UW TSP and UW Program on the Environment Professor Yen-Chu Weng's study abroad program concluded its 3rd week!
In the first half of Week 3, students from the UW and NTU teamed up to create seven lightning talk presentations reflecting on what they learned from the past two weeks. The seven topics were: communities, eco-city, food as culture & identity, food justice & sovereignty, urban agriculture, reliving histories, and city of flows. Students not only shared the highlights from their learning together, but also compared the differences between Taiwan and Seattle. You can find more about the lightning talks here: https://sites.google.com/....../uw-x-ntu-project......
In addition, we had lectures on Environmental Issues in Taiwan and Urban Wildlife Coexistence from 綠色公民行動聯盟Green Citizens' Action Alliance and 台灣猛禽研究會 Raptor Research Group of Taiwan.
In the second half of Week 3, we moved on to Changhau, Central Taiwan, to explore the topics of renewable energy and community revitalization. The Department of Geography at National Changhua University of Education hosted our program. Dr. Yuling Song’s introduction of the Long-term Social-Ecological Research Changhua project provided an overview of the social-environmental issues of Changhua coast. Lectures by Dr. Peiwen Lu and Ørsted-Taiwan further addressed the progress and challenges of offshore wind energy development and planning in Changhua.
Our field trip to Fang-Yuan wetland gave students firsthand experience observing biodiversity of the intertidal mudflat as well as the land-use conflict with wind energy development, eco-tourism, and oyster aquaculture. Lectures from local environmental activists, including Changhua Environmental Protection Union, Wild Bird Society of Changhua, and Dr. Yun-Wen Chan gave students diverse perspectives from multiple stakeholders’ positions.
Week 3 concluded with a visit to the 彰化埔鹽鄉大有社區發展協會, Da-Yu Community Farm, a prime example of community revitalization. Students toured the rural community, interacted with local elders, crafted handmade coasters with locally sourced bamboo sticks, and enjoyed a farm lunch prepared by the aunties from the farm. Finally, we visited the 921地震教育園區, 921 Earthquake Museum, to learn how Taiwan rebuilt itself after the 1999 disaster and how to be more prepared for natural disasters in the future. We even experienced an earthquake the next morning!
翻譯年糕