1. Description of Our Community
The New Taipei City is located in the Taipei Basin. The area surrounds Taipei City and Keelung City, forming a major metropolitan area. This place is Taiwan's largest municipality directly under the jurisdiction of the central government and is also a typical densely populated metropolitan city. Xindian District is under the jurisdiction of New Taipei City, located in the southern border of Taipei City. Since it is located in near Taipei City, so it is densely populated filled with small communities and parks.
2. Summary of Our Project
Interactive Playground Alliance is a very special organization. The mothers in the group try to let everyone know the important relationship between interactive playgrounds and children's physical and mental development. They do not care about any form of incentives as they try their best to do whatever they can to help the kids. We hope that by completing this special report, more parents and children will be able to understand the importance of parks and playgrounds. This report will explore in depth the origins and the organization and their mission through reading, films, on-site visits, interviews of the experts, and survey analysis.
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 in well equipped in information technology. The school hosts complete servers and have two computer lab. There is a computer in each classroom for the teachers. Most notably, almost the entire school has wireless Wi-Fi access. Due to the push of 'e-book in classes,” students in grades 5 and 6 participating in this competition are given their own Google Chrome Book for supporting the production of mind maps, data collection, audio recording, and cloud data exchange and cooperation.
4. Problems We Had To Overcome
1. Arranging visits: It is a challenge for us to collect the wide range of information for our needs in a very limited time while leaving a good impression for all respondents. We read through the information, sorted out the topics to be interviewed, simulated conditions that may be encountered during a visit in advance, and asked a teacher from the Academic Affairs Office to assist up in photography, recording and collecting first-hand information. So we can leave the interview with complete records for later use. 2. Issues with time and transportation: In order to minimize the impact on our homework, we arranged our visits as much as possible on the day of our club classes and holidays. We are grateful to the schools and the Academic Affairs Office for their assistance in organizing the interviews so that we can interview the mothers of Interactive Playground Alliance in the school face to face. 3. Teamwork: This CyberFair project requires the collective effort of everyone to complete and setup the website. However, when we actually started writing the project, we found out that it is very important to organize and categorize information. If we do not discuss and divide the work in advance, we would often write something similar and cannot really show our teamwork. The teachers help us to constantly modify the outline of our work, separating the content of our writing, and finally we were able to complete the tasks successfully.
5. Our Project Sound Bite
'Only when worked hard for our own convictions, will we be able to see our dreams and goals as we strive for the rights and interests of our children.'
As the famous Taiwanese filmmaker Po-lin Chi once said in his documentary, Beyond Beauty—Taiwan from Above, “Only after an effort for the homeland, then we can see happiness when we see Taiwan!” The Interactive Playground Alliance in their effort to promote interactive playgrounds of parks holds the same attitude as Mr. Chi in his fight for protecting the environment in Taiwan. Their passion and effort inspired us to look up to them; and by knowing a bit more about the Interactive Playground Alliance, we hope we can one day become a part of the change ourselves.
6. How did your activities and research for this CyberFair Project support standards, required coursework and curriculum standards?
Language Area: we ask for interview, interview, write about the topic, and share our opinion. Math Area: we gathered and analyze the data from our survey and present them through our analysis and charts. Social Area: we plan how to study and research the topic, plan what to ask in our interview, create a survey and organize the interview. Integrated Activities Area: we collect information from all the sources like interview, survey, websites, and books to help us complete this project. Science and Technology Area: we learn how the playground equipment, slides, swings, etc., influence children's physical and mental development. Information Technology Education Area: we learn how to conduct online research, design webpages, and use Google Sheets and other Google products. Our school's 'Makers Class': we learn and implement the research process, including brainstorming, KWHL, survey design, interviewing skills, research and organization, etc.
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