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1. Description of Our Community
It only takes 15 minutes on foot from Shilin Junior High School to Taipei Northern Region Branch of Taiwan Power Company. There are many kinds of services including the information desk, extra high voltage substations, electricity maintenance engineering vehicles, and maintenance electricians in Taipei branch company. If starting from Shilin Junior High School by car toward different directions, we can separately reach Guishan Power Plant, Taipower Exhibit Center in Northern Taiwan, First and Second Nuclear Power Plant, Shimen Wind Power Plant, and Linkou Thermal Power Plant by one and half hour. Therefore, we really have great opportunities to explore these different types of power plants.
2. Summary of Our Project
There were 4 stages to do our research project. In the first stage, our project started knowing about the Taiwan power business development history from Qing Dynasty, Japanese Colonial Era to Kuomintang ruling time. In the second stage, we understood the main electricity generation in Taiwan which such as thermal, nuclear power generation, and increasingly common wind power facilities by data collection and actual interview. In the third stage, we learned how to save power efficiently and use it safely through visiting the substation and electricians reminding. The last stage would be able to picture the future of Taiwan smart grid and the prospect of Smart City.
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):
Our school lab provides computers and internet for us to search for informations on the topic. On holidays, we use our computers at home to organize materials. Line, facebook, and emails are useful and time-saving media for our teamwork.
4. Problems We Had To Overcome
We spent two semesters to finish our research project website because there were many difficulties we had to overcome. The most common problem was arranging the timetable for the visit. It is necessary to match the time of the respondent and avoid the activities in the school like the inter-class competitions and exams. However, we only have limited time to finish visiting. We usually spent an afternoon on going out of the school for the visit. After visiting, we needed to deal with our records and reports as soon as possible. Once we had any questions or problems, our teachers would give their advice and solve the problems together in the discussion. We had more sense of achievement under the team work when the content of project website was getting more and more.
5. Our Project Sound Bite
After joining this research project, we share the correct knowledge with family, friends, and even other strangers and hope more and more people understand the importance of energy to cherish hard-won electricity in the daily life.
6. How did your activities and research for this CyberFair Project support standards, required coursework and curriculum standards?
1.Language: We learned how to design the questionnaire, how to ask the questions, and how to train our speaking in the process of doing the research project. After the visit to the school, we also needed to deal with a lot of records and write the reports. 2.Mathematic: Our main topic is knowing about Taiwan Power company. Therefore, we designed the poster to promote the power safety and the power saving tips. We investigated the concepts and the habits of the visitors by questionnaire. We collected and calculated all questionnaire by Excel, and the result would be presented by figures. 3.Integrative Activities: Teamwork is a key to success. Some are good at drawing, some are good at writing in the group. The teacher would distribute to different workload according to everyone’s advantages to make everything easier and smoother. 4.Environmental Education: Through this event, we realized that Taiwan's energy is so lacking, and fuel depends on imports. In order to generate electricity, Taipower has done some things that people are worried about, such as building a thermal power plant and using nuclear energy, so the government strictly monitors the safety of nuclear power plants and nuclear waste, and monitors the air quality. The government also sets laws to reduce environmental pollution and develop green energy. 5.Science and Technology: We visited different power plants and recognized the principles of different power generation methods. We would like to know whether water discharged from nuclear power plants will affect marine ecology, and whether the thermal power plants lead to the air pollution. In addition, we also found the possible environmental impacts of the wind power generation which is one of green energy. We even knew how to use hi-tech products to record a whole research content totally.
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1) What information tools & technologies did you used to complete your CyberFair project?
Our school provide almost all of the tools we need for this project, like computers, a digital camera, a video recorder, a printer, a scanner, etc. Computers and the internet are the most valuable tools for us because we used these tools and authorized software to organize documents and films and make the web page for our project. We also used smartphones to make appointments with interviewees and contact with tour guides and Beitou residents. In addition, the digital camera and the video recorder are quite useful because they captured valuable moments of the investigation.
2) In what ways did you act as "ambassadors" and spokespersons for your CyberFair project both on-line and in person.
Taiwan needs to face the challenge of energy transformation and the situation of low power supply. Everyone likes to enjoy the convenience of electricity, but everyone often ignores the safety of electricity and the power saving. Therefore, we searched a lot of data related to energy and electricity to learn more about Taiwan Power company by using school club activity time. We promoted how to save power and introduced the electricity safety knowledge to everyone during School Anniversary. In addition to designing posters, we also set up a petition to save energy, and hoped more people would practice the concept of saving electricity. In order to know about Taiwan Power company, we arranged many visits, experience events, and interviews to understand their works and challenges deeply. We would post the results of interview on the website by connecting the school link to make the public know why they could enjoy a convenient power supply because of the effort from a group of people in silence.
3) What has been the impact of your project on your community?
We knew nothing about Taiwan’s energy before doing this research. However, we finally had common knowledge about Taiwan's current power generation methods, power supply situation, and household electricity safety and energy conservation after collecting, sorting out information and visiting those power-related units. We understood that there are three fuels of thermal power generation which are coal, oil and natural gas. Although Taiwan's nuclear power plants have many safety measures to avoid the earthquake and tsunami crisis, even they haven’t been used anymore, it must be very cautious to process the nuclear waste. Moreover, everyone is counting on the green energy development of wind power generation, but the unstable generation of renewable energy is a huge challenge so far. The more we know, the more important thing we think is to save electricity because electricity is really hard to come by!
4) How did your project involve other members of your community as helpers and volunteers?
We set up the stand and designed the poster of electricity safety and power saving for promoting how to practice the concept of saving power in daily life on school anniversary. A lot of teachers, students and visitors came to our stand and did the questionnaire. We introduced how to use the home appliances safely. Moreover, Taipower staffs were so friendly to explain everything and answer any kind of question for us in patience when we visited there. Even if we couldn’t get to the engineer on site, they answered our questions by e-mail in order to make us completely understand what they have done for Taiwanese daily life and concerned about Taiwan energy development. With their support and encouragement, we only expect everyone remembers to save power every moment.
5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)
We were very impressed by the visit of the smart grid display in Taipower Building. In the smart home display, the home appliances such as air conditioners, fans, lights, can be controlled by the user’s smartphone. If the user forgets to turn off the lights or the air-con when he is out, he can control it even many miles far away from home. It’s amazing! The smart meter can transmit the power usage status of the home to the user's mobile phone in time, which can be compared with the previous power consumption. It will remind us to save electricity if we use it too much. Another exhibition was amazing, too. We could experience the work of the power dispatcher by AR technology. We never knew the stable power supply needed many people to work behind. At the last visit, we went to Taipower maintenance training center in Xinbeitou. We watched the maintenance staff climb up to the top of electric pole and down. We realized the fear of height until it was our turn to climb up the electric poles. The Taipower personnel must not only overcome the height, but also carry out high-risk maintenance work. They really got our respect. Furthermore, we should appreciate their hard work for bringing the convenience of electricity life.
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View our CyberFair Project
(Project ID: 8453)
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