CyberFair Project ID: 7797

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International Schools CyberFair Project Narrative
Title: The Cuties' River Cruise of Playing Art
Category: 7. Environmental Awareness
URL: http://librarywork.taiwanschoolnet.org/gsh2014/gsh7797/index.htm
Bibliography: http://librarywork.taiwanschoolnet.org/gsh2014/gsh7797/p07.html

School: Taipei Municipal Wenchang Elementary School
    Taipei, , Taiwan

6 students, ages 10-12 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on February 22, 2014. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): none

Classes and Teachers: Alsa Lin

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://www.wces.tp.edu.tw/default.asp

Project Overview

1. Description of Our Community

Our home and school are located on the down-stream of Shuang-Xi River. The riverbank is like our back yard, but the back yard wasn’t beautiful at all. There were tall grass, mud and vegetable farm everywhere. Garbage was floating on the surface of river, and the odor was scary as well. However, due to the arising environmental awareness these years, the trees become much greener, and the flowers are prosperous, too. It becomes a wonderland of animals, where they can play, eat and breed. Besides, people put more emphasis on entertainments activities, so there are basketball courts, badminton courts, skating rink and exercising equipment along the riverside. Cycling paths are convenient, too. We can exercise, chat and get familiar with our community here. What’s more, in addition to astronomical museum and National Taiwan Science Education Center, there will be a Children’s Recreation Center soon nearby.

2. Summary of Our Project

In order to protect our environment, we are used to be educated not to litter around, pour out waste water, or break off twigs or flowers. However, instead of “Not to”, maybe we can ask ourselves more questions: Can we “do more” for our environment without hurting it? Can we have more thoughts and action to our environment? After seeing the environmental art exhibition held by fourth grade students in Wen-Chang Elementary students, the answer to the question is YES. It will be positive YES only to the kids, but also to every person in this community. Through the chance of participating Global School Net, on one hand, we interview these cute artists’ progress of idea thinking, making, displaying, results, and reflection; on the other hand, we can keep thinking what else could we do for Shuang-Xi River bank to make it cleaner. We wish that this action can attract more people walking into the riverbank, and get people together to protect our environment.

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:4-6

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

There are five aspects of challenges we encountered, which can be stated as follows: First, the team of participants was not confirmed until December 1st, so we started making our website a lot later than other contestants. Limited time is our first challenge. Second, We only thought of creating a website that introduced and recorded the reasons behind this event after we visited the River Cruise Journal Mobile Environmental Art Installation, so it was challenging to trace the origin, process, and result of this event after it took place. We had to interview many people to get the information and photographs we needed. Limited information is our second challenge.Third, We used a variety of software this time, but we’re not quite familiar with these software. Therefore, we often ran into some issues during operation. Fourth, during the progress of this project, everyone had afterschool cram school classes to go to, so it was really difficult to get together. In order to overcome this challenge, we used a cloud drive to store, access, and share information. Fifth, Before creating the Cyberfair website, none of us had any website construction experience so our teacher had to teach us step-by-step. Sometimes when I encountered a problem I would not know what to do and I would just stare at the computer, but at school my teacher and classmates would help me.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

This year we fourth graders were very lucky, because the National Taiwan Science Education Center worked with us to execute an Environmental Art Course Action Plan. Teachers from the National Taiwan Science Education Center used activities such as Water Bingo, Everything Adds Up, Where Water Comes From, and other activities to help us understand the surroundings we live in through our five senses and our hearts. We also beautified the community.

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

Language Arts /Mandarin: During discussions, we had to voice our opinions completely so that our teammates understood, pay attention while others were speaking, and take notes. When interviewing people, we had to think of questions beforehand, speak at an appropriate volume, listen carefully to the person being interview’s response, and organize it into a typed document. While searching for information about Shuangxi River, we had to learn to express it in our own words. Social Studies: Through this event, we had come to a deeper understanding of the relationship among the land, people, and the issues that people face. During the research process, we observed the environment along Shuangxi River from mid to downstream, and how people use this river. For a period in the past, this river was seriously polluted. Now that the residents are more environmentally conscious. Science and Technology: We formed a team to protect the Shuangxi River, bringing teachers and parents together to gather information through the phone, books, internet, and media to create a website. Through the power of the Internet, we want to convey to the world that we should protect the environment. Arts and Humanities: Our website, Fun River Adventure, mainly recorded the process of how the fourth graders at our school carried out their river adventure journal. We suggested that the school make sure to find locations for these pieces on campus so that each student at school can understand the relationship between art and life, enhancing how students perceive their environment through environmental art activities. In addition, we also recommended that the school maintain these pieces regularly and make sure to recycle them if they are damaged beyond repair in the future in order to respect these artistic creations and learn to implement art in everyday life.

