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1. Description of Our Community
Taipei City, located in the north top of Taiwan, is a big city with 2,620,000 populations. The city has been set up for 120 years. The industry and commerce in Taipei has been highly developed. It is an important center of culture, economy and politics in Taiwan, too. In addition, the environmental protection in Taipei is a concerned issue for people in Taiwan. The citizens have the common consensus to make the city be the most beautiful and cleanest in the world. In order to make Taipei city be the most progressive and suitable for residing in the area of Asia and the Pacific, Taipei City Government tries to carry out the policy of “No Trash on the Ground” and “A Charge of Trash Bags”. Moreover, in the end of 2003, they executed the recycling system of kitchen waste. They changed the passive way of trash treatment to the positive way of “recycling resources” and “lessening trash” in Taipei city. The operation policy and sustainable development were successful and they hoped to reach the goal of “No Need to Bury the Trash in Taipei and to Recycle Totally.
2. Summary of Our Project
Taipei city has decreased 60% amount of garbage and increased 42% quantity of recycling resource since it executed the policy of “A Charge of Trash Bags”. Absolutely, it is a miracle of the garbage treatment in the world. There was a report of “What I Picked up about Trash in Taipei” in Washington Post written by Miss Julia Ross, a scholar from America to learn Chinese in Taipei. She described what she learned to dispose of household waste in Taipei. She was moved by the passion of citizens who were devoted to the recycling resources. As Julia Ross said, “Before my year in Taiwan, I was a lazy environmentalist,…Living in a place where I was expected to use what I bought and recycle every last yogurt cup and juice box left me with a new appreciation for what clean streets mean in a civil society, and the realization that I’m responsible for everything I consume. That’s as good a Chinese lesson as any.” In the eyes of Julia Ross, the environmental maintenance was more effective in Taiwan than in the United States. It made us be proud and touched to be a citizen in Taipei. Ten years ago, Taipei City’s sidewalks were drowning in rotting garbage. There were overflowed trash tanks all over the communities. You’d never know it today. Today the citizens in Taipei will sort the trash voluntarily. Then, meet the garbage truck five nights a week at the mouth of a nearby alley. It attributed the success to the policies of “No Trash on the Ground”, “A Charge of Trash Bags” and “To Recycle Kitchen Waste Totally”. Besides, the citizens who cooperated with each other to match up to the policies was the key point of success. As Miss Julia Ross said, “These curbside jaunts were my initiation into Taiwan’s broader waste-disposal network, made up of municipal employees and regular citizens all doing their part to keep the system humming.”
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:more than 6
E. Additional comments concerning your computer and/or Internet access (Optional):
Our school provides ADSL for linking to internet with an upload speed of 100Mb and download speed of 100Mb. We have completed a wireless internet in 2004 and can receive the internet message in the campus everywhere. There are four computer classrooms and a multi-media center for making teaching materials in our school. In each computer classroom, there are 35 computers for the students to have the computer class. Also, the school provides every teacher a notebook for teaching use. The staff is more than 200 people. So, approximately, there are more than 350 computers in our school, including the computers for the administrative use. Every computer can use the wireless internet in the campus. The administrative departments still use the desktop computer which is provided with an exclusive line for connecting to internet and various web services are available for application through the server. The school’s servers include Web Server, Mail Server, DNS Server and Proxy Server that provide convenient online application environment. Every student has his or her own E-mail address and has the capability of web making.
4. Problems We Had To Overcome
(1)Busy Students, Not Easy to Arrange the Schedule Our team members were outstanding in many extra-curricula. They were the members of the Chinese orchestra, the chorus, the sport team and the language association, too. Our team members were always too busy to attend the research activities. Therefore, the scheduled progress of the research often got behind. We encouraged students to attend the research because they could learn a lot of knowledge and skills from the research, such as the skills of interview, interpersonal interaction and result presentation. (2)A Great Deal of Interviews To deal with the topic about “the trash treatment experience in Taipei” was huge and difficult because we had to gather materials from the different departments of city government. The information was numerous. There were a lot of interviews we had to do. If we did each interview on the spot, we had to take a lot of time. But time was limited. All we could do was to make a choice to deal with the important parts. (3)Few People Who Used City-approved Trash Bags Most students in the communities around the school were living in the multi-storey buildings. In these kinds of buildings, they hired the sanitation workers to deal with the trash. Therefore, the samples were not so enough when we compiled statistics of city-approved trash bags. Fortunately, we asked the students in the other grades to attend the line of samples, and we got the enough samples to finish the statistics.
