Project Narrative
Title: Female Academician
Category: 1. Local Leaders
URL: http://librarywork.taiwanschoolnet.org/cyberfair2015/victoriaic/index.html
Bibliography:
"Academia Sinica." Academia Sinica. Web. 19 Mar. 2015. <http://www.sinica.edu.tw/main_e.shtml>.
"中央研究院院士." - 维基百科，自由的百科全书. Web. 19 Mar. 2015. <http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/中央研究院院士>.
‘’They, are fabulous ：The pride of Taiwan．18 female scientists who change the world ”
“52 letters for young students from the Outstanding Female Scholars”
Interview of the academicians
Wang, Yu. "Revealing Chemical Bonds under Xrays." Scientific American 1 July 2011. Print.
United Daily News
Economic Daily News
NTU epaper
School: Victoria Academy High School
Douliu, Yunlin, Taiwan
Number of Students who worked on this Project: 10 students
Ages of Students who worked on this Project: 16-17 worked together to complete this CyberFair project
Date that Project was Finished: 2015. 02. 20
How many previous years has your school participated in CyberFair?:
They have participated in 2011, 2013, 2014.
Classes and Teachers: Vivian Cheng, Daphne Li, Chang Hsiang Yi / International Class Senior High
E-Mail contact: kirsten_c@hotmail.com
Our School's Web Site: http://www.victoria.ylc.edu.tw
1.Description of "Our Community"
Present-day Taiwan is a multi-cultural society made up of various people of different origins. However, the first immigrants who moved to Taiwan were mostly from mainland China, and they brought some of their old Chinese traditions to Taiwan along with them.
The Chinese had many unique traditions, but the most essential one is that they emphasize on modesty and the importance of showing respect to others. For another, the Chinese can be quite conservative, but this enables us not to forget where our roots are. The Taiwanese community had absorbed many of these good conventions and kept them well-practised until today. We consider our society to be a very friendly and peaceful one. Everyone is friendly to others, especially in remote areas where it is less densely populated, they knew each other very well and will sometimes share treats with neighbors.
All in all, every society has its own special cultures and traditions, but with the rapid global development of the world, some are now considered to be old-fashioned. What our ancestors used to believe may not be suitable to be used on the present-day society. For example, in the traditional Chinese societies, boys were considered to be superior to girls. Girls were not allowed to learn to read and right, and there was even a saying that ‘women with no knowledge is the sign of virtue’.
Nevertheless, with the advancement of the community and technology, many started to realize that women have powers no less than the men. The traditional views started to be broken by new perspectives; quickly Taiwan began to follow in on the trend of helping women gain their right positions in societies, and one of the most significant ones is the appearance of female academicians in the Academia Sinica.
2. Summary of Our Project
Write a brief overview of what your CyberFair Web Project is all about. Why is that topic important?
There were serious problems of gender inequality in the early times in Taiwan. Most academicians were males; females usually lost their opportunities due to the fact of the limitations in the research environments and families. The positions of academicians lasts for a whole lifetime, which is the highest honor in the Taiwanese academic field. New academicians will be elected every two years in the Academia Sinica. Our project topic this year is to study about the female academicians in Taiwan in order to introduce these distinguished academic leaders and to encourage everyone. We had interacted with the outstanding academicians closely, and had more understandings about their academic fields during the significant trip to Taipei.
3. CyberFair Theme
The main goal of the project this year is to introduce and to get deeper understanding of the three main academic areas, Life Sciences, Mathematics and Physical Sciences, and Humanities and Social Sciences. Our team accomplished the goal by doing research and interviewing the outstanding academicians who specializes in their different professional areas.
The research team had won first prize in both national and international school cyber fair the previous year, with the topic of a Local Business. This year with the joining of new members, which are the students from the International Class Senior High, the eight female academicians we have chosen will be studied and introduced by different students regarding to their aptitude. Furthermore, the students will translate the contents into English during the 2015 winter break, as well as designing and making the webpage. We hope the distinguished accomplishments of the honorable Taiwanese academicians can be showed and seen by all in the world, and provide role models of the female academicians to encourage everyone, especially females, to learn from them and express yourselves.
During the visit and interview to the Academia Sinica, we can see that females are the minority in the areas of Humanities and Social Sciences and the Mathematics and Physical Sciences. There are relatively more females in the Life Sciences. It is interesting to note that most females are performing well during their high school, in the subjects of languages and social sciences. However, the common limitation is that the stereotype of females in the society, causing restrictions in the future developments of the females. We are looking forward to the radical establishments of further gender equality in the people’s concepts.
4. 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
Our network environment: In order for us to connect to the National Academic Network, our school has to first enter the Yunlin County Educational Department, then connect to the National Chung Cheng University. Since the internet is being shared, the speed is not very fast, therefore during the researches; we sometimes need the support from the internets of smart phones.
