CyberFair Project ID: 4951

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International Schools CyberFair Project Narrative
Title: Our Historical Heritage
Category: 6. Historical Landmarks
URL: http://www.geocities.com/heppnercyberfair/CyberFair2007/
Bibliography: http://www.geocities.com/heppnercyberfair/CyberFair2007/bibliography.html

School: Heppner Junior Senior High School
    Heppner, Oregon, USA

25 students, ages 14-18 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on March 8, 2007. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): 2004,2005,2006,2007

Classes and Teachers: Darlene Marquardt - Web Design, Computer Applications and Desktop Publishing Students

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://www.hhs.morrow.k12.or.us

Project Overview

1. Description of Our Community

We are located in beautiful Heppner, Oregon, also referred to as “The Gateway to The Blue Mountains.” With a population of about 1400 people, Heppner is nestled in the gently rolling hills of northeastern Oregon, forty-seven miles from Hermiston and sixty miles from Pendleton. Our school has about 235 students in grades seven through twelve, and over 28 dedicated teachers and staff members. Our town has a rich heritage as well as a strong Irish influence. The biggest event in our history is the BIG FLOOD in 1903. Over 200 people in our town died and many homes and businesses were destroyed.

2. Summary of Our Project

Our community, both our town and wider into our county and the neighboring counties, has a rich heritage. It is our project to research and discover what some of those historical events are. Our time is limited but we are going to find out as much as we can and get the information displayed to you so that the whole world can discover the rich historical heritage of Heppner, Oregon.

3. Our Computer and Internet Access

A. Percentage of students using the Internet at home:more than 50%

B. Number of workstations with Internet access in the classroom:more than 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):

Our community was one of the leaders in fiber optic infrastructures in our area. Our school district seeks to be on the top of the state of the art when it comes to providing up-to-date connections to the community and beyond to the entire world.

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

Our only obstacles are only ourselves. Learning to become motivated and learning to become passionate about learning is always a chore with young high school teenagers. Life has so many other interesting things going on besides learning about our past. It is becoming an eye-opener though to learn about what really made this community what it is becoming today.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

The GREAT FLOOD seems to be the overpowering historical event that helped to shape our current existance. Even though it was over 100 years ago, the influence of the flood is still present in our lives. You will find many links to information about the flood on our CyberFair project.

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

Our School Improvement Plan (SIP) includes working on reading and writing proficiencies. Our research and project production give us good practice at both reading and writing. The project also fits in with Career-Related-Learning in that the jobs of Web Designer and Desktop Publisher come into play in our project. We learned new research skills and we learned how to use a different software than we had used before (a WYSIWYG web writing software. We also improved upon our Adobe Photoshop skills. We learned how to put our research findings into our own words and how to adequatly cite our sources and use quotations from the intellectual property of others. The assignments we had for this project were part of our grade for the classes we had from Mrs. Marquardt. We learned about some of the heros and historical people of the past. We learned how the internet has been instrumental in helping us learn more about our historical heritage.

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Project Elements

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

We have 12 computers in our classroom and 17 students in our class, so it is a challenge to always get adequate time to complete projects. We had the help of some students from a couple of other classes during the day. Our computers are DELL computers with Windows XP. We have Adobe CS suite and Netscape Composer on our computers as well as earlier in the year we learned how to create web pages using NOTEPAD. Our classroom has two scanners and several Canon cameras at their disposal. Our town has a wonderful museum that has enough information to be able to spend many hours exploring.

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

We represent the future of our town. We are investigating the past. Soon we will be part of the past. We are truly ambassadors for our town and our county and our state. When our project is completed we will take pictures of our group and write about our project for the local newspapers and soon our project will be viewed world-wide, making us the best ambassadors that there are or ever will be for our town.

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

This project has helped us connect with our town and realize that real people just like us, did things to shape the way the town is now. Most were heroes.

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

Our main helper was our teacher, Mrs. Marquardt. The internet and the work of the local people who have posted information on the internet was critical in our being able to find information for our project.

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

The surprise is that most of us were fascinated primarily with the GREAT FLOOD even though there are many other interesting historical factors that shape our community. It is because the flood was so drastic and even after 100 years is claimed to be one of the biggest natural disasters in our nation.

We don't know yet if this project will lead to any awards or recognitions. We know that our teacher is going to make sure that the media is informed about the project and we will receive newspaper recognition.

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