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Project Elements

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

We used a variety of information technologies to create the Fun River Adventure website, such as digital cameras, voice recorders, scanners, mobile phones, computers, tablet computers, website building software, cloud storage, USB drives, and Line. Without our mobile phones, tablets and Line, we would not have been able to communicate instantaneously and effectively or deal with issues right away. Without digital cameras, we would not have been able to take photographs or video. Without computers and website building software, we would not have been able to create the website. Without USB drives and cloud storage, we would not have been able to share information, especially as cloud storage allowed us to store website information securely. All of these tools were indispensable to us during this process. The fourth grade students utilized recyclable materials to create large art installations under the direction of their teachers. They were placed on the Shuangxi River bank and a presentation was given to visitors and residents on November 16th, conveying a message of environmental protection and river conservation. This moved us and we invited our good friends from the fourth grade to create this website with us so that we could disseminate concepts of environmental protection and river conservation through the vast online world. Our goal is to make sure that everyone who browses our website understands that everyone is responsible for environmental conservation, and that everyone can be involved.

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

We came up with the idea of recording the process of these art installations through a website only after we saw this work by the fourth grade students at the schools’ anniversary celebration. After interviews, we found out that it was National Taiwan Science Education Center, which was looking for a school to conduct water environmental education. Because our school was the closest to the National Taiwan Science Education Center, situated right next to Shuangxi River, and the two fourth grade class teachers have always integrated biodiversity and environmental education issues into their curricula over the years, the fourth grade students had the opportunity to take part in this activity.

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

There is a lot of data and pictures needed during the website building process, which we had to obtain methodically though interviews and requesting teachers for their support. Because there is a large amount of information, we had to delete, compile, and organize information after we obtained it before putting it on the website. As we were on a very tight time schedule and younger students in the fourth grade needed to be taught step by step how to operate IT equipment, we asked that the computer teachers at school teach the younger students these computer skills. As we also needed to improve our film editing abilities, we looked to our parents for some assistance. This was how our work team grew in size. In addition to six students, this also included all four of our families and computer teachers. We experienced the power of a team. With our families and teachers’ support, we felt much more secure in our tasks.

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

We only came up with the idea of creating this website on November 16th, after we toured the younger students’ environmental art exhibition. As the entire event had concluded, the only way to research the origin and process of the event was through interviews, reviews of student work, and looking through photographs that the teachers took. We are very grateful for all the teachers, students, staff at the National Taiwan Science Education Center, and two village chiefs of the school district for their contributions to the project. We were only able to collect so much information in such a limited time because of their help. We would also like to thank the principal of our school for her support.

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

There is an advertising slogan that goes, “Technology originates from the human heart.” Our parents used to never let us use mobile phones or computers much because they were afraid we would spend too much time on the phone and waste money, or play video games for too long and neglect our schoolwork while ruining our vision. However, we had to spend a lot of time on the computer in order to create a website this time, and we often had to ask our parents to read and send messages on Line. However, as we had the clear goal of protecting the environment, our parents provided us with full support and were very lenient with our technology use. Thus, we should properly utilize modern technology to make the environment we live in a better place. Modern technology allows us to collect a lot of information in a short period, but at the beginning we did not know how to manage our files and we saved them everywhere. The result was that when we looked for something, we knew we had it but could not actually locate it. We are grateful to our teachers for teaching us the concept of layered file storage. We learned how to manage electronic information as well as establish the concept of backing up data, that a file should be stored in at least three locations: the computer, external, and cloud storage. To be honest, while collecting information, I really envied how the fourth grade students were able to take part in environmental art creations. I also admired their pieces. As our website building task was nearly completed, we were all very proud that we were able to build an entire website from scratch.

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