviews and writing the brief after reading improved students' ability for composition.

(2) In the field of society?

In the textbook of social affairs in this semester, there is a chapter to introduce the folks of Taiwan, and Matsu was happened to be mentioned. In this lecture, the anticipated students not only warmheartedly teach the other classmates, but also joined in the discussion. All these made the lecture more active, and the student were more willing to attend the lecture.

(3) In the field of local art?

If the resident student cannot pay attention to the local art and culture, we can't teach them the value of the art. We learned many things form the architectural art, such as the history in where we live, the folks to which we must attach importance, and art that we cannot find in other place. So we put down the books, and try to teach outdoors.

(4) In the field of nature and technology?

We also teach the student how to use the technological product through this project. We used the tape walkman for sound recording, the digital camera for photographs, the computer for making the web site, and Internet to searching for the useful information.

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

(1)relevant books, papers, and magazine： the book by Mr. Shi-Xian Chen-Lugang Tianhou Temple, Guang Hua magazine, and so on.

(2)P.C. and notebook： In most time we used PC, but for the reason that there was only one computer in each class, the teacher also carried his notebook.

(3)Broad band network： Thanks to the educational network, we can search for our information quickly, mailing in the net, and etc.

(4)Scanner：Without the scanner, we can't display our pictures in the web site.

(5)Telephone and cell phone： Communicated with each others, and making the appointment with the experts.

(6)Recorder：It was hard to take note when interviewing, and then we must use the recorder.

(7)Cameras：In most place, we used digital camera. But we have only one and for convenience, we must take a traditional camera.

(8)Slide projector： In order to teach the students, we also used it for the lecture.

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

We visited the Tianhou Temple many times, and invited experts and commentators to teach us. For the reason that the experts are the committee numbers of the Tianhou Temple or the resident elders, we had many chances to discuss with them. We read the books hard, and then we tried to ask some questions in the interviews. This made us able to communicate with them in Taiwanese, and we also told them our ambition that spread out the Matsu's belief all over the world on the Internet. They felt very happy, and had more ideas of what we did.

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

(1)「To know is one thing, to do is another」： We spent few time to read the book of Matsu, and we considered that we it is easy to do this project. But after went further, we knew that there were too many works to do and finally we did it with great efforts.

(2) Learning by Doing： Before this project, we didn't know what we were lack of. And after being devoted into it, we found that our disability of composition, questioning, searching for the information, organization, discussion, note-taking and etc. In addition, we tried to built up the web site and made a lot of progress at the same time. Although we finally did it, we know that we must do more for improvement.

(3) To contact with society: People always neglect where they lived, and so did we. For this project, we had contacted with our community and also made them know that there were still some people caring about the tradition culture. All these things made we exciting, and therefore never felt tired in the period of this project.

(4) To use of modern technique: There were classes for using of computers in our school. But for the reason that we had no chances to practice of what we learned, the classes are more and more bored to us. Through this opportunity, we were more interested in learning how to use the computer.

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

The first one we must thank for is students' parent- Mr. Shi-Xian Chen, he allowed us to refer to his books, and even didn't charge for being as a commentator through the project. Next, we thanked the relevant committee members of the Tianhou Temple. In addition to the interviews, they also introduced the experts to us. The last was the commentator Mr. Yan-Yu Zhuang. In addition, the Lugang Folk museum and the retired Principal Mr. Xue-Zhe Shi gave us a lot of help. All the involved people were devoted to popularize the traditional culture, and we must say that, this project cannot be done without them.

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

We have an old saying that 'Approaching the temple, looking down upon the deities'. It means that we still neglect the treasure around us. In the course of visiting Tianhou Temple, there were many college students, postgraduate students, middle high school students, and foreign pilgrims coming to worship Matsu. Truthfully speaking, there was not much feeling during the first visit to Tianhou Temple that it was nothing but often regarded as an ordinary temple. After listening to the explanation of the personnel in the Tianhou Temple, we felt that it merely helped us to obtain more information about Matsu and the Tianhou Temple. The only thing that attracted me was probably that piece of ancient wall and the deck rock loaded with dreams. Henceforward, we all may pay more attention on the things around us.