5. Our Project Sound Bite
In the process of investigating the topic, we found the trash, a trifling thing, had to manage with a complicated procedure, in order to avoid endangering the environment. Taipei In the process of investigating the topic, we found the trash, a trifling thing, had to manage with a complicated procedure, in order to avoid endangering the environment. Taipei City Government had done a good job to deal with the trash. We were lucky to live in Taipei.
6. How did your activities and research for this CyberFair Project support standards, required coursework and curriculum standards?
1. Language Realm: writing interview draft, reflection presentation, result presentation 2. Society Realm: care about Taiwan 3. Math: information application and statistical charts 4. Synthetic Activities: interview skills and persons interaction 5. Art & Humanities: illustrations and drafting the route chart of the garbage truck 6. Science and Technology: environment change and creature life.
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1) What information tools & technologies did you used to complete your CyberFair project?
1.Recorder:During our interviews, paper notes with writing could not catch up so that we used a recorder for assisting us in memorizing the missed portion. 2.Digital camera:To record what we did and what we heard. The photos were also selected for using in our web. 3.DVD Digital Video Recorder:To record what we did and what we heard in the video recorder with audio and video. It was a very good recording for our visit and interviews. 4.Mono-gun projector:To project the images and photos on a screen for purpose of presentation. 5.Memory bar:For easy saving of data. 6.Scanner:To digitize the photos taken with traditional camera. 7.Internet:To search related photos, information, telephone numbers and addresses available online. 8.Computer software: (1)Microsoft XP? (2)Internet Explorer:to search web information (3)PhotoImpact:to amend and cut digital photo. (4)ACDSee:to browse digital photo. (5)Microsoft Word:To write work schedule, wording report and research report. (6)Dreameaver:Web making. (7)E-pen:Drafting (8)CPMagi6.0:Making cards and envelops 9.E-mail To send digital information. 10. Oral Interviews: (1)Shi-Hong, Chen. Minister of Environmental Protection Administration Executive Yuan, R. O. C. (Taiwan). Personal interview. Dec. 12, 2008. (2)Bi-Xia, Lin. The Superior of Kitchen Waste Compost Plan, Taipei City Government. Personal interview. Dec. 04, 2008. (3)Yuan-De, Zhang. The Leader of Shinyi Chiu Sanitary Team, Taipei City Government. Personal interview. Nov. 17, 2008. 11. Visiting Organizations: (1)Department of Environmental Protection, Taipei City Government. Oct. 24, 2008. (2)Shinyi Chiu Sanitary Team, Taipei City Government. Nov. 17, 2008. (3)Nei Hu Incineration Plant, Taipei City Government. Nov. 28, 2008. (4)Shanzhuku Sanitary Landfill Site, Taipei City Government. Nov. 28, 2008. (5)Ciji Recycling Stand in Nei Hu County. Dec. 26, 2008. (6)An Auction Place of Recycling Furniture in Nei Hu County. Jan. 17, 2009. (7)Jiu Zong Recycling Place in Nei Hu County. Jan. 17, 2009. (8)Ren Fu Livestock Farm. Jan. 19, 2009.
2) In what ways did you act as "ambassadors" and spokespersons for your CyberFair project both on-line and in person.
1. Watching the Movies: In the procedure of investigating the research, TDEP gave us two DVDs, “The War of Transforming the Garbage” and “The Clean Park without the Disaster”. It inspired us to be interested in the research through the DVDs. We drafted the research schedule and had clearer ideas to know the procedure of the garbage treatment in Taipei after watching the DVDs 2. Interviews on the Spot: In the researching procedure, we visited TDEP, County Sanitary Team, the incinerator, the landfill site and Environmental Protection Administration Executive Yuan, R. O. C. (Taiwan). Moreover, we observed sanitation workers recycling the garbage at nights. We appreciated the sanitation workers who were very kind to explain how to manage the garbage in details. Their interpretation made our research go smoothly. 3. Questionnaires on the Street: In order to understand Taipei citizens’ points of view about the trash treatment of City Government, we designed the questionnaires to interview the citizens on the street. We had finished 150 pieces of questionnaires. It was really a splendid achievement. 4. Data Statistics of City-approved Trash Bags: We wanted to find out how much a family had to pay for trash bags in a month. We asked our parents to record the consumption of trash bags for more than one month. 5. Drafting the Route Chart of the Garbage Trucks: When we entered the website of TDEP, we could find out the route chart of the garbage trucks, and we could know the time when and the place where the trash trucks would pass by and stop at. We drafted the route with the software of e-pen and marked the time. The website provided the citizens being aware that there were more than once to throw trash bags onto the trucks in a night. 6. To Put up the Poster: In the procedure of the research, we had written an e-mail to Miss Julia Ross, and we would so glad to receive Miss Julia Ross’s response soon. We cut the article, which was published in Washington Post on December 02, 2007, and posted Ross’s returned e-mail as the poster and put on the bulletin board to let the public know the “trash miracle” in Taipei and be aware of our research content.
