◎ OVERVIEW

    1. Category：Local Leaders

    2. Description of the local community：
      　　Sansia, that was a simple village in 1960s, is the place Buteo Huang was born. Buteo Huang ran around the country field and had lots of fun there. He was contented and happy. The spacious and natural countryside environment was the hometown of kite art master Buteo Huang.
      　　From Sansia town at Taipei County to Sansia district at New Taipei County, Sansia is continually changing nowadays. Under the construction led by the locals, the houses with various styles along Sansia Old Street have been filled with traditional hand-made culture creative industries that bring the new outlook to old buildings.
      　　Buteo Huang’s studio locates in Sansia that is a place full of nostalgia and innovation. He has devoted himself for over three decades to pursue innovations out of the tradition. He creates multiple appearances and infinite possibilities of kites with the local and global perspective. From International kite festival in Shihmen to the one in Spain, from individual exhibition of art kites in Holland to the special exhibition in Kaohsiung, teacher Huang connect Sansia, Taiwan, and the world via stings of kites.


      3. location of Sansia
      From : Wikipedia      		 old streets of Sansia
      From : Website of Council of Agriculture      		 Baking yams
      From : Xuechao Website

    3. Summary of Our Project：
      　　Generally speaking, kites probably are something for leisure time for people. For creators, however, kites create a fantastic field where they are willing to devote themselves for decades. Internationally famous kite creator Buteo Huang contributes himself to the creation of the kite art. Once he spent five years successfully flying a nautilus kite. We agree on his idea that ‘tradition and modernity actually come from your experience of life and knowledge, and I want to interpret our traditional kites with modern art concepts.’ We are touched all the more by the fact that he wants to present a new horizon of vision art by appropriating the local-style techniques, and bring Taiwan onto the international stage via kites. Our inquiry questions are as below.
      　　(1) What is the driving force that teacher Huang has devoted himself to the kite art for three decades?
      　　(2) How does teacher Huang integrate the local culture into kite creations and introduce Taiwan to the world?
      　　(3) Did teacher Huang face challenges in the creating process? How did he overcome those obstacles?
      　　(4) What does teacher Huang suggest to those who have dreams?
      　　Our research methods included observations, interviews, and textual analysis. We visited teacher Huang’s studio, and observed his creation process and works. We interviewed teacher Huang to explore his ideas and creativity. We studied relevant materials of teacher Huang, including books, webpage, reports, and so on.
      We built our research process and outcome into the webpage , The Wings of Formosa--Buteo Huang. We hope to preserve this traditional folk art and record the creation process. Further, through the power of the Internet, we hope to let people around the world know the beauty and preciousness of Taiwan modern kite art.

    4. Computing Environment：
      　　Our school has two well-appointed computer classrooms, and the ration of internet connection is one hundred percent. The wireless coverage is over ninety percent. Through the internet authorization from Department of Education, wireless is available on campus. Our school itself is a local area network. We can connect to the Taiwan Academic Network through a special optical fiber network. On school days, the computer classrooms are open to students during the lunch break and after class. In clustered classrooms of third till sixth grade, there are six computers for students to search information. The percentage of students’ household having computers is over ninety, and internet access is over eighty. Our school also teaches students of fifth and sixth grade to learn blog building. Students can transfer learning materials via class websites or personal blogs when they are home.


      5. computing environment at home computing environment at home computing environment at school

    5. Challenges：
      (1) Everyone’s schedule：
      　It was difficult to make an appointment with teacher Huang due to his tight schedule. He had never received children’s interviews. On the day before the Chinese New Year eve, he accepted our invitation and spent whole afternoon telling us the stories about his dream and journey of kites. Meanwhile, it was not easy to gather everyone for meetings during the winter vacation. We thus often discussed and exchanged materials over phone or on the Internet.
      (2)Interview skills:
      　It was not easy for elementary students to do interviews and write notes. We gradually made progress, however, via mock interviews offered by our parents and analyses of transcription and videos.
      (3) Complexity of expertise:
      　This was the first time we joined the International CyberFair. We faced problems and frustrations in the process of writing webpage programs, arranging layouts, standardizing formats and sizes of images. We can only make progress from trial by error. We seized breaks in school to ask fellows and teachers, and learned from our computer teacher on holidays. Regard of some harder and more completed skills, however, we can only learn by doing.
       (4)Miscellaneous tasks:
      　The project values not only the outcome but process recording. There were many challenges from conducting interviews in the beginning, writing memos, taking videos, writing programs, editing webpage, to testing webpage in the end. We re-did the webpage thoroughly just because everyone didn’t agree on the colors of the first version. We have learned establishing schedule plans, controlling progress based on the proposal, and successfully designing webpage via cooperation. Further, we have learned taking the minutes after the important discussions, which was served as the basis of following tasks.
      (5)Final-stage integration:
      　 It became more difficult as the deadline was closer. The most challenging part was to synthesize materials and present the webpage in the final stage. We still couldn’t integrate everything in the end even though we communicated via Facebook, emails and phones all the time for the work. In the end we were in agreement on how to do after fully expressing and discussing everyone’s opinions. We appealed to our leader’s decision or leading teachers’ assistance when few questions that we can’t figure out came up. The project has been the most large-scale homework we have ever done, and also the lesson we have learned most.

    6. Reflections：
      　　For all team members in the kite project precious, we have gained a lot by participating in the International CyberFair. We have longed for putting what we learned from the computer courses we have being taking since the third grade. Even though our school provides abundant technology resources, we can only produce some individual and simple works because of limitations in time and space and absence of team-work opportunities. It was great that we had a chance to fully display our talents this time. Our team members have become closer as well. All these have become sweet memories of our childhood.
      　 We realized in advance that we had to give up most leisure time during the winter vacation for the International CyberFair competition due to the tight schedule. We enjoyed holding meetings, collecting materials, and designing webpage before the New Year’s Eve and even during the Lunar New Year because of the driving force supporting us. One was from our leading teachers. They not only led us to visit Huang’s studio during holidays, but also were very concerned about us all the time. They provided us lots experiences and thought, and solved our problems. The other was from our parents and family, which we owed a great deal of gratitude. They have supported and encouraged us without any conditions. Our parents are truly our breath of life.
      　 Teacher Huang’s effort and persistence proved the famous saying ‘you reap what you sow.’ We experienced the beauty of the art of creative kites and newly understood the unique definitions of ‘success’ that teacher Huang holds. Even though participating in the competition was energy-consuming, it meant lots for us because what we experienced in the process has broadened our horizon and widened our knowledge.


photograph with Buteo Huang Buteo Huang encourages us chasing our dream
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