When the life is settled, Badland is an island of the blessed.

Project Overview

Our competition category:Environmental Awareness

Description of our community：

The Transformation of Longxing Community Project was formed by teachers and students in Tainan Municipal Wenhua Elementary School. Our school is located in the district of Guiren, which is a bustling area in Tainan City. The district of Longci, situated near our area, however, was just separated into two areas: Lungghe Community and Longxing Community as a result of facing problems that young adults chose business as their priority career instead of agriculture, which caused the high rate of outward migration. Longxing Community is located in the southern of Longci District, which is near Neimen Distric, and Tianliao Distric in Kaohsiung City, and its administrative district concludes four villages: Neopu, Lungchuan, Daping,and Lecao.

Recently, Soil and Water Conservation Bureau Branch in Tainan has promote progressively the regulation and verdant plantations in the Bi-Tzu-Gou Creek watershed. Nowadays, the earth dams and embankments are successfully combinated with Neopu Mudstone Area, becoming an unique landscape and offeringenthralling vistas, which is absolutely different from the desolate landscape of Moon World.

Surrounding the Neopu Mudstone Area are facilitated with pathways, ecological reservoir, bad-land in Neopu mudstone, sightseeing pavilion, ecological interpretation, local gourment, bamboo weaving, clay sculpture, a local cultural exhibition hall which is an important site for outdoor activities to learn about the bad-land in Neopu mudstone and soil and water conservation.

Project summary：

Implementation plan

Our learning task

1. project implementation
2. Executing Tasks
(1) Choose Our competition category and design the topics of this study
(2) Collect all the related information about Neopu Mudstone Area in Longxing Community
(3) Set the related problms about Neopu Mudstone Area to ask for docents when visiting the Neopu Mudstone Area
(4) Apply to the local tour guide offered by the manager of Longxing Community as our docent and record this activity
(5) Ask related information about Neopu Mudstone Area
(6) Visit the Longxing Community and the Neopu Mudstone Area to do investigations and take notes.
(7) collect and organize all the information into presentations and report to our groups.
(8) Gathering all the information and make it into our cyberfair project.
Task 1: Design our study topic and collect literature reviews
(1) Using the internet to know the structure of mudstone
(2) Have online discussions about how to do the soil and water conservation
(3)Collecting information, planning ecotourism route and staying spots, and using Google Earth to preview the image of our route and make sure the schedule of our visiting.
Task 2: Make a field investigation
Spot 1: Visiting the ecological reservoir
Questions: How do the local residents design the ecological reservoir which can prevent the flood?
Spot 2: Knowing biological engineering on the badland
Questions: How does the overflowing water spill out from the ecological reservoir?
Spot 3: Going on a biological study tour
Questions: How do the local residents revive Longxing Community under this kind of badland environment?
Task 3: Visual Narrative
(1) Easy video edit
Make related presentations about badland mudstone and soil and the water conservation by Powerpoint, and make the powerpoint form of presentations into videos. The method is to use Wink software to transform the photos into dynamic videos.
(2)Finish the website of our project
Task 4: Sharing and Responses
(1) Information integration
Choose a performer to report “Interpretation on Mudstone”

Make a draft of our project: design the topic and start to do it

Make a schedule: make sure we can managem time well

Make a plan of our field investigation: decide the date of our field investigation and discuss the details.

Design the content of our project website: It really took a long time and many times of negotiation to discuss and post our project onto the website.

Problems We Had to Overcome

Obstacles

Solutions

1

Technology of making web pages:Since our groups are fourth or fifth grade students, we know less things about making a website. The only thing we can do by ourselves is using Microsoft Office Software to insert tables and photos, and to adjust text format. However, it’s not enough for us to make a design an awesome website. We need to learn hard.
Our teacher taught us to use the advanced features of PowerPoint2010 to transform PowerPoint into pictures and apply them into Web templates which has been set well. Meanwhile, it’s very convenient for us to post our files onto the Web templates which has been fixed already to solve our obstacles when making a HTML website. With this method of making a website, we got confident and satisfaction.

2

Time management:
We didn’t have sufficient time as we had so much works to be done before the tour to Neopu, so we failed to collect all the production. Everyone was in such a hurry.
Our instructors, Teacher Chiu-Huan Hsu and Teacher Chi-Hung Chang, discussed a program with us to decide to use the time after school on Friday as our team time not only to learn the knowledge of mudstone, but also to learn the techniques to edit photos and design web pages so that we could complete our tasks.