3) What has been the impact of your project on your community?
1. The Ladder Leading to Success Mr. Chen Shi Hong, Minister of Environmental Protection Administration Executive Yuan, R. O. C. (Taiwan), told us, in the interview, about the idea of “the ladder change of the social behavior”. He said that we had to design the movement. The clear and definite goal and common consensus would inspire people to participate in the movement, and the social behavior would be formed as a ladder leading to success. Maybe after a year or half a year, people would change like stepping up the stairway. We needed a lot of ladder behavior changes to transform people’s habits in order to protect the environment. Now the citizens in Taipei got used to reduce the garbage by the behaviors of using city-approved trash bags and recycling the trash. That is the ladder theory leading to success. 2. City-approved Trash Bags A charge of trash bags was a successful policy to reduce the quantity of the garbage. We would thank to the effective recycling policy and the charge of trash bags. We could buy the trash bags at the corner 7-eleven or at the supermarket. We had to pay more money if we bought bigger bags. That is, if you had more garbage you would pay the government more money to treat the garbage. It was a fair way to charge. 3. No Need to Bury the Garbage, to Recycle Totally ?No Need to Bury the Garbage, to Recycle Totally?was the goal of Taipei in 2010. ?No Need to Bury the Garbage?was an idea to make up for the short of the place. There were two ways to manage the garbage in Taiwan. One was to burn and the other was to bury. As everyone knew, Taiwan was an island with less area but more population. The over-development of industry and commerce made a lot of waste. Nobody wants to build the incinerator nearby his (or her) residential district. Moreover, there was a lot of waste gas when burned. The other way was to bury the garbage, but it was difficult to find the space to bury the trash, too. The only way to solve the predicament was to recycle the waste to be the resource, and no need to bury or burn the garbage.
4) How did your project involve other members of your community as helpers and volunteers?
1. The Interviews: In the procedure of the researching program, we interviewed Mr. Chen Shi Hong, Minister of Environmental Protection Administration Executive Yuan, R. O. C. (Taiwan), Doctor Lin Bi Xia, who was in charge of the compost plan, TDEP and Sanitary Team, Shinyi Chiu County. We visited the incinerator plant in Nei Hu County and the garbage burying place in Shan Zhu Cave. 2. The Lecture Course: Mr. You Zhen Huan, the parent in our school, who was a specialist of environment and technology, provided a lecture course of the recycling matter for us. 3. Interviews on the Spot: We really appreciated Taipei citizens who helped us to answer the questionnaires which made our research more significant. 4. Recycling Experience: We visited the recycling place of Tzu Chi in Nei Hu county, the volunteers told us the exact way to recycle the trash. We had the real experience to do the paper recycling.
5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)
1. We discovered that the skill of our typewriting was so good and fast. 2. It was hard to catch up on the inspiration in our mind when writing the report. Sometimes, the rate of the typewriting was too slow to write down what we thought. 3. When we visited the incinerator plant in Nei Hu County, we found there was so huge garbage we made. It was terrible to see so much trash in the incinerator, the height of the garbage was nearly the altitude of a seven-story building. 4. It was a big surprise to write to Miss Julia Ross and get her response soon. We were so glad to read Ross’s letter. To our surprise, we could get the meaning of Ross’s letter in English. 5. We found Mr. Chen Shi Hong, Minister of Environmental Protection Administration Executive Yuan, R. O. C. (Taiwan), received us very friendly. Before the interview, we had the monotonous impression about the officers, but Mr. Chen was very kind. 6. In the procedure of investigating, we found that there were six certain spots to gather the garbage and collect the recyclable items in the day. Those certain spots were provided by TDEP. 7. After the policy of “A Charge of Trash Bags”, in most families, the charge of the trash bags was lower than the average value. It showed that the quantity of garbage in Taipei was decreasing. It was wonderful to hear that.
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View our CyberFair Project
(Project ID: 5720)
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