CyberFair Project ID: 4387

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International Schools CyberFair Project Narrative
Title: Rivertown U.S.A. - Cannelton, Indiana's River History
Category: 6. Historical Landmarks
URL: http://www.siec.k12.in.us/cannelton/rivertown/
Bibliography: http://www.siec.k12.in.us/cannelton/rivertown/resources.htm

School: Cannelton Elementary
    Cannelton, Indiana, United States of America

8 students, ages 8-11 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on March 10, 2006. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): 1998, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006

Classes and Teachers: Mrs. Goble - Cannelton Elementary Media Club

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://www.siec.k12.in.us/cannelton/elementary

Project Overview

1. Description of Our Community

Cannelton is a small and very historical town located on the banks of the Ohio River in southern Indiana. It has a rich heritage which dates back to 1837 with the founding of the American Cannel Coal Company. It now has about 2000 residents, many of whom have lived here all of their lives. Cannelton has seen many hardships and many triumphs throughout the years yet it is still going strong. Cannelton residents want to keep our town alive and prosperous, as well as preserve its heritage.

2. Summary of Our Project

Our project, 'Rivertown U.S. A.', shares the river history of our town, Cannelton, Indiana. We are using our floodwall mural, which highlights important events in the founding or our town, to show that not only does Cannelton have a unique past it has a bright future. We look forward to sharing our river town history with you!

3. Our Computer and Internet Access

A. Percentage of students using the Internet at home:21-50%

B. Number of workstations with Internet access in the classroom:4-6

C. Connection speed used in the classroom:dedicated connection

D. Number of years our classroom has been connected to the Internet:more than 6

E. Additional comments concerning your computer and/or Internet access (Optional):

At our school we have a T1 line to the Internet. In our classroom we have five computers connected to the Internet. We have had internet access at our school for eight years now. About 50% of our students have Internet access at home.

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

We enjoyed working on this project very much and we found our main problem was a shortage of time to work at school on it so many of us worked on the research at home in order to finish our site. We had a lot of information to sort through such as newspaper articles and old photographs loaned to us by our county historian. Again, this was fun but very time consuming. We managed with the help and support of our school, parents, and community members. We also created a timeline early on so that we would be sure to get the necessary tasks finished on time.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

While working on our project we found a new respect for our town and its people. We are proud of our town's history and are happy that through Global School Net's CyberFair we are able to share that history with the world.

6. How did your activities and research for this CyberFair Project support standards, required coursework and curriculum standards?

Rivertown U.S.A. is about our community's river history. Indiana Social Studies standards for grades 3-4 are a study of Indiana history and of community (Standard 1, 2, 5). Language Arts standards are also addressed including vocabulary and concept development (Standard 1), reading comprehension (Standard 2), writing for meaning and clarity (Standard 3),and the transcribing made editing for mistakes a must (Standard 4 and 6). Along with this, our students presented this project in front of many audiences, including our school board and community members, as well as judges at the district Media Fair. This gave them a chance to work on Language Arts Standard 7 on speaking skills - oral presentations. The students learned how to work as a team, as well as collaborating and communicating with other people from the community. The students had to learn more about using educational technology tools, such as the keyboard, and how to use programs like Microsoft Windows and Works. This project addressed the National Educational Technology Standards for Grades 3-5 were addressed as students researched, wrote, and created this web site.

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Project Elements

1) What information tools & technologies did you used to complete your CyberFair project?

Informational tools and technologies used included a scanner for the older photographs, digital camera and tripod, tape recorder for the interview. We utilized our classroom computers to create our site and to transcribe interviews and write our reports. We used the following software: Microsoft Word, Microsoft Frontpage 2000, Microsoft Image Composer 1.5, Spin Photo Object and Spin Panorama both from Tech4Learning, Inc. We used the Internet to publish our project website. One of the most important tools was a cassette recorder to record interviews such as our interview with Perry County historian Michael Rutherford and also our talk with Angel Mounds Curator Bill Spellazza. They proved important so we did not forget important details from our talks with them.

2) In what ways did you act as "ambassadors" and spokespersons for your CyberFair project both on-line and in person.

We realized that in order to find out the history behind the floodwall mural we needed to talk to community members face-to-face. These people were very helpful by giving us many facts that we could not have found elsewhere. We were able to talk with many who also provided us with artifacts and photographs to use. We were able to share our work with these community members as it progressed. They gave us added information or gave us advice on what else might be good to add. The Perry County Museum was an extremely important resource as well. Also, we showed the site to our school board who also spread the word about our project. The local Media decided to feature our project in an article in the Perry County News. We took the project to first District and then to State Media Fair which has given us a chance to showcase our work to many audiences and gain more interest in finding out more on our own. Entering Rivertown USA in Cyberfair allows us to share with an even larger audience, a worldwide audience, about how special our town is.

3) What has been the impact of your project on your community?

We wanted to create a website devoted to our town's river history for many reasons, but the biggest reason was to share with the world about their historical town. We have heard from many Canneltonians who have said how much they like the project because they too feel our town's history is important. It is that history that has given our town its stamina and courage. Working with the many community members who contributed to the project has given us as well as them a sense of belonging to our project and they continue to visit it and support it. We have heard through e-mails and on our guestbook from people who have said they enjoyed revisiting their past and want to see us continue to add to it. Our local newspaper has highlighted our project in order to help us get more information and to help promote it as well. We feel our project will be an asset to our town as it tells the world how special Cannelton, Indiana is!

4) How did your project involve other members of your community as helpers and volunteers?

We certainly did have a lot of help and support from our community. Many community members past and present gave us information, photos, and artifacts to help tell the story of Cannelton. Members from the Perry County Museum, Shubille-Little Pioneer Village,and Angel Mounds State Historic Site also gave us invaluable information when we took field trips to them for our research. Our interviews with townspeople past and present, along with our in-depth interview with our Perry County Historian Michael Rutherford, proved to be extremely important in our research as well. We also had much help from parents, other students at school and many school staff with editing, organizing and allowing us to present our project to them. All in all we feel that everyone who helped in one way or another can take part ownership in this project. It was a community story and it had community input. We appreciate everyone's help! We could not hvae done it without you!

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

We all agree that we have learned mostly that history can be fun! It gives us a better sense of who we are. We also feel that although our river town history could be similar to other rivertowns, we know that ours is unique too in many ways. We found that many community members were very happy to see our project online and wanted to help in their own way, whether it be by giving us more information about a topic or loaning us old photographs, or even giving us artifacts to feature. We also learned that we can ask for advice from many sources, not just our teacher, but also from our parents, our grandparents, and other community members, experts such as our county historian, and more. It was a wonderful learning experience!

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