3

Writing skills
There is still room for our writing skills because we found the responses and the research recordings we wrote were not fluent or not enough words to express our thinking.
The features of social network and the concept of Mind map help us enhance our thinking ability. We even made a lot of revision on the same sentences for many times by discussion on social network and the method of Mind map to make what we said and what we wrote more logical and clearer. Also, we set our own workshop and had a meeting once a week for half an year. We used the time at our workshop to present our performance, to decide our homework, and to take notes of our discussion. Therefore, we made a lot of progress on writing.

4

Professional knowledge
Biological engineering is such a difficult concept and method for us that we spent a lot of time to understand it.
In this activity, we were puzzled and confused of the term “Biological Engineering” when searching related information. And then, we planned some learning tasks to solve our problems step by step, for example, we had several times of field investigation to collect our questions. In this way, we were happy that we worked it out.

5

Different backgrounds
Our team time was limited since we came from different grades (4th, 5th) and different classes.
Thanks to the modern technology, we could use social network, like e-mail and Facebook, to discuss our project and to upload some files to a certain websites with groups and our parents. So we could observe and learn from each other’s work, even our parents and Longxing Community could use that way to communicate with our groups.

Our Project Sound Bite

Instructor:
Hsu,Chiu-Huan
My main work is to assist children to hold every kind of meeting and provide them with technology. The members of our group are all volunteers who also encouraged their friends to join the cyber fair. As an instructor, except for staying with them and teaching them, the most important thing is to give them confidence and comfort. Due to the fact that children didn’t have any ability to design the web pages and they were also very poor at editting photos, they didn’t believe they could accomplish their dreams, so we decided to go on step by step in an easy way. For example, in order to solve their technological problems, I provided them with Web templates to let them post their files without further editting. They had been experiencd everything from assigning the tasks, set the plans, made field investigations, interviewing, finishing the web site, to delivering presentations. The whole process was hard but happy for them, and they even told me that they would like to have a second chance!

Instructor:
Chang,Chi-Hung

I’m responsible for connecting the groups, planning the workshop, communicating with children’s parents. It’s hoped that the achievement of this project could arouse the public concerning about mudstone to bring the life back to mudstone and giving hope to the loacl residents. Moreover, by means of the project, we intend not only to increase the public awareness of the soil and water conservation of mudstone, but also to arouse the socail actions to protect the environment.

Cai, Wan-Ting

Joining the cyber fair made me learn something that I hadn’t known before, such as making PowerPoint and web pages. I also learned not only the knowleddge of conservation, but also the history of the Neopu area. It was really hard to imagine that the green field was used to be bald.

I am resposible for sharing our study results with school brothers and sisters through our presentation and our website, telling them the story that the local residents strivived for protecting the environment. I really hopes that I could join the cyber fair again, which kept me learing more, even better than my classmates.

Class 502:
Hong,Yu-Yin
Generally, I am not that kind of person who likes to cooperate with others, which made me become a lonely one. Through this project, however, I found it was fun to work with others. Although it was tough sometimes, all of us tried hard to figure out a way by brainstorming. I never thought that would be such an amazing experience that we could learn from the process of working together and exploring the field. It was awesome!

Hu,Yin-Xuan

In spite of spending so much time on searching information, I still couldn’t realize the ecological engineering. With the clear interpretation by the guide Aunt Zhang, we gathered related information to know the meaning and the functions. This activity changed my way of learning from the books into going outside to experience everything and find something out. Moreover, I used to be afraid to speak in front of others, but I felt less nervous when I knew everyone took turn to go on the stage. This was definitely a special and happy experience. I learned a lot and had a wonderful memories.

Zhou, Jiang-Qi

I learned a lot from joining the cyber fair. I started to think some questions, for example: Why is it necessary to do? Why was mudstone area called “Badland”? How could a desolate place change into a green field? I didn’t really understand anything about mudstone and theecological engineering. With a clusters of questions and discussions with our groups, I finally found that the badland which is easy to get eroded could be transformd into a breathtaking view by the means of ecological engineering and the efforts made by the Soil and Water Conservation Bureau and local residents. It was magical that the badland grows green continually.
In the Neopu area, I had seen unknown plants, which made me know that we should try our best to protect the nature and realize the importance of trees, flowers, and grasses since they are indispensable parts of our nature, so we should stop the deforestation to protect the nature.

