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1. Description of Our Community
Ershui Township is located in the furthest southeast area of Changhua County. Zhuoshui River has brought in rich and fertile water to make Ershui a great agricultural village. Everything for Ershui is blessed by the Zhuoshui River. Without its water, Ershui could not have rich and fertile products. Therefore, Babao Canal is the origin of Ershui legend. With the irrigation of this water source, planting Mesona in Ershui has become popular in recent years. Farmers extensively plant Mesona in plain areas and promote their products through the marketing system of the Farmers’ Association.
2. Summary of Our Project
In this Cyberfair project, we focused on Mesona, an agricultural product that has been planted and promoted by Ershui Farmers’ Association in the recent years. We hope that through the competition and propaganda of Cyberfair project, more people will know the excellence of Ershui’s agricultural products. During the research, we planed to interview the farmers and the factory and marketing personnel of the Farmers’ Association. We asked them how Ershui Mesona was selected, planted, produced, promoted, and marketed in recent years.
3. Our Computer and Internet Access
A. Percentage of students using the Internet at home:less than 20
B. Number of workstations with Internet access in the classroom:4-6
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):
Hardware: There are two desktop computers in the Office of Student Affairs for teachers to use. These computers are connected to internet and printers. The Office of Academic Affairs offers hardware devices such as a few laptops, DV, a digital camera, and recording pen for us to use in our research procedure. Also, 30 desktop computers in the computer room can be used for typing and data production. Software: Photoimpact and Namo WebEditor 2008 move along the project production more smoothly.
4. Problems We Had To Overcome
In fact, the entire procedure of this Cyberfair project was a big challenge to us. The teachers wanted us to do this by ourselves from preparing the research framework for the project, designing interview question, to showing art work and setting up the website. We learned everything step by step. Even though it was very slow, we worked very hard, since we really wanted to promote the Mesona in Ershui. The most worry we had during the entire procedure was over the difficulty we encountered in the interview with the Mesona Factory since the owner recently passed away. We were very shocked when we heard the news and did not know what to do. The teacher asked us if we had other ideas, but we did not want to give up, so the principal sent the community elder to ask the owner’s wife, who just got through the funeral, if she was still able to assist us. After we called her to schedule the interview, she answered us with a very tired voice and told us she would help the children from her homeland. We were very impressed, and learned that many people work hard for our homeland. We all love our homeland.
5. Our Project Sound Bite
You are from our homeland, so you should know more about our homeland. We perceive the emotion from homeland, and feel the thickness of Mesona taste.
6. How did your activities and research for this CyberFair Project support standards, required coursework and curriculum standards?
1.Language--Chinese: We learned that data analysis and despondence were very important in our learning process. We can apply the experience of interviewing Mesona and analyzing their data and photos on our daily life. 2.Social studies--History: We collected, compared, and analyzed the information of Mesona, as well as interpreting and recording the results. We also combined Mesona’s features into the record to witness its history. 3.Social studies--Civic and Society: Through communicating and interacting with the interviewees, we learned to listen to different voices and care people, events, and objects around us, besides collecting information. 4.Nature and life technology: We can combine the ecosystem of Mesona in Ershui we learned during the interview with the knowledge we learned in the class to have a better understanding of the kinds of Mosona in Ershui. 5.Arts and humanities: The sense of beauty is very important in the web design, so it was a great opportunity for us to show our fine arts talents and present the attractive website with rich information to everyone. Our website involves the paintings of Ershui Mesona growing area and uses newspaper’s design concept to make the entire website look harmonious and balanced. Also, through communicating and interacting with the Ershui Farmers’ Association and Mesona Factory, we learned more about Mesona and the features of humanities and geography of the community. 6.Comprehensive activities: During our research, many ordinary things or places that we used to ignore became special and important. Who would connect Ershui’s agricultural products to its Mesona? 7.Topic for information education: Computer is an indispensable tool for delivering information in the modern society. Through the research and website production, we learned how to setup a website and the way information is delivered.
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1) What information tools & technologies did you used to complete your CyberFair project?
