An 87-year-old institution, Ming Chwan Junior High School in Keelung City’s Renai District (仁愛), is not only renowned for its history, but also for the variety of decades-old animal specimens that it proudly displays.
The school’s students are able to observe up close the more than 40 types of well-preserved animal specimens on exhibit at the school. The specimens range from protected animals such as Formosan black bears, Formosan blue magpies and Swinhoe’s pheasants to more common animals such as Formosan hares, Formosan Reeve’s muntjacs and hawks.
Former equipment section chief Chen Chun-cheng (陳俊成), who started working at the institution in 1989, said he was told by a senior colleague that the school’s rich collection of specimens was procured between 1951 and 1959 with money lent by the US government.
“One must properly preserve these legacies passed down by our forebears,” Chen quoted his colleague as saying when the latter handed him the keys to the cabinet with many transparent containers storing the “treasures.”
Chen said the school also had samples of various animals and organs preserved in formaldehyde. They were great teaching aids that helped students to better understand animals’ physical structure by comparing the specimens with images in their biology textbooks.
In an effort to protect the delicate samples from damage, a fundraising drive was held in 1998 by the then-school principal Lo Hui-chieh (駱惠傑), who subsequently entrusted a number of professors from National Taiwan Ocean University to do routine maintenance work on the specimens, Chen said.
The school’s acting principal, Cheng Chih-feng (鄭志峰), said that students currently have access to a variety of DVDs introducing them to nature and its creatures, but they could not compare to closely observing animal samples.
Saying it was “awesome” for the school to boast a Formosan black bear specimen, a ninth-grader, surnamed Chen, said that he was amazed to see the stuffed bear in his first biology class at the school.
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
CHANGES: After-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during vacations or after-school study periods must not be used to teach new material, the ministry said The Ministry of Education yesterday announced new rules that would ban giving tests to most elementary and junior-high school students during morning study and afternoon rest periods. The amendments to regulations governing public education at elementary schools and junior high schools are to be implemented on Aug. 1. The revised rules stipulate that schools are forbidden to use after-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during summer or winter vacation or after-school study periods to teach new course material. In addition, schools would be prohibited from giving tests or exams to students in grades one to eight during morning study and afternoon break periods, the
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition
Advocates of the rights of motorcycle and scooter riders yesterday protested in front of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications in Taipei, making three demands. They were joined by 30 passenger vehicles, which surrounded the ministry to make three demands related to traffic regulations — that motorcycles and scooters above 250cc be allowed on highways, that all motorcycles and scooters be allowed on inside lanes, and that driver and rider training programs be reformed. The ministry said that it has no plans to allow motorcycles on national highways for the time being, and said that motorcycles would be allowed on the inner