jeandavid.tw@gmail.com

The category of competition we participate is

Our school is located in Shihlin District of Taipei City. There is an important location near our school that has long been forgotten but is hidden with abundant vitality as well as the key witness to changes of Taipei, Sanjiaodu. It is located by Keelung Riverside and around Hougangqian of Chengde Bridge. It was named after the only Sanjiaodu Ferry on Keelung River at the time, serving ferries to Huludu, Jiantan and Dalongtung. Even today, you can still see the sampan berthing by the short and people who are trying to fish with red worms.

Simply put, dragon boat refers to the boat shaped like dragon but it is an indispensable part of our traditional festival customs. Apart from the dragon boat competition during the Dragon Boat Festival, the making of the dragon boat itself is a craft that has been passed down for over one hundred years. There are few people who can make dragon boats and we are fortunate enough to make an interview with the national-treasure of dragon boat, Master Liu, Qing-Zheng, in Sanjiaodu near our school. Known as Master Liu, the boat making process has been passed on by five generations of Master Liu’s family and he is skilled as making sampan, fishing boat or dragon boat. Our intention is to get to know and experience the production of dragon boats through him and to learn the philosophy of perseverance through his optimism and open-mind.

There is a computer room in our school that offers comprehensive equipment and internet connection, so that the students can catch up with advanced technology. There is a variety of free software that offered for students’ computer instruction. For this CyberFair, students can have access to free software even at home. The free collaborative platform provided by Google and the use of cloud hardware allow the CyberFair team to complete the research process without barriers either at school or at home, so that everyone can modify and discuss over the platform in addition to sharing information on cloud hardware. We all feel that the internet offers great convenience for this project.

Technical Breakthrough:
There are fifth and sixth graders in our team. We were not familiar with the computer operations or have studied some of the software. At first, we needed to complete the research process while familiarizing and using the new software. We all strengthened our skills in the software technology at home and in school. We also learned from our mistakes while asking the teachers some questions. Eventually, we have improved our computer skills substantially.

Cooperation of schedule:
At the beginning of when we formed the team, the teachers explicitly asked us to cooperate in schedule and we needed to give notice in advance. However, most of our team members have several works while participating in other clubs or school teams, so we could only meet during lunch break and Wednesday afternoons. We all tried to set aside other issues because Master Liu does not make dragon boat every day. Whenever the teacher got in contact with Master Liu and found out the time he was making the dragon boat, we all took the opportunity and met to carry the interview and observe the making of dragon boat.

Interview skills:
We are all participating in the CyberFair for the first time. We hesitated when we heard about the interview because we were unfamiliar with interview, not to mention our timidity in carrying it out. During the first interview, we were very passive would only talk when the teacher asked us to make questions. Moreover, Master Liu speaks in Taiwanese most of the time so we needed the teacher to translate for us. Nonetheless, after a few times, and under the instruction of the teacher and practice, we became braver in our interview and we could even speak with Master Liu in broken Taiwanese. We just had to make the first step and everything would have turned our alright.

Data Collection:
After we determined the topic, we contacted with Master Liu immediately and asked him for his scheduling in dragon boat making. It was a pity that now is not the time to make dragon boat and he will only start working after April. Right now, he only repairs dragon boats and prepare some work. Hence, data collection becomes an issue for us. Other than the information online, we also contacted with Shilin Civil Hall & Dongshan river and they were enthusiastic and willing to provide information and assist us with filming the dragon boat. Moreover, the son of Master Lius and Executive Director Chen, Bao-Yu offers some documentary information for us to search for relevant data.

We have learned a complete research process from this research on CyberFair. We thoroughly integrated and applied what we have learned in class, from discussion in search of topic, drafting research plan and progress, conducting in-depth interview, to presenting the entire outcome. We also applied and fully combined learning capabilities from other classes throughout the process.

Integration with Language Learning Course:
Although writing skills are quite important elements in research project based activities, the ability to organize and summarize the key content from the data collected of the interview content is the biggest breakthrough for us this time because we need to capture the key content from words and phrases using the listening, speaking, reading and writing skills to integrate all together. We might not have done a good job at the beginning but have improved our language proficiency following the progress of the project.

