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Category: 7. Environmental Awareness
1.Description of Our Community：
WunDe Elementary
School of Fen-yuen Township, Chang-hua County, situated on Mesa Ba-gua, is at an altitude of 350 meters.
The average temperature is two degrees lower than that of the ground level.
Being the highest school in Chang-hua County , one can see the
scenery of Chang-hua, Tai-chung and Nan-tou counties from the third floor of
the school. Route 139, the national-standard bicycle trail, passes through
here. The Movement of Reshaping Urban and Rural Landscape- Creating a
Demonstration of Urban and Rural Landscape- miraculously transformed WunDe into
a shining jewel in Bagua Mountains in 2006.
TaChu Village, where WunDe Elementary
School is at, derived its name from “Ta Chu Wei”, a settlement where theold-time villagers planted bamboos around their houses to block strong winds
and burglars. Located on the southwest of Fen-yuen Township, Chang-hua County,
the village has an area of 3.76 square kilometers.. It borders Hsi-tou Village in the east, Nan-tou City in the south, Yuen-lin Township in the west and Chung-lun Village in the north.
TaChu Village as well as
Chung-lun and Tung-an villages in the north are all on peneplain of Mesa Ba-gua. At an
altitude of about 350-360 meters, it is the highest village in Chang-hua County. The villagers mainly reside on
the peneplain of the west; i.e., on Ta-chang
Road (Route 139). The warm and friendly villagers
live a simple life by farming. The mountains are home to pineapple and plums.
There are tourist attractions nearby, such as Old Water Trail and Pao-sheng Temple.
There are three major roads leading to the
outside world. One is Ta-chang
Road, which is also known as Route 139 and goes to
Chang-hua City in the north. Another one is Chiu-chien Road,
which runs east-west and was named after Chiu-chien Hsu, the seventh and eighth
township master, in memory of his contribution to building the road. The last
one is Yuen-tsao Road,
which is also known as Route 148 and passes through Kui-lun, the northeastern
part of the village.
2.Summary of Our Project：
This project focuses on creating TaChu
Village Green Map, on which ecological and cultural spots are clearly
identified and represented with global icons. This digital Green Map is
produced with the techniques of Information Technology and webpage-building. It
is a combination of IT, ecology and rural awareness. It is a practice of
bearing locality in mind and advancing into the future as our slogan says:
“Keep TaChu to Heart, Bear WunDe in Mind.”
This project planned field trips to regions
rich in natural ecology and local culture, and combined efforts of teachers,
students and parents in observing, exploring and recording the natural
ecological and cultural aspects of the campus and community. The result is
presented with digital Green Map. In the future, teaching materials on
ecological hiking trails will be created and long-term guide service and
training regarding ecological environment and local culture will be provided in
hopes of educating parents and children to become ranger guides and raising
children to be aware of the heritage of their township and ecological
environment.
3.Our Computer and Internet Access：Academic Broadband Optical-Fiber Network
At
school there is a computer room equipped with 20
computers for students to use. They are all connected to the Internet;
therefore, it is convenient to communicate online, look for information and print
documents. The staff each has a notebook to use and a basic command of using
the computer and editing web pages.
At
home only a portion of the team members have
computers to use and only a few of them are connected to the Internet due to
the fact that our school is located in a remote area in Chang-hua County and lacks information and resources. Therefore, most of the work is done at
school.
Wireless
Broadband at school allows students to use a PDA or
notebook to search for information on campus.
4.Problems We Had To Overcome：
WunDe Green-life Explore Team is vibrant
and enthusiastic. Even though we lack resources and information due to its
remote location, the students are keen to study and research. We have concluded
our obstacles and solutions as follows:
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Problems
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Overcome
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Lack of resources and information due to
its remote location.
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1. The
school endeavors to provide as much information as possible.
2. Seeking help
from colleges (Department of Mathematics and Graduate Institute of Statistics
and Information Science of National Chang-hua University of Education
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Enthusiastic
but ignorant team members
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1. Source of Knowledge:
Building
talents network
2. Internet
3. Visiting
institutions and interviewing experts
4. Reading
related books and doing group discussions
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Green Map is a new and unfamiliar
research topic in Taiwan.
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1. Asking for
advice from experts
2. Using Internet
3. Visiting
institutions and interviewing experts
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5. Our Project Sound Bite
“Green Map is no longer just a map but a
process that we went through and valued. What we really wanted to achieve was
to recover human attachment to land and the connection among people and it was
achieved in the process of exploring our surroundings step by step.” It was a
valuable experience to learn to become part of the natural and cultural
environment and to cherish and enjoy it.
6. How did your activities and research for this CyberFair Project support standards, required coursework and curriculum standards?
Corresponding to the goal of Schools Cyberfair
Expertise of Teachers
The participating teachers have formed a
small learning group and contributed their expertise in the process of discussing
with the students and cooperating with other teachers specialized in different
domains. They have had to familiarize ourselves with research techniques in
order to acquire professional knowledge for future research in related domains.
Moreover, the teachers have also enhanced their professional image and
dedication to achieve the goal of teacher-student collaboration as well as
mutual improvement.
Progress of Students
The nine-year education system reform
stresses a student’s capability in integrating knowledge of all subjects and
applying his abilities. The students have strengthened their abilities to
combine their knowledge of every subject and apply it on reading and making web
pages. What they have learned in this activity will help them learn independently
and increase their interest in future learning.
Concrete learning results as follows:
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Subjects
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Learning Results
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Social Studies
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1. Understanding the
current situations of local environment
2. Respect and care for
as well as reflection on environment
3. Field-trip
observation and interview
4. Building network
with experts outside school
5. Developing ability
of cooperative learning
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Science
and Technology
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1. Discussing
observations and taking notes
2. Building website
3. Developing abilities
to generalize, understand and analyze
4. Enjoying
communicating and sharing work with colleagues
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Language
Arts (Mandarin)
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1. Integrating
abilities to listen, speak, collect information, read and write
2. Applying knowledge
of electronic technology, organizing information of verbal and written words,
making detailed presentations
3. Increasing ability
to actively express ideas
4. Discussing content
of reading in a group and sharing thoughts
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Health and Physical Education
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1. Contributions of
nature to human beings
2. Visits and
explorations increase stamina and promotes physical and mental health
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Arts and Humanities
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1. Appreciation of natural
beauty
2. Different
expressions of art
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Ten Basic Abilities
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Children
have applied their ten basic abilities unconsciously on researching and
building web pages, which will result in considerable progress in their
abilities.
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