Project Elements

1. How did working on this research project and participating in the Cyber Fair this year help with your school’s teaching and curriculum needs?

This contest had allowed us to step outside the campus, work as a team and thoroughly learn about the conservation value of this historic heritage from zero. We also hope our project would help more people to give weight to the reutilization of aging, historic neighborhoods, to learn about how to give a new-born meaning to an old building, as well as to further understand the painstaking process. With the instruction of our supervisor, each member in the team discovered his/her potential as a photographer while constantly taking pictures with cameras and smartphones. In the meantime, we continued to collect new materials, and incorporated the information we’d found into our project using the word processing skills acquired in class. We also learned about the operation and application of various hard- and software, such as website design, image processing, typesetting, and scanning. When working on a website, editing videos, adjusting image sizes and typesetting are all very important details. We’ve applied all our inspiration, creativity and skills learned in school on this project and website.

2. How was this research project combined with the school’s, the school district’s and the national curriculum guidelines?

Our curriculum includes website design, video and audio processing, special effects, data processing and analyzing, and we made the best use of the knowledge and skills acquired in class when working on this project. Furthermore, we learned about interpersonal interaction, communication skills and a responsible attitude. While conducting the interviews, we also learned how to design the questions in order to acquire the information we needed. Also, we took great courage when asking visitors to fill up our questionnaire. All these have shaped the beginning of our growth. Each of us has been learning how to learn.

3. What skills have you acquired?

When working on this project, we learned many things that weren’t taught in school. More importantly, we learned how to create a web page we want by searching for the needed materials among endless files, organizing, categorizing and typesetting them, as well as working on the sizing, composition and the enhancement of images, labeling, inserting inline frames and brushing. We learned that it is important to plan ahead before an interview, to take notes and record it, in order to present all the information collected. These tasks can’t be achieved by one person but only by dividing them among all the team members. Therefore, we’ve realized that cooperation and coordination between team members are what contribute to the success of this project.

4. What concept and method of teamwork did you practice or adopt?

This contest has taught us the importance of solidarity and teamwork. A perfect production can only be achieved when each member expresses his or her ideas and opinions, and devoted his or herself wholeheartedly to work effectively and coordinately. The structure of the website was the result of discussions that involve every member. As tasks were divided among all members, each person had his or her own responsibility and everyone was important as well as indispensable. Efficiency was also greatly improved since the tasks were equally distributed. Every member started with collecting and organizing materials before incorporating the resources into the website. We’ve all grown a lot during this process, and this contest has helped us learn more about ourselves, become responsible for what we do, and develop a responsible, hardworking attitude. The creation of the website also involved constant discussions and revisions, which was a test for us and has allowed us to improve both our carefulness and patience.

5. How was this research project combined with the needs of your school or class?

This was our first time working on such a research project. All the team members were classmates, and when we encountered any questions or difficulties, we consulted our supervisors. Through discussions and trying to overcome the challenges, we learned to face them bravely and improved our problem-solving ability. We applied the software operating skills learned in class to the project, and acquired knowledge not mentioned in our textbooks as we left the campus. The field trip further allowed us to learn about local cultures and customs, which not only relaxed us but also helped us forget about school pressure. We feel that while working on this project, we were able to not only absorb new information, but also recharged ourselves for future studying. This contest has been a great practice for us, learning to apply what we learn in class to the project and present them with different ideas. This is a very unique combination for us.

6. What role does your school play in the local neighborhood?

Occupying approximately 3.3 acres, National Jhongli Commercial High School is located in the city center of Jhongli City, Taoyuan County, only 6 minutes away from Jhongli Train Station, 45 minutes from Taipei City, 20 minutes from Taoyuan International Airport, and 15 minutes from THSR Taoyuan Station. It is conveniently connected to the southern and northern Taiwan by Freeway No.1 and 3, and Express Way 66. Adjacent to a tourist night market, a park, a tennis court, and a department store, the campus is situated in a lively neighborhood, inside which several elementary, middle, high schools, vocational schools and universities could be found. The school’ curriculums are based on a practical vocational education policy, aiming to emphasize the features of business-related courses while implementing courses on human arts, arts, civics and ethics, career planning and life education. It has created a humanitarian learning environment, encouraging the students to look at the bigger picture while maintaining a sense of propriety. By participating in this contest, we hope that more people would get know our school and recognize it as the largest commercial high school in northern Taiwan.

