School: Shin Jin Elementary School
    Shin Ying City, Tainan, Tainan County

8 students, ages 10 ~ 11 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on February 10, 2004. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): 2004

Classes and Teachers: Yi-Nuo Chen, Shan-Rong Wu, Yu-Syang Rao, Sih-Min Chen, Yu-Siang Huang, Ruo-Yang Hong, Ying-Jhen Lu, Fang-Ling Lai, Hung-Lin Yen, Ming-Hsiang Lai, Chih-Hsuan Lee, Youtien Chao

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://www.sj1es.tnc.edu.tw/

1. Description of Our Community

This project is mostly operated in our hometown, Tainan County. Among 35 frog species currently found in Taiwan, we here in Tainan County are so fortune to have habitats for 25 species, including some precious species, such as Rhacophous arvalis, and Rhacophorus taipeianus. Being educators, we believe that conservation of local animals and their ecological environment is an urgent and important issue, which should be strongly focused on in class.

2. Summary of Our Project

We try to arise students’ interests in frog watching and further on to bring up some issues or discussions of ecological environmental protection and conservation. We are aiming at the research of frog species and their habitats, trying to build up both a frog illustrated handbook and a data bank for frog croaking. We also well used our ecological pond on campus to write a detailed report on the growth of tadpoles, which can be used as guidance for students.

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:2-3

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

All the layouts, animations, and illustrations on our web page were done at school, teachers’ homes or students’ homes. Our school is equipped with the ADSL system supplied by Chunghwa Telecom, and it is also connected to TAnet. The Internet accesses in teachers’ homes and students’ houses are all broadband. Before working on the project, we have set up a forum for discussion and exchanging information. We also take advantage of the Internet space on school server, which is easy for us to transfer files through ftp software.

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

There were two problems needed overcoming. The first problem is season’s change. It was late fall and early winter, so most of the frogs started their hibernation. Our schedule for frog watching had to be arranged as soon as possible. Fortunately, the dates and routes were all scheduled quite smoothly, and we also were lucky to see many frog species that are active in winter. The second one is the photo taking of different frog species. As for this part, we really appreciate several Internet friends, Jie and Chung-Sheng Lin, for authorizing us to use many of their wonderful photos.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

We are lucky to have this wonderful opportunity to work with many teachers and students. We will keep researching on these frog species. We would like to express our special thanks to Jhou-Ang Tu for his great guidance and detailed explanation during our frog watching field trips and also for Mr. Meng-Sian Jhuang for his assistance and advice. With their encouragement, we learn better and more extensively while operating our project. We will keep working on it and thoroughly recording all the frog species in Tainan area. We hope to share the information we had in hand with the frog lovers on our web page, “Frog Trails in Tainan”, and also to arise the public’s awareness of frog conservation.

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

We had some experience in editing web pages before, but most of them were presented with the ready-made materials and very few of them were on-going project. When we started this project, we found out what we have been lack of most. Therefore, we have learned the correct processes to operate a project. We are so well trained and ready to be a future active learner. Other precious experiences we gain are as following: (a)Well use the Internet: Internet is a great information and resource tool for us. We can always find the materials that we need by serving the Internet. We also learn how to edit a more educational web page. (b)Cultivate our attitude to science inquiry. We have learned the skill in probing and solving problems. (c)The importance of teamwork. We have to be more careful, realistic, and responsible comparing with our regular schoolwork or in-class discussion. (d)Learning how to communicate or cooperate with teammates with different personalities. In order to make our work done, we had to trust, help and support each other.

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

Tools Purpose DV / V8 Videotape the interviews and edit them on the web page Phone / cell phone Process the discussion between interviewees and teachers or students Computer Data processing, serving the internet, photo processing and web page editing Floppy disk Data storage. Flash disk For the benefit of its high capacity and convenience Tape recorder Interview and meeting recording. Scanner Transfer the photos and newspaper clippings into image files Digital camera Photo-taking gear Camera Photo-taking gear Computer books Use as references when it’s necessary.

Software Word Photo Impact Photo Editor Cute ftp Front Page Dream Weaver ACDsee 3.0

Operating System Windows 98 Windows 2000 Windows XP Windows ME Windows NT

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

Through e-mail, we had contacted a frog-watching expert named Mr. Jhao-Ang Tu, who is a student in the Department of Aquaculture, National Pingtung University of Science. He has studied on frogs for quite some time and he knows well of the frog-watching routes in Tainan area. We can see tons of his articles posted on the “Frogs Information Network”, hosted by Miss Yi-Ru Yang. So we invited him to help us with several frog watching routes. Another important guest is Mr. Meng-Sian Jhuang, who received his master degree from the Department of Biology at Chung Kung University and now is a lecturer at Shu-Te University. His specialty is on frog study, and he is especially devoted to the conservation of Rhacophous arvalis. There are also several news reports on him. We are so happy to have him give us a seminar and share with us his wonderful experiences on frog studying.

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

While working on this project, many students who at the beginning were afraid of frogs now love these cute little “elfins” now. Students not only get to know more about frogs but also start to think about the environment and the relationship between human beings and frogs through many well-designed activities. This is the motivation that pushes us to combine the manpower from those partners who are interested in and care about frog conservation and environmental protection. We start from everyone’s own research, interests, and ability, guiding with our target mission, and we accomplish our work most effectively with our active attitudes and at the lowest cost. We will strongly support the project and keep this concept going. We cherish nature resource and care about public welfare. From individuals, gradually maybe we can stir up a trend of conservation in Tainan area or even in the whole area of Southern Taiwan.

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

First of all, I would like to thank the enthusiastic support from students’ parents, like providing the transportation for our frog watching filed trips and donating their money and precious time. Secondly, I wish to thank my Internet friend, Mr. Chung-Shen Lin, who also lives in Shinying City, for arranging a Community College activity for us and also authorizing us some precious pictures that we used in our web page.

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

This project is full of surprises, for example, on our field trip to Cing-Shan Sian Gong Temple, we were happened to see the eighteenth frog species – Rana sauteri, which was never seen or recorded in that area before. We also saw several kinds of snakes, which are frogs’ natural enemies, such as bamboo snakes, turtle-designed snakes, and Taiwan banded krait. Some special insects, animals, or plants along the way also drew our attention. The next is that we were surprised to notice that most of the tadpoles’ tails are crooked during the breeding of frogs. These phenomena catch our attention, which means we still can put a lot of effort on it.