Huang, Shi-Han Badland was a bald place, but it could become a leisure and relaxing place with many people’s effort.  When we arrived at the Neopu area, I found our answers on the interpretive signs, so we felt satisfied and went home. After that, we collected and organized our all information to discuss and make our presentations. Thanks to our group, I found myself make progress although I knew I was a slower and needed a lot of improvement in the ability to technology.

Zhuo, Mu-Xuan

We needed to gather numerous materialsand make Powerpoint before visiting the Neopu area. I was really exhausted at first, but I turned to be satisfied when finishing the project. And it was amazing to the the mudstone area was full of growth of grasses.
It was heard before that here was used to be desolate. With ecological engineering, here now is beautiful. I realized every method of ecological engineering was very effective. Suddenly, I felt in love with our mother nature and thought everyone should be a master of the earth to protect the environment.

Lyu,Bai-YI

   I am responsible for introducing the vegetation and editting the PowerPoint. I also needed to record the field investigations. When I saw everyone worked so hard, so I did my best to organize pieces of presentation to make sure it would be good to upload these files onto the web pages. I had watched a TV program about conservation, and I knew exalty the importance and related information by joining the project. Also, I found the badland could turned into a beautiful place by undergoing the ecological engineering.

Lyu,Bai-Rui
  In our group, I was the youngest one who can’t not be ignored. Whenever our groups had a discussion, I drawed our plans into drafts of flow chart or mind map to make a record of our discussion and assign our tasks to individuals. With a clear schedule, we could finish our jobs as we expected and I could know what to do and how to do. And It’s also helpful to make my learning more efficient. What’ more, I found my confidence in drawing because some of pictures in this project were made by myself and turned in to digital files by a scanner or a camera. When I saw my works on net, I was so fullfilled!

Obstacles		Solutions
1	Technology of making web pages:Since our groups are fourth or fifth grade students, we know less things about making a website. The only thing we can do by ourselves is using Microsoft Office Software to insert tables and photos, and to adjust text format. However, it’s not enough for us to make a design an awesome website. We need to learn hard.	Our teacher taught us to use the advanced features of PowerPoint2010 to transform PowerPoint into pictures and apply them into Web templates which has been set well. Meanwhile, it’s very convenient for us to post our files onto the Web templates which has been fixed already to solve our obstacles when making a HTML website. With this method of making a website, we got confident and satisfaction.
2	Time management: We didn’t have sufficient time as we had so much works to be done before the tour to Neopu, so we failed to collect all the production. Everyone was in such a hurry.	Our instructors, Teacher Chiu-Huan Hsu and Teacher Chi-Hung Chang, discussed a program with us to decide to use the time after school on Friday as our team time not only to learn the knowledge of mudstone, but also to learn the techniques to edit photos and design web pages so that we could complete our tasks.
3	Writing skills There is still room for our writing skills because we found the responses and the research recordings we wrote were not fluent or not enough words to express our thinking.	The features of social network and the concept of Mind map help us enhance our thinking ability. We even made a lot of revision on the same sentences for many times by discussion on social network and the method of Mind map to make what we said and what we wrote more logical and clearer. Also, we set our own workshop and had a meeting once a week for half an year. We used the time at our workshop to present our performance, to decide our homework, and to take notes of our discussion. Therefore, we made a lot of progress on writing.
4	Professional knowledge Biological engineering is such a difficult concept and method for us that we spent a lot of time to understand it.	In this activity, we were puzzled and confused of the term “Biological Engineering” when searching related information. And then, we planned some learning tasks to solve our problems step by step, for example, we had several times of field investigation to collect our questions. In this way, we were happy that we worked it out.
5	Different backgrounds Our team time was limited since we came from different grades (4th, 5th) and different classes.	Thanks to the modern technology, we could use social network, like e-mail and Facebook, to discuss our project and to upload some files to a certain websites with groups and our parents. So we could observe and learn from each other’s work, even our parents and Longxing Community could use that way to communicate with our groups.