7. What impact does this research project have on us?

When we first started working on the website, we had absolutely no idea where to start, which direction to go, what material we needed, how to design, how to set up the structure and what our project outlines would be. We also thought about giving up because we really had no idea. Fortunately, with the instruction and help of our supervisor, we changed our mind; instead, we worked harder to learn about this cultural heritage. As we stepped out of the campus, our friendship was strengthened, and we were no longer passive but became devoted to our own tasks. Although we had very limited amount of time, we still wished to raise people’s awareness of the conservation of cultural assets via this project. Brick buildings like these can rarely be seen in a big city nowadays. Using simple descriptions, we show the features and the development of this historic district, and we are sure that after seeing our website, people would surely understand the beauty of Bo-Pi Liao.

8. How did the members of local communities assist you with the research project?

We would like to thank the Heritage and Culture Education Center of Taipei City for agreeing to be interviewed by us, and providing us with written materials that had helped us greatly with our writing. The center also allowed us to take photos of places where visitors are not allowed, offered detailed introduction of each location and answered all our questions. We’d also like to thank our supervisor for her comments and suggestions on the design, layout and format of our website, which helped us to deliver a perfect result.

9. 9. Discoveries, lessons and surprises

As we had no idea how to start a website, we somehow assumed it would be easy and that all we had to do to create a website is to look for relevant information online, take some photos, make some sketches and write down our thoughts. With the help of our supervisor, we become clearer about what we had to do, but only to find out that we were seriously behind our schedule. Thus, we started to work very hard to catch up, which was tiring. Then it was the term examination, because of which we couldn’t work on our project for a while. The lesson we got from this experience is that we should never take anything lightly, nor should we be indolent. We should always do our best to achieve the goals that we set out to achieve. Meanwhile, while every person had his or her own task, some members failed to deliver their part, delaying our progress, wasting a lot of time and causing some fights and tears. Luckily we were able to resolve the conflict, and we hope that this incident would teach all of us that we should be responsible for ourselves and the tasks we are given. This project has allowed us to notice the personality and attitude of every member, as well as discover that everyone is full of talents. Among us, there are computer masters, great painters and amazing writers. None of this talent should be wasted; instead, team members were all given the opportunity to show their talent on this project, resulting in this perfect creation.

10. Our thoughts

It has been four years since the last time Ms. Chang led a team from Jhongli Commerical High School to take part in the Cyber Fair. As there was not much information about this topic, we spent our holidays on visiting Bo-Pi Liao and interviewing staffs at the Heritage and Culture Education Center of Taipei City, in order to learn about the history of Bo-Pi Liao. We’ve learned a great deal, and we were very lucky that no one rejected our interview. This contest has expanded our horizon, and was a big step for us, since we had neither interviewed anybody nor conducted a questionnaire survey before. Through participating in this Cyber Fair, we learned the organization of materials, interview skills, website design, and more importantly, the value of teamwork, mutual help, mutual understanding, tolerance, and that even when we encounter difficulties, we can solve them together. Our field trips were filled with laughter as well. For us, what is important about this contest is not whether we would win an award, but the process and our experience. We hope that this project would help to spread the culture of Bo-Pi Liao historic district to many more places, and share it with more people. We would like to thank again the Heritage and Culture Education Center of Taipei City for being interviewed, and our supervisor for her leadership and instruction. We also like to thank all the members in this team for everyone’s devotion and hard work.