School: Sijhou Elementary School
    Kaohsiung City, , Republic of China

9 students, ages 11-12 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on March 5, 2018. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): 2017

Classes and Teachers: HUANG, YA- TING? CHANG, CHUN- YU?CHEN, XIN-YUAN

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://www.xzp.ks.edu.tw/home_1.htm

1. Description of Our Community

Sijhou is located in the hub of Qishan district which is the center of north-bound and south-bound ways to Kaohsiung City. Because of the convenience in traffic, Sijhou is claimed as the basic foundation for pioneering to southern Taiwan. Sijhou, with 94 square kilometers in total area and 38,000 in population, is geographically located between Zhongliao mountain and Nanzixian creek. The original title of Sijhou is named by its natural formation. Sijhou, a typical agricultural village with abundant productions, relics of folk arts, engineering and fighting marks, is full of wisdom of life and element of learning.

2. Summary of Our Project

With the rich natural resources and historical culture in Sijhou, population outflow is the biggest problem. This project enables students to start with their understanding of hometown and then find the issues in hometown to do the research and finally seek for the solutions together. According to students’ planning, the agriculture in Sijhou will be improved and developed into tourism farm and tourism factory, and the tourism journey is designed to make this land become lively again.

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:dial-up modem

D. Number of years our classroom has been connected to the Internet:more than 6

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

There are few problems that we met and how to find the solutions: 1. Team members’ common time is limited. Solution: make use of the morning self-study time and lunch break time. we only have the common time during the lunch break, so all the team members and teachers have to sacrifice the rest time to conduct this research. This is the first difficulty we have encountered, but all of us will try our best to participate in the research process. 2. We lack the transportation means. Solution: apply for sponsorship and request the instructor to carry us in a car. In order to conduct the research slowly in Sijhou, we have applied for the sponsorship to food companies and purchased the bikes. In the farther journey, the in-campus teachers have to drive a car to pick us up. The process is laborious, but we can have another experience and unforgettable memory. 3. We lack the ability to make web page. Solution: request the director to help us. Our insufficient ability in webpage making has caused many difficulties and setbacks. Thus, the materials collected by us with efforts can be completely presented on the webpage. We finally know that various web pages we often see on normal days are not easy to be made. 4. We are inexperienced. Solution: draw out the interview outline in advance and then simulate and practice it. It is the first time for us to act as the journalists and we are a little restless and scared. In order to make us become more familiar with the interview, our teacher lets us draw out the interview questions in advance and even requires us to conduct the field simulation and interview and practice the interview skills and etiquette.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

We cannot forget our roots and we should understand our hometown to further become the assisting power of our hometown and continue this beautiful land.

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

Through Cyberfair project, we have understood the origin of this land – Sijhou, including geography and migration of ethnic groups. Besides, we have learned lots of things about the land where we live as well as the stories occurring on the land. Sijhou is the place where there are the most bank deposits in the whole Taiwan and it is the earliest to provide the nutritious lunch to children. However, it is not prosperous any longer and population outflow is serious. So it is necessary to let children know such stories and reality. In combination with government’s new curriculum outline, it is the trend of time to integrate the land memory into the current teaching materials. Thus, we will change the contents of this Cyberfair project into teaching materials and implement them in each class. Due to the implementation of Cyberfair project, we get closer to the community and the partners in the community also provide the rich resources and assistance for our research. Also due to the implementation of the research, children have improved the efficiency to search for the information through internet. In addition to the data from books, children can also analyze the geographical environment through internet in a real-time way. Through Cyberfair project, children can gradually understand how the website is constructed.

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

Our team has used many information tools and technologies to complete our Cyberfair project. We use the smartphones to keep contact with the team members and interviewees. During the interview process, we use the tablet PCs sponsored by enterprises to record the talk with the interviewees and the bikes sponsored by enterprises to visit the communities personally. We use USB to store the information required by the establishment of our website. We use the smartphones and tablet PCs to take pictures of the research. We use the computers to collect and edit the information to establish our website. We use the duplicator to print our resources, learning sheet and relevant documents. In addition to information equipment, there are also lots of precious resources in the libraries of school and communities. We have found the books written by the local cultural and historical works for Sijhou as well as the records of this big area – Qishan. In order to make the research contents become more concrete, we have visited 2 museums to have a clear understanding of the historical context.

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

(1) As for the people visiting our Cyberfair project website, we hope to play the role of “introducer” to make everyone know the story in Sijhou-- hometown of banana. (2) By means of making Cyberfair project, we hope that we can pay attention to the problem on the land, namely the population outflow is serious. We’d like to lead children to regain the confidence and replan this land. (3) Thanks to the making of Cyberfair project, we have contacted and interviewed many local people. During the process of interviewing the successful people of the local enterprises, we have also gained lots of secrets for success and meanwhile the local enterprises can pay attention to our research issues. When we interview the cultural and historical workers, we have collected the abundant materials and meanwhile the cultural and historical workers also report this plan to the media in the form of letter writing, so that more and more people can care for the issues of hometown together with us. This is the hard-won harvest. (4) After contacting so many people, we have found that the students, school and community have the same goal. Thus, we will become more powerful to conduct the research.

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

Before the commencement of Cyberfair project, we mentioned the future jobs we’d like to engage in. Most students want to leave the hometown because they think that only the old people and children are left in Sijhou. But we have understood what the local enterprises have contributed to this land through Cyberfair project and we also become more confident with our hometown. Moreover, through the process of interviewing the old people, we have understood the stories in Sijhou and also heard the expectation for us from the old people. We hope that the making of website can pass on the stories on this land and also hope that it can become the teaching material in the school to pass them to the junior schoolmates. We even hope that we can work together with community through website to make efforts to Sijhou. In the end, it is hoped that the communities all over the world facing the same problems with us can be inspired after seeing our website.

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

During the process of Cyberfair project, we’d like to show our thanks to many people. We have interviewed the King of luffa water in Sijhou-Mr. Cheng-chuan Kuo and president of Nanxin Community -Mrs. Su-ching Hsu Lin, and they make us understand the efforts they have made to the local place and also give us many suggestions. We have also interviewed the school volunteers Mrs. Shuang-hsiu Chang, Kan Chang and workmate Mr. Tzu-hao Cheng. Some of them are the Sijhou people and some of them are Sijhou daughters-in-law. Through the interview with them, we have known the historical stories in Sijhou. We also interview the new residents in Sijhou and they are also the part of Sijhou. We have understood that they can make our community become more complete when we plan the community development. We also would like to thank Mr. Chi-hsuan Liu who leads us to visit the communities and shares the community stories with us. Thus, it seems that we are personally on the scene during the research.

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

In this research, in addition to the better understanding of historical development vein, we can also perceive everyone’s sincere heart to the land in the interview, which also deepens the idea that we would like to stay here and do our bits to this land.