Instructor: Hsu,Chiu-Huan	My main work is to assist children to hold every kind of meeting and provide them with technology. The members of our group are all volunteers who also encouraged their friends to join the cyber fair. As an instructor, except for staying with them and teaching them, the most important thing is to give them confidence and comfort. Due to the fact that children didn’t have any ability to design the web pages and they were also very poor at editting photos, they didn’t believe they could accomplish their dreams, so we decided to go on step by step in an easy way. For example, in order to solve their technological problems, I provided them with Web templates to let them post their files without further editting. They had been experiencd everything from assigning the tasks, set the plans, made field investigations, interviewing, finishing the web site, to delivering presentations. The whole process was hard but happy for them, and they even told me that they would like to have a second chance!
Instructor: Chang,Chi-Hung	I’m responsible for connecting the groups, planning the workshop, communicating with children’s parents. It’s hoped that the achievement of this project could arouse the public concerning about mudstone to bring the life back to mudstone and giving hope to the loacl residents. Moreover, by means of the project, we intend not only to increase the public awareness of the soil and water conservation of mudstone, but also to arouse the socail actions to protect the environment.
Cai, Wan-Ting	Joining the cyber fair made me learn something that I hadn’t known before, such as making PowerPoint and web pages. I also learned not only the knowleddge of conservation, but also the history of the Neopu area. It was really hard to imagine that the green field was used to be bald. I am resposible for sharing our study results with school brothers and sisters through our presentation and our website, telling them the story that the local residents strivived for protecting the environment. I really hopes that I could join the cyber fair again, which kept me learing more, even better than my classmates.
Class 502: Hong,Yu-Yin	Generally, I am not that kind of person who likes to cooperate with others, which made me become a lonely one. Through this project, however, I found it was fun to work with others. Although it was tough sometimes, all of us tried hard to figure out a way by brainstorming. I never thought that would be such an amazing experience that we could learn from the process of working together and exploring the field. It was awesome!
Hu,Yin-Xuan	In spite of spending so much time on searching information, I still couldn’t realize the ecological engineering. With the clear interpretation by the guide Aunt Zhang, we gathered related information to know the meaning and the functions. This activity changed my way of learning from the books into going outside to experience everything and find something out. Moreover, I used to be afraid to speak in front of others, but I felt less nervous when I knew everyone took turn to go on the stage. This was definitely a special and happy experience. I learned a lot and had a wonderful memories.
Zhou, Jiang-Qi	I learned a lot from joining the cyber fair. I started to think some questions, for example: Why is it necessary to do? Why was mudstone area called “Badland”? How could a desolate place change into a green field? I didn’t really understand anything about mudstone and theecological engineering. With a clusters of questions and discussions with our groups, I finally found that the badland which is easy to get eroded could be transformd into a breathtaking view by the means of ecological engineering and the efforts made by the Soil and Water Conservation Bureau and local residents. It was magical that the badland grows green continually. In the Neopu area, I had seen unknown plants, which made me know that we should try our best to protect the nature and realize the importance of trees, flowers, and grasses since they are indispensable parts of our nature, so we should stop the deforestation to protect the nature.
Huang, Shi-Han	Badland was a bald place, but it could become a leisure and relaxing place with many people’s effort. When we arrived at the Neopu area, I found our answers on the interpretive signs, so we felt satisfied and went home. After that, we collected and organized our all information to discuss and make our presentations. Thanks to our group, I found myself make progress although I knew I was a slower and needed a lot of improvement in the ability to technology.
Zhuo, Mu-Xuan	We needed to gather numerous materialsand make Powerpoint before visiting the Neopu area. I was really exhausted at first, but I turned to be satisfied when finishing the project. And it was amazing to the the mudstone area was full of growth of grasses. It was heard before that here was used to be desolate. With ecological engineering, here now is beautiful. I realized every method of ecological engineering was very effective. Suddenly, I felt in love with our mother nature and thought everyone should be a master of the earth to protect the environment.
Lyu,Bai-YI	I am responsible for introducing the vegetation and editting the PowerPoint. I also needed to record the field investigations. When I saw everyone worked so hard, so I did my best to organize pieces of presentation to make sure it would be good to upload these files onto the web pages. I had watched a TV program about conservation, and I knew exalty the importance and related information by joining the project. Also, I found the badland could turned into a beautiful place by undergoing the ecological engineering.
Lyu,Bai-Rui	In our group, I was the youngest one who can’t not be ignored. Whenever our groups had a discussion, I drawed our plans into drafts of flow chart or mind map to make a record of our discussion and assign our tasks to individuals. With a clear schedule, we could finish our jobs as we expected and I could know what to do and how to do. And It’s also helpful to make my learning more efficient. What’ more, I found my confidence in drawing because some of pictures in this project were made by myself and turned in to digital files by a scanner or a camera. When I saw my works on net, I was so fullfilled!