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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