School: Yangming Junior High School
    Changhua, Taiwan, Taiwan, ROC

19 students, ages 13-15 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on March 14, 2012. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): 2011

Classes and Teachers: Chia-wei Tsai

E-Mail contact:

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

1. Description of Our Community

Changhua County is located in the mid-western part of Taiwan Island. The Dadu River marks the northern boundry of Changhua County, the Bagua Mountain marks the eastern boundry, and the Zhuoshui River marks the southern boundry. In the west, Changhua County faces the vast Taiwan Strait. Changhua County was first established in 1723 under the control of the Qing Dynasty. The name 'Changhua' in Chinese literally means 'manifestation of the majestic Emperor's civilization spread over the seas,' showing the rule policy of the Qing Dynasty. Changhua is famous for its fertile soil and hence it is called the “Granary of Taiwan.” Besides, the scenic views of mountains and historical architecture are wonderful and attractive. Changhua is also well-known for its local foods. People come to Changhua to enjoy its delicious local snacks. All of these resources make Changhua County a precious place to visit.

2. Summary of Our Project

Changhua County is famous for its local foods, and the meatball is one of the most popular local foods. The meatball not only tastes delicious but also attracts lots of tourists. Most important of all, the meatball is the best memory of many Taiwanese. As a result, we want to interview the locals, to understand the process of making the meatball, and to promote the meatball all over the world by attending the International Schools Cyberfair.

3. Our Computer and Internet Access

A. Percentage of students using the Internet at home:21-50%

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

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

The first problem we had was the forming of the team. We started to do the project when we entered the junior high school. We were new to each other, and when forming a team on this project, we had no ideas. However, our homeroom teacher, Mr. Tsai, hepled us a lot. He first explained what the whole project was and what the team members would do for the project. After that, he asked volunteers to join the project. Since all the team members were voluntary for the project, we could easily work together to proceed the project. The second problem we had was lack of time. Most of our time was arranged for the school courses, eight hours a day and five days a week. Hence, we had to make good use of our time. We had short discussion during the lunch break every day, and assigned tasks for each member to do at home. Besides, we integrated the project into our daily courses, such as Computer Class, English Writing Class and so on. In this way, we could overcome the problem we had and finished our project. The last but the biggest problem we had was lack of experience on making websites. In order to overcome the problem, we consulted Mr. Jian, the Chief of Information Management Section at our school, and invited him to be our consultant. Mr. Jian helped us a lot with the websites. With help of our teachers and team members, we overcame the problems we encountered.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

Most people in Taiwan know the specialty, Changhua Meatball. However, to know is one thing, and to let others know is another. Therefore, it is our dream to make Changhua Meatball more popular around the world. In order to fulfill our dream, we have to unite our team, our knowledge, our resources and everything we possess. By participating in International Schools CyberFair, we have made our dream come true.

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

Through our activities and research for this International Schools CyberFair project, we learned the way of expressing, sharing and communicating ideas with each other, the importance of teamwork, the use of technology and information, the motivation of active research and investigation, and the ability of independent thinking and problem-solving. All of these mentioned above are the major goals of the Grade 1-9 Curriculum Guidelines in Taiwan. Therefore, by participating in International Schools CyberFair, we achieved the major learning goals of the Grade 1-9 Curriculum Guidelines. In addition, we needed to collect information from the Internet and make our website, which are related to our computer courses. After that, we needed to summarize and organize the information we collected, and wrote the articles to introduce Changhua Meatball, which are related to the language abilities.

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

Through our activities and research for this International Schools CyberFair project, we used many information tools and technologies to complete our project. We used cell phones and telephones to keep contact with team members and Changhua Meatball shopkeepers. We used the notebooks and computers to store and edit the information and to make our project website. We used digital cameras to record the process of our project. In addition, we used many computer softwares, such as Notepad++, OpenOffice, and Photocap5. By using the softwares, we could edit the information we collected, the pictures we took and finally the website for our project.

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

The topic of our project is Changhua Meatball, the specialty in Changhua. We not only collected information online but also went to the famous Changhua Meatball shops and did an interview with the shopkeepers and their customers. Through the interview, we know more about Changhua Meatball. After that, we made our project website and made it open to the world so that people around the world could know more about Changhua Meatball.

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

Since our project is about Changhua Meatball, we went to the famous Changhua Meatball shops and did an interview with the shopkeepers and their customers. From the interview, we knew how the shopkeepers managed their business and how they dealt with difficulties they encountered. The shopkeepers and their customers were also impressed that we participated in the International Schools CyberFair project. As junior high school students, we not only studied hard for our school courses but also walked out of the campus to do the meaningful project. Furthermore, we invited them to visit our website when it was done. We believe that through our website, people could know more about Changhua Meatball.

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

Completing the project isn’t an easy job for us. Thanks to many people’s help, we solved the problems we had and finally completed our project. The team members were responsible for most of the work, such as collecting information, designing the interview questionnaires, doing the interviews and making the websites. Our consultants, Mr. Tsai and Mr. Jian, gave us lots of ideas and supports. Our principal, Mr. Song, provided us many opinions to make our project better. The Changhua Meatball shopkeepers and their customers gave us lots of cherish opinions so that we knew more about Changhua Meatball.

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

Before we participated this International Schools CyberFair project, we learned by what our teacher taught us. However, during the process of completing our project, we learned to collect information from the Internet and the library by ourselves. We also learned to summarize and organize the information we had. Moreover, we stepped out of our school and did the first interview in our life. Through the interview, we gained a lot of useful information which we could not read on the Net or in the books. We changed a lot after participating this International Schools CyberFair project—from passive learners to active learners!