Integration with Mathematics Learning Course:
We use Excel to draw statistics charts and analyze from the questionnaire survey, understanding the acquaintance of schools teachers and students on knowledge related to dragon boat in addition to applying statistics and percentage learned from math.

Integration with Social Studies Course:
We gained in-depth knowledge on our own community, Sanjiaodu, through this project research and only then did we find out about such national-treasure personnel from our own community. We highly admire their efforts in traditional crafts and dedication to legacy. We have analyzed in-depth and understood our home, increasing our love for the land we live on.

Integration with Arts and Humanity Courses:
In the process of website making, we applied the drawing aesthetics learned from class to draw our body portraits using mouse and website titling. We also edited, modified and combined templates with our own photos to systematically present our own exceptional organization of the website.

In what ways did your students act as "ambassadors" and spokespersons for your Cyberfair project both on-line and in person.

Master Liu once said: “Do everything with full dedication and concentration.” Although he produced dragon boats to support his family during the early days, he is now making it to preserve this traditional craft. He gives full dedication when he is making the dragon boats with the intention for legacy and practical use. This is quite shocking for us because we were doing the project as requested and we have been greatly influenced by him. We then have different views and would like to pass on this belief of Master Liu. The websites gathering our words and phrases are meant to bring out the recognition of people on the legacy of dragon boat.

The majority of website text is interviewed, summarized, filmed and organized by the “Descendent of Dragon” team from Taipei Municipal Jiantan Elementary School,. We have informed the respondent of the interview content with consent for use on the project website. We have acquired some literature related to dragon boat through relevant units with agreement and assistance. Some information has been searched from online articles or publications that have been re-edited by our team members. Our team took the photos in personal and all citations were applied for permission from original units with marking on the website in respect for intellectual property right.

We also used a variety of freeware for writing and editing the photos. We have used software with correct attitude and reduced the inconvenience with software purchase.

We could also obtain interesting discovery every time we visited Master Liu. Our first discovery that that sitting at the head of dragon boat was highly difficult. We observed Master Liu neatly climbed up to the head of the dragon boat and posed for flag-grabbing position. We were screaming and climbed up the dragon head with difficulty, and then we could not get down. As young people, we became accustomed after trying for several times. During the second visit, we found out drawing the dragon boat lines was an art and Master Liu even let us paint the dragon boat. However, we could not quite get the know-how and even drew the lines outside the frame. We then discovered that the turning angle of the hand was the key to line drawing. Nonetheless, only few people could draw it well. On the third visit, we discovered the strength used for the tools. We could not complete the saw dust in one step when we practiced the planar tool. After taking turns in several people, we gradually developed the 1/4 of the skills of Master Liu. We could always discover the different techniques to over hundred tools available.

The most difficult part for this interview was to communicate with Master Liu in Taiwanese because many of us do not speak Taiwanese language and needed help from the teachers for translation. There were some questions which we could not get in-depth answers. To overcome this difficulty, we repeated listening to the content of the recording pen, asking our parents or the teachers for anything we could not get. Perhaps we then got used to the accent of Master Liu or we gained familiarity with him, strangely enough, we gradually understand the content of Master Liu’s speaking and eventually our academic performance for mother tongue at the final examinations also improved substantially.

We have learned to respect for comments brought up by others, express our own views, understand the importance of teamwork, take responsibility to complete our own tasks, and break through personal difficulties, through this project research. Most importantly, such sense of mission and attitudes in cultural legacy becomes one surprising memory for all of us.

• Students

Conducting interview with targets or relevant personnel
Photography
Recording of interview content
Editing written documents
Drafting interview outline
Writing progress report
Collecting data
Organizing and categorizing photos
Organizing and analyzing questionnaire data

55%

• Master Liu

Dragon boat product teaching
Dragon boat production techniques sharing
Story sharing
Providing dragon boat information for filming

20%

• Advisor

Coordinating work team meeting
Project research data conclusion and analysis
Project website advice and review
Drafting project name and plan
Computer skills instruction and counseling
Interview techniques instruction
Paper writing guidance

10%

• Director Wang, Ding-Ying

• Executive Secretary Chen, Bao-Yu
  
• Mr. Li, Jing-Kun
  

Providing information

5%

• Shilin District Civil Hall Director Luo, Li-Ling
• Yilan County Government
  Teacher Zhuang

Providing information

5%

• School teachers and students

5%