CyberFair Project ID: 8272

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International Schools CyberFair Project Narrative
Title: Revitalization of Old Buildings
Category: 6. Historical Landmarks
URL: http://librarywork.taiwanschoolnet.org/gsh2017/gsh8272/index.htm
Bibliography: http://librarywork.taiwanschoolnet.org/gsh2017/gsh8272/6_1.htm

School: ChungShan Elementary School
    Changhua City, Taiwan, Republic of China

6 students, ages 10-12 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on March 1, 2017. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): 2014,2015,2016

Classes and Teachers: 3

E-Mail contact:

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

Project Overview

1. Description of Our Community

Our community is located in Changhua County with many classic antique buildings, such as Yongjing public school dormitory, Beidou red brick market, Chung Shan north classroom and Changhua Art Museum, etc… Most of these buildings were constructed in Japanese colonial period. We can sense the ancient atmosphere and warmth which high storied buildings are devoid of. Age has left traces on these buildings which continue to bring people sunshine.

2. Summary of Our Project

We learned the history of Taiwan under Japanese rule in social study class, collecting the data of historical buildings. Through field study, we learned their preservations, features, usage situations and historical traces. We should not forget or ignore the importance of these buildings since they are the witness of many ups and downs in history. A city is an organism, we wish to use unlocking the history of the land as a start, then bring some new values to people.

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:more than 6

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

Chung Shan Elementary school uses a 100MB fiber-optic scholastic network, with full internet coverage in every classroom. School also provides Wi-Fi with laptops or mobile devices for us to look up information at anytime. We save most of our files on cloud storages. Because of our excellent internet access, we can update our data with ease.

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

(1) Difficulty in collecting data: we could not find much information about linbaoguan on bureau of cultural heritage website. Only thing we had is the linbaoguan facebook fan page.(https://www.facebook.com/linbaoguanch/?fref=ts), therefore, we wanted to build a webpage for people also interested in its information. (2)Difficulty in field study: some buildings like Changhua railway quarters and Gaobinge were surrounded by fences when we went on our field study. We were only able to see it from outside. (3)Difficulty in finding field study location:we could not find the location of “Changhua shrine.” Later we learned from the internet that it has already been demolished.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

Our participation has drawn attentions from the school and from the community, and has made people realize that we can do our best to revitalize old buildings to show their new value. By taking part in the project, students feel they are part of the community and are responsible to pass the community history to the next generation.

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

(1)How does this project meet the needs of your school? The historic building “north classroom” in our school is used as gallery of history. But due to the teacher responsible is not employed in our school anymore, it becomes deserted. Maybe we can revitalize north classroom like other historical buildings, by transforming it into exhibition venue or senior center.

(2)What new skills did you learn? 1.Learning how to organize data and write reports: we had to organize the data collected. Reports had to be short, concise and well-structured. 2.Learning how to work as a team: throughout the process of our field study, we had to distribute the works according to our specialties. By using google cloud drive and facebook group, we could organize and upload our responsible segments, avoiding the chance of missing files. 3.Learning about field study methods in the process of field study, we had to find some extraordinary buildings, also collected data about buildings as thoroughly as we could.

(3)Were there any problems in the current educational system which you discovered during the course of your research? We learned many extra-curricular knowledge and skills through this project. We learned how to categorize historical sites, the difference between historical sites and buildings, and the characteristics of Japanese occupation era buildings. Furthermore, we learned how to conduct interviews, writing reports and drawing mind maps. These skills, maybe not on textbook is indeed very useful.

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Project Elements

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

Hardware: 1.Computers:document organization, visual processing, data organization 2.Scanner:transmitting hand drawn images into digital files 3.Printer:printing required data 4.Portable USB drives:saving and sharing files 5.Digital camera:picture taking and filming 6.Recording pen:recording our interviews

Software: 1.Photocap:digital image editing 2.Google documents:file sharing, writing personal thoughts, data organization 3.Cloud drives:data uploading and sharing 4.FileZilla:uploading our completed product onto internet 5.Dreamweaver:webpage making 6.Microsoft Word:to record and arrange documented information 7.MS Paint:drawing shapes for our website 8.X-mind:drawing mind mapping

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

By interviewing, collecting information, taking pictures and discussing how to revitalize historical buildings, we hope the department in charge will listen to our opinions, revitalize these deserted buildings. We create an “Old House, New Life-The Stories of Old House” facebook fan page(https://www.facebook.com/1895to1945oldhouse/timeline), we hope to introduce to more people about the beauty of historical buildings by all these pictures and transcripts.

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

(1)Source of pictures: The photos on our website were all taken either by us or teachers, the illustrations were all hand drawn by us, and for any other photos with different sources we have also specified. (2)Citation of interview materials: Before conducting our interviews we always inquire whether we have permission to record the interview and/or take pictures in the process, as well as whether we could post these pictures online. (3)Material source: The sources of our online data were all specified. Information on the sources of citations from books also includes the page numbers from which are cited.

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

In order to understand the challenges of heritage preservation, we got in touch with Cultural Heritage Division of Changhua County Culture Affair Bureau. We learned from them, the restoration process of historic buildings, government’s position and limitation on revitalizing historic buildings, and the guidelines of reutilizing and outsourcing historic buildings. A retired teacher, Miss Wang, provided us the actual location of old Taiwan Bank dormitories, which cannot be found on the map. This information allowed us to carry on-site investigation. We also visited a historic building transformed restaurant, the owner are happy to know that we are promoting the revitalization of old buildings.

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

1.Manners and Etiquette: We remember clearly how our teachers, after our return from the interview with the owner of the Han Pei Lo Restaurant, reprimanded us for not being respectful enough, such as how we should have all said “thank you” when she escorted us to the exit before our departure.

2.The Cyberfair project isn’t just about finding information from the web: Conducting a full-scale research is much more than finding information on the web; what’s more important is how to carefully read through and select relevant portions of what is found, how to conduct interviews for further corroborative data, and how to compile all this into presentable text for others to read. We also had to produce charts and write up a lot of things, as well as type them all out.

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View our CyberFair Project (Project ID: 8272)

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