1. Verbal Interviews: Interviewing Mr. Tung, Division Chief of Ershui Farmers’ Association, Mr. Tsai, Director-General of Ershui Farmers’ Association, and Mrs. Chun Huang of Mesona Factory in order to learn Ershui’s Mesona. 2. Internet: Data delivery is important to our website for communicating with people around the world. 3. DV: To record interviews for proofreading. 4. Digital camera: To record the research process, collect data, and edit images for the Cyberfair project. 5. Computer Software: PhotoImpact11, Namo WebEditor 2008, Ulead VideoStudio 11, and Winword. 6. Telephone: To contact Mr. Tung, Division Chief of Ershui Farmers’ Association, Mr. Tsai, Director-General of Ershui Farmers’ Association, and Mrs. Chun Huang of Mesona Factory for arranging the interview schedule. 7. USB Drive: To record interviews for proofreading. 8. Illustration Board: Essential tool for website drawing.
2) In what ways did you act as "ambassadors" and spokespersons for your CyberFair project both on-line and in person.
We want to introduce Ershui’s local features to the world through the Cyberfair project, so we named our project “Ershui Gourmet”. We hoped that through our research, we can introduce Ershui Mesona’s seed selection, farming, traditional production, and marketing procedure to the world. In our research, the school has invited the Director-General of Ershui Farmers’ Association to introduce the origin of Babao Canal aw well as the literature and history of Ershui to us. The elders of the community were very happy that we were going to research our local farming products and introduce Mesona to the whole world through internet, so they provided a lot of help to us. They said, “We are happy to see that Ershui’s children are willing to care their own homeland.” The owner’s wife of Mesona Factory held her grief and took us to visit their ancient production procedure. She hoped that our efforts would bring in nice changes to Ershui, and make our homeland better.
3) What has been the impact of your project on your community?
In the beginning, we decided to use five kinds of Ershui farming products as the research objects, and named our topic “Five Treasure Village”. However, when the teacher asked us. “Why these five kinds? How can these five kinds represent Ershui?” we did not have answer for these. We just picked five products from our impression, but we actually did not understand our homeland well enough. Therefore, the teacher suggested us to visit Ershui Farmers’ Association and walk around our own homeland to learn more. Because of this, we continued to cut our research objects, and only focused on Mesona. Through data collection and interviews, we were happy that we learned more about Mesona and got closer to our homeland because of it. If we didn’t participate in the Cyberfair project, we can possibly only know our homeland a little bit, and never understand it. This is the biggest impact of the Cyberfair project to us. We hoped that through our efforts, everyone will know the excellence of Ershui.
4) How did your project involve other members of your community as helpers and volunteers?
We want to introduce Ershui’s local features to the world through the Cyberfair project, so we named our project “Ershui Gourmet”. We hoped that through our research, we can introduce Ershui Mesona’s seed selection, farming, traditional production, and marketing procedure to the world. In our research, the school has invited the Director-General of Ershui Farmers’ Association to introduce the origin of Babao Canal aw well as the literature and history of Ershui to us. The elders of the community were very happy that we were going to research our local farming products and introduce Mesona to the whole world through internet, so they provided a lot of help to us. They said, “We are happy to see that Ershui’s children are willing to care their own homeland.” The owner’s wife of Mesona Factory held her grief and took us to visit their ancient production procedure. She hoped that our efforts would bring in nice changes to Ershui, and make our homeland better.
5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)
1. Discoveries: The Mesona fields built by Mr. Tung, Division Chief of Ershui Farmers’ Association are very special and should be introduced to the world, so that people can learn about Mesona in Ershui. We also learned that the relationship between the school and the community is very close. We could help promote more Ershui Farmers’ Association’s agricultural products as well as helping students experience farmers’ hard work and understand the importance of the existence of Ershui Mesona to the current development of Ershui. 2. Lessons: The life wisdom of Mrs. Chun Huan and Mr. Tsai, Director-General of Ershui Farmers’ Association gave us enlightenment. We not only went to the farmland for a field trip, but we also learned the law of life. We know we will learn more if we visit the farmland again. 3. Surprises: We all knew the Mesona in Ershui, but we did not know how it looks like and how Mesona was produced. Mesona can be used to create many dishes, and some enterprises help develop its uses. We learned these through this research.
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View our CyberFair Project
(Project ID: 8159)
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