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International Schools CyberFair 98
Project Narrative
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Information About Our Site
1.Link to our CyberFair 98 Entry and Home Page
2.Link to our School Home Page http://www.televar.com/~sedwards/Nespelem_Eight.html
3.Date of Project: 3/31/98
4.School: Nespelem School
District: Nespelem School District #014
City: Nespelem, Washington, USA
5.Teachers or Classes:
Ms. Edwards and the eighth grade class
6.How many students worked on this project? approximately 20 students
7.Their ages were: 13-14 years of age--and their first ever attempt!
8.Project Contact Email: nsd01@clovis.esd171.wednet.edu
sedwards@clovis.esd171.wednet.edu or sedwards@televar.com
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Project Overview
1.We entered our Web site in CyberFair Category:
2.Description of "Our Community"
Our local community includes the Colville Indian Reservation, Nespelem, Electric City, Grand Coulee, Coulee Dam, Elmer City, and Coulee City (with Dry Falls). All these areas are part of the geological history of the area and have interesting sites to visit. These are all small towns in a rural area of central Washington state.
Our towns may be small, but we are famous. Grand Coulee is famous for its third powerhouse on the Grand Coulee Dam, which is one of the world's largest manmade concrete dams. Nespelem has the grave of Chief Joseph and the Colville Indian Agency for the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Indian Reservation. Electric City has Banks Lake, famous for bass and trout fishing tournaments. Coulee City is at the south end of Banks Lake and east of Dry Falls, the world's biggest dry waterfall.
3.Summary of Our Project
Our project tells about landscapes and landforms that formed millions of years ago and the effects of the manmade local attraction. We are learning how our land was formed and we are teaching others about it on the World Wide Web. We have pictures on the Web, most of which we took ourselves, that show the mountains, flatlands, and rocks in our area. We explain how they formed and readers will learn that they will probably not find another place like this anywhere else in the world. We did research in books, on the phone, and through interviews at home. It's a great place for the two million tourists that visit our area every year, people who like to fish, pow wow, and waterski.
4.Our Internet Access
we access the Internet over a 56KB line that goes from our school to the Wenatchee Educational Service District. We pay a monthly fee for the line access and also for the Internet filtering software program called "Bess."
5.Problems We Had To Overcome
We have faced many obstacles. We have researched about lands in our area. It was hard to learn about them.
When we work as a group, we try to tell each other and share what we learned. It was hard getting the message to each other and writing up the our notes as one.
To put our information on the net, we had to load our own pictures and our own paragraphs into the software program. We had to learn how to put it in. Some of us used Claris Works Home Page 2.0. Some of us learned Photoshop Deluxe to scan the pictures in ourselves.
We have a lot more work to do. It takes time!
6.Our Project Sound Bite
We are the first class ever to design a Web page for our school, and we are proud of that. It shows what we learned, and how hard we worked.
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Project Elements
This section explains how your project addressed the project elements
found in the CyberFair Assignment to Schools.
1) How did your activities and research for this International School
CyberFair project support your required coursework and curriculum
requirements?
In Washington State History Class, our activities and research were about glaciers and lava flows, and how they helped develop our area. We also learned about the Columbia Plateau, which is in our area. The eighth grade class felt that we should share this information with others since our area is so unique from others. To do this research we found informtion in books about our area, went on field trips, and took homework home and asked our parents or guardians about what they know and what we learned.
By involving our families in helping with information, we brought our school into the community. They directed us to other resources, such as Chamber of Commerce.
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2) What information tools and technologies did you use to complete your
CyberFair project?
The computer software we used were:
The only mechanical machines we used were:
We had oral interviews with:
We also went on a field trip to learn and take pictures (some didn't turn out) of:
Some of our information we got from books and newspapers (see our resource section).
Scott Hunter from the Star Newspaper in Grand Coulee and Rich Avey of Meyer Tax Service gave technical advice to our teacher.
Our school provided us with computers, zip drives, and scanner. The school provided most of the software, and our teacher got us Claris Home Page Lite.
Our most valuable tools were the camera, computer, and scanner because the camera we used to take our photos. The computer and scanner were used to load our information and to organize our information.
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3) In what ways did you act as "ambassadors" and spokespersons for your
CyberFair project both on-line and in person.
When we went on our trip, we gathered information. During that trip, we were behaved and listening.
Then we sat around a table and talked about the information and started the second half of the project.
We each had a part, to ask people questions and get it back to our group in the eighth grade classroom.
1.Tourists who saw us considered us role models for other students and for the Nespelem School.
2.We asked our parents questions. Parents were impressed by us doing homework and for us telling or asking them about the whole idea.
3.Jessica Charley contacted Trina Sanders and Jeannie Moon. Jessica asked Trina about how many tourists come, and why the tourists come. Then she asked Jeannie about, how many people come to the 4th of July Celebration each year, and why they come here. She represented our school by being polite, clear, and thoughtful.
We acted calm and did our best to act like our selves(act our normal self). When we talked to the people that had our information, we had questions ready and paper and pen waiting. We responded very normal to the people we asked.
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4) What has been the impact of your project on your community?
People around the world will learn about our community and how our land was formed. They will know how big our community is and where we live. They will get to see what our land looks like. They will get to see pictures of famous landforms.
When we finally finish the project (after the contest), they will get to see what famous events we have in our area. They will also get to see a map and follow the directions on how to get there. Two famous events or the Fourth of July Celebration for the Colville Confederated Tribes and the Omak Stampede.
Our Web site will help them by telling them how our land was formed and what our land looks like.
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5) How did your project involve other members of your community as
helpers and volunteers?
We asked our parents and families questions about what the whole idea and about our area. David Cirk, Tom Wilson, Darlene Saxon, and Mike Semoe helped us very much. THANKS!
We would also like to thank the Colville Confederated Tribes for maintaining the Colville Museum in Coulee Dam. We included information from the museum with interviews from our parents to be able to create the essay on the effects of the Grand Coulee Dam on the Native American people in this area.
Jessica Charley's dad, David Cirk, told us to contact the local Chamber of Commerce. She contacted Trina Sanders of the Grand Coulee Area Chamber of Commerce and interviewed her for information for our project. Thanks to David Cirk and Trina Sanders for their tremendous help.
Jessica interviewed Jeannie Moon (Jeannie Moon, community elder, school board member, active member of Drum and Feather Club), too. Thanks to Jeannie Moon for taking her time to add so much to our project (Area Info).
Our teacher says thank you to Scott Hunter from the Star Newspaper of Grand Coulee and Rich Avey of Meyer Tax Service for their technical help to her.
A special thanks goes to our principal, Mr. Robinson, who provided the technology for us-- especially those zip drives the last two weeks! Thanks!
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