School: Taipei Municipal Lanya Elementary School
    Taipei, /, Taiwan

7 students, ages 10-12 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on March 6, 2012. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): /

Classes and Teachers: Hui Ling Hong

E-Mail contact:

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

1. Description of Our Community

Ruan Qiao Fu Yu Temple (local land god) located nearby Huang Xi River in southern Wen Lin North Road, Beito District, Taipei, Taiwan. It is more than a hundred years old temple since it was built in 1884. However it was forced to be moved from here as the plan of industrial park of Shilin Beitou is under procedure and also the culture of Ruan Qiao (soft bridge) is also vanishing.

2. Summary of Our Project

Ruan Qiao (soft bridge) is not only a name of a place, it is also a culture of a farm village which represent the hard working and simplicity. We were told by the head of Jien Ming neighborhood that some teachers and students from Zhong Zheng Senior High School were keeping the farm implements and documentary records of the original landscape of Ruan Qiao. We were glad to have this opportunity to witness the changing of the history and be a part of it.

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: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

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

Problem: we can only use the school computers till 6pm after school as the computers are reserved for the normal computer class schedule. Overcome: We use our internet access at home via Chung Hua Telecom 8M

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

1.compile our information Some elderly didn’t feel comfortable when we took their pictures during the interview. And our limited dialect was also hard to communicate with them. Therefore we asked for help from our parents. Then they started to tell us everything about Ruan Qiao (soft bridge). For safety purpose, we couldn’t go near to the technology park as it was under construction. Finally we tried our best to take the pictures and collect the information to complete this project. 2. Set up the web page We made the pictures smaller in word file, but couldn’t upload as the file was too big and there’s only 50ME of space in the web page. Our teacher taught us Namo to help for the setting up. It was not easy to learn the editing and adjust the spaces. And we had a big problem when we uploaded Ftp, all the pictures from the web page were disappeared. We spent a lot of time to modifying and adjusting the pictures. We couldn’t present the video file as the limit of the space, so finally we used lots of pictures.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

We were so excited when we applied the cyber fair contest, not only because we can practice our computer skills in school. And also we wanted to keep a great memory together as one of our best friend is shifting to another school. We completed this project to show our passion for our land and culture and try to keep as a part of our life.

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

We couldn’t think about that there’s a farm village in Taipei City as the land is so precious in such crowded place. And the problems of urbanization in farm villages which we learned from our book (social study fifth grader) truly happened in our neighborhood. We’ve learned how to work together, the skills of interviewing and computer operations. We tried not to disturb our daily schedule while we split up the works, and everyone does what he’s good at. And we don’t give up easily. The urban renewal plan of Taipei city government is under procedure, and we can keep working on as the teachers and students from Zhong Zheng Senior High School did for keeping the history and culture of Ruan Qiao area. We hope to learn more about the development of urban renewal and its impact for the environment and the culture from this project. It’s very convenient to get the knowledge from the internet, but there was not much information about Ruan Qiao and no media releases any report of this area. We can only compile the information from the book and CD Rom of “Fall in love with Ruan Qiao”published by Zhong Zheng Senior High School. Thanks for their good works.

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

We used computers, digital cameras and softwares to complete our project.

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

We personally visited the head of Jien Ming neighborhood in his office and told him that we are going to make the project of Ruan Qiao culture and history. And he informed us the teachers and students from Zhong Zheng Senior High School were doing a range of research about Ruan Qiao. Most buildings with historical value of Ruan Qiao were disappeared, so we thought that we could learn more if we visit them in person. “Yuan Qian” could be fraud in nowadays as not everyone believes too much about local god during the fund raising of the temple. We realized that they offered their help as their willingness and without charging anything under such strong belief and blessing of god. We really appreciated the big help from the head of Jien Ming neighborhood Mr. Huang and his wife. They offered the related information and contacted Mr. Lai so that we could visit the city farm. Also a big thank to Mr. Lai Mu Lang, he provided the old pictures and CD Rom of Fu Yu Temple. Thanks for the generosity offered from Mr. Lai Ching Shan so that we could do our interviews. Thanks to our teachers and family who keep supporting us all the way for this project.

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

We wonder if our government has ever think about what those farmers will do after their lands were levied by urban renewal. The old farmers were forced to leave their lands and move to apartments. They don’t know anything else beside farming.“The youngsters don’t like to stay with the oldsters, people lost their feelings towards the lands.” said the elderly sadly. He also said that we will understand what he means one day when we grow old.

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

We met Teacher Sun and Teacher Xu from Zhong Zheng Senior High School when we participated the groundbreaking ceremony of Fu Yu Temple. We told them that we’ve seen the story of Ruan Qiao which made by their school. They had reminded us that we need to mention the references are from their school. Meantime there were also anniversary celebrations in their school, therefore we could visit their school history room and saw the cultural relics and pictures they collected.

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

Ruan Qiao Fu Yu Temple (local land god) located nearby Huang Xi River in southern Wen Lin North Road, Beito District, Taipei, Taiwan. It is more than a hundred years old temple since it was built in 1884. However it was forced to be moved from here as the plan of industrial park of Shilin Beitou is under procedure and also the culture of Ruan Qiao (soft bridge) is also vanishing.We were little disappointed that it was harvested and nothing to see on the farm when we visited the city farm on the new year day. Mr. Lai had reminded us be careful when we walked through the path on the farm. But we still fell accidentally and our shoes went into soft mud. The more we tried, the shoes went deeper. Finally we removed our shoes and tried so hard to take out our shoes. There’s one old saying that if we don’t listen to the elderly, then we have to bear the consequences. The spring is coming and the farmers start preparing the farming now. This field trip to the farm will be one of our great memories forever!