5. Problems We Had To Overcome
Write a brief description of the barriers, including technical challenges, that you and your students faced during this project. Tell how you overcame or otherwise dealt with these obstacles.
We had faced and overcame several issues. At first when we were collecting data, we were faced with the problems of distance and time. There are only six Academicians in Taiwan, and they are busy in teaching, researching, executing, and family whilst us, the students in the International Class, have massive amounts of assignments and reports everyday. Due to the distance between Yunlin and Taipei, we can only rely on telephones, emails and the internet to contact with the Academicians. We met four Academicians in the dinner party the night before the opening ceremony of the conference. Two of them were nowhere to be found. However, after the annual conference in 2014, we finally met the rest of the Academicians and were able to gather and display the complete achievements of every Academician.
6. Our Project Sound Bite
Everyone in the school had gained a lot from the Cyberfair: for students, it is not just only a pile of hard-workingness, but also a lesson of cooperation, independence, stress balancing, and time management. For the school, it meant honor and an intellectual challenge. Together, the entire school had showed understanding of each other. Undoubtedly, the Cyberfair meant a lot to all of us. There were times when we were under a lot of pressure and stress and on the edge of breaking down, yet beautiful results can be seen immediately: organized research, clear information, perfect translations...etc., which were all very pleasant and encouraging. This experience had also taught us to be responsible for our own works – since the teachers were guiding us only.
7. How did your activities and research for this International Schools CyberFair Project support standards, required coursework and curriculum standards?
The goal of the school is to cultivate the students’ abilities of cooperative learning and independent studying. Chinese, Social Studies, Science and Technology, and also other related disciplines are combined within the project. Students had written and translated the content, which gains the skills in languages. Moreover, this is the first time for the students to design and make the webpage independently, in addition to understanding the importance and contributions of the academicians as well as their disciplines and virtues that lead to their success. The in-depth comprehension of the academicians’ biography, the challenges they met and their overcoming of them, not only involves professional academic knowledge, but also recognizing the common yet serious problems in present-day society and humanity. We believe that with a broader range, a more profound depth of knowledge, and an active, thoughtful, risk-taking attitude, everyone has the potential to change and make improvements in oneself, society, and even the world. We had learned the importance of promoting equality from all aspects so as to help those who wish to express and achieve their wildest dreams. The success of the academicians had represented the glory and honor in both the field of knowledge and virtues.
1) What information tools & technologies did you used to complete your CyberFair project?
Mobile phones- To connect to the wireless internets and for photo takings
Set up a Facebook group- For discussion and sharing information
Internet- Find information such as books and reports on the web pages of the Academia Sinica
Digital cameras- For pictures, videos, recording interviews, and photo shoots for creating web pages
Newspapers, magazines and books- Gather information from articles written by or relevant to the Academia Sinica
Notebook and computers (MacBook Air, Asus and Acer )- To record the information, research, data analysis and creating web pages
E-mails- To contact the female academicians and arrange time for interviews and visits
Scanners- To scan relative information for the research students to read
Computer software-
Adobe Muse CC
Adobe Photoshop CS6
Microsoft Word 2011
Visits to Academia Sinica- interviews and visits to Academia Sinica to gather first-hand information
2) In what ways did you act as "ambassadors" and spokespersons for your CyberFair project both on-line and in person?
In order to complement our project, and to increase the usage of first-hand resources, we decided to take a step forward and interview the Academicians in Academia Sinica. They were very willing to spent time talking to us and to provide us with their experiences and extra information.
3) What has been the impact of your project on your community?
All the Female Academicians in the Academia Sinica have a very high academic status in the world. However, due to their achievements, people would usually think that they are unreachable, especially in their academia fields. We had decided to introduce the female academicians, due to the fact that none of the mass media had done research on their achievements. Therefore, we had made up our mind to introduce the eight female academicians, their stories and their academic achievements in a clear, simple way.
4) How did your project involve other members of your community as helpers and volunteers?
We truly appreciate the eight Academicians. We appreciate the inspirations they had given and the generous supports. Special thanks to the president of the Academia Sinica, Mr. Chi Huey Wong, and the ex-president, Mr. Yuen Tseh Lee. They had arranged our interview flawlessly and gave us a warm welcome. And the last but not least, the assistance of Academia Sinica; without the help, we would not be able to accomplish what we had done.
5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)
Every Female Academician we researched is one of the most outstanding and successful ones in their specific academic fields. During the two-day academic trip to Taipei Academia Sinica, we met a lot of academicians, and they are all very warm and welcoming. Even though we are only normal senior-high school students, they are still willing to spent time talking and taking photos with us. One of the Academicians, Dr. Su-May Yu, even brought us to her lab, which really surprised and excited us.
Apart from the knowledge we had learned during the research studies, we also learned that, the more intelligent and successful you are the more humble you will have to be; it is never wrong to be modest and polite.