School: Tsoying senior high school
    Kaohsiung, Taiwan, Taiwan

10 students, ages from 16 to 17 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on February 20, 2004. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): 2004

Classes and Teachers: Mingliang Lin, Jih-hsin Hsia, Kanmo Den

E-Mail contact:

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

1. Description of Our Community

Located in northern Kaohsiung City, Southern Taiwan, Tsoying as an ancient town fills with ancient relics and legends. Now it is a famous resort for its Lake Lotus and Mt. Banping, which is about 300 meters away from our school, Tsoying Senior High. Mt. Banping, we call it “Banpingshan” in Chinese. “Shan” means Mountain, and “Banping” stands for the shape that looks like a half shield with painted-screen-like cliff. It was also called Mt. Flag in the old times because its cliff appeared as a waved flag in the wind. Mt. Banping looks like a spindle in a bird’s-eye view. The southeast side is a gentler slope covered with limestone stratum in a thickness of 20 to 40m while the northwest side is steep. And it remains an altitude of 180m instead of the original 223m because of the quarrying. All the limestone formations weighing 6900 tons almost have gone. The mining was terminated in 1997. In other words, Tsoying was also the site for limestone quarries in the near past. By the way, the top of Mt. Banping is only 180m above sea level, so it is more like a hill than a mountain. But here in Taiwan, we usually call it “mountain”, because it is outstanding from the plain.

2. Summary of Our Project

During the World War II, the Japanese founded the military tunnels under the Mt. Banping, that is the first time the mountain began to change due to the human activities. In the 1960s and 70s, Mt. Banping was quarried intensively. The limestone rocks went to cement to supply the Taiwan's construction such as freeway system till 1997, when is the year the mining terminated. The mountain has lost its coral cliffs. Its original appearance has changed. The green mountain became chalk-land. In 2000, a new natural park was born. The Lotus Lake still reflects the green mountain, though the cuesta will return no more. Unfortunately, the Red Line of Kaohsiung Mass Rapid Transit will penetrate Mt. Banping in the near future. We are facing the dilemma of economic developments or environment conservation. Some questions arise from our mind. Where was the mountain from? Where has the mountain gone? Where is the mountain going?

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:1

C. Connection speed used in the classroom:dedicated connection

D. Number of years our classroom has been connected to the Internet:2-3

E. Additional comments concerning your computer and/or Internet access (Optional):

Our school uses optical fiber network and provides high-speed wireless Internet access. We can surf the Internet with laptop everywhere on the campus.

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

During this project, the problems we had to face and overcome are stated as follows: 1. Being refused by Interviewees. We planned to visit all of the three cement plants located near Mt. Banping and asked for interviews, but two of them refused us. We deeply appreciated the Southeast Cement Corporation for their kindness to accept our interview after several endeavors to communicate with the person in charge. 2. Limited time available. Limited time is a serious problem for the students who work on this project. Our normal classes are over at 5 pm. It is too late to work. We overcome this problem with three ways. First, we used lunch breaks for meeting. Second, we arranged the visits to Mt. Banping and the cement plant on Saturday or Sunday. Third, we make a schedule to manage the process and ensure our work efficiency. 3. Language barrier. English is not our native language. This project proceeded in Chinese and was translated into English. Many Chinese proverbs, idioms and legends are difficult to convert into foreign language. We did our best to do that. We sincerely appreciate the English teachers and our school principal. They helped us to correct the grammar, which always confuses us. 4. Designing of web pages We were novices at the designing of web pages. We bought several books on this topic and learned it by ourselves. When some difficulties were encountered, our classmates or teachers who are familiar with these techniques, were asked for advice.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

The students have learned to have discussions and share work with teammates while this project was proceeding. Also, they have learned to be more concerned about our natural environment, conservation of wildlife, and sustainable developments.

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

Content standards, which our project addresses, are as follows: 1. Abilities necessary to do inquiry. 2. Understandings about inquiry. 3. Chemical reactions. 4. Origin and evolution of the earth system. 5. Natural resources. 6. Environmental quality. 7. Natural and human-induced hazards. This project provided an opportunity to review and apply the information that the students have learned from the required subjects such as Earth Science, Biology and Chemistry. They had to learn how to differentiate and organize information that was collected from the library and Internet. They also had to learn how to make a conclusion and find out evidences to support it. Moreover, they had learned to care for Mother Nature and understood the meaning of sustainability. Through this project, the students not only learned the skills of inquiry and facts about Mt. Banping but also studied how to make a decision when they are facing the dilemma of economic developments or environment conservation. The report of this project is using to train for narrators who will be the trip guides to Mt. Banping. Our school tries to bring people in our community more understanding about the mountain and increases their concern of it.

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

(1) Computers: Three Laptops, and two Desktops. (2) Peripheral equipments: Scanner, Digital camera, Digital video camera, Digital recorder, and Printer. (3)Softwares: Microsoft Word, Macromedia Dreamweaver MX2004, Macromedia Fireworks MX2004, Ulead PhotoImpact 8, FlashGet 1.40, CuteFTP, Internet Explore, WinRAR, and Acrobat Reader 5.0

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

(1) Being interviewers. Our students had interviewed several persons: (a) Mr. Chai, Yi-hsiung, who is a member of the Society of Wilderness and a narrator of the Banpingshan Natural Park. (b) Mr. Lin, Chuan-yi, who is the Principal of Tsoying Senior High School (c) Mr. Chen, Zhi-hong, who is the head of president’s office and the manager of quality control department, Southeast cement corp. (d) Mr. Huang, Wen-zhang, who is a senior engineer of vice-premier’s office, Southeast Cement Corp. (e) Dr. Sung, Quo-cheng, who is a professor of geology and the chairman of department of geography, Kaohsiung Normal University. (2) Being Narrators. Our students went to Mt. Banping to do a survey. They were surprised to find there are a great variety of plants, insects, and fossils. However, with the development of economy, the ecological environment of Mt. Banping has been seriously damaged. They hope to arouse the public's awareness of conservation with this project through narrations on the Internet and actual field trips.

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

Mt. Banping is a mountain that people usually ignores its value. They think that is just a site for hiking. They don’t care about the ongoing change due to the construction of traffic. Our project has improved the awareness that we have to consider the sustainable development. People in our community begin to recognize the importance of environment conservation.

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

We deeply appreciate those who do us a great favor to help complete this project: Our school principal Mr. Chuan-yi Lin, and English teachers Ms. Mei-hua Chen and Su-mei Yu, who helped us to correct the English grammar of the final report of this project. Mr. Quo-cheng Sung, Professor of NKNU, who was our interviewee and an adviser on the geology of Mt. Banping. Mr. Yi-hsiung Chai, who taught us the concept of nature conservation. Ms. Shen-si Tseng, who provided the fossils that was found at Mt. Banping for us to take pictures. Mr. Zhi-hong Chen and Mr. Wen-zhang Huang, who work at the Southeast Cement Corp., told us the history and the evolution about the cement and limestone quarrying. We also appreciate Southeast Cement Corp. and Kaohsiung Rapid Transit Corp. for the permission of using the information and pictures on their web pages.

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

One of the students said, “I didn’t know much about Mt. Banping until I joined this team to make Mt. Banping’s web pages. I didn’t even know there are so many legends about it or how it has changed with time. With this project, I have got a lot of good experience. What’s more, I can tell everybody how beautiful Mt. Banping is.” Unfortunately, the mountain is still at a risk. This project tells a sad story that the mountain lost its treasure in the battles between economic development and environment conservation again and again. What have we ever learned from the missing mountain?