School: George Read Middle School
    New Castle, Delaware, USA

seve students, ages 12-14 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on March 12, 2007. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): 2007

Classes and Teachers: Mrs. Deitrich

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://www.e2t2c2.net/georgeread/

1. Description of Our Community

Our community is New Castle. We are surrounded by the cities of Wilmington, Bear, Middle Town, and Newark. We live in the State of Delaware and New Castle is our county. We are surrounded by water to the East, and New Jersey to the Northeast, then Pennsylvania to the North with Maryland to West and South. We are located in the United States of America. Which has Canada to the North, Mexico to the south and Atlantic Ocean to the East with the Pacific Ocean to the West. We are located on the continent of North America. Out of all of the land in our country the one place we truly can call our community is the town of New Castle.

2. Summary of Our Project

Our Cyber Fair project is focused on the theme Inspire and Unite. We chose to do our project on the historic places of Old New Castle, Delaware. We want to preserve the past to move into our future. Each person on our team has created a web page for each historic site. While they are all important we chose to display only six of them. In each of these historic places you will find variations of the history of a particular place including pictures and some fun facts. These pages display the importance of how the past is our future and how we as participators will inspire and unite.

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

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

There were many problems we had to over come over the course of making this webpage. We unfortunately has to use cameras that were disposable and it took a long time to get them developed and onto the computer. We had to develop them onto a disk, which was more difficult, but helped out a lot. Also, getting everyone to meet at the same time was a challenge. We all had different things to do everyday and sometimes we could not make the time. We finally set on one date that we would meet every week and we checked with all our teachers to make sure it was okay. Another difficulty was the commitment of some of our students. We have a few people in our club that did not feel like coming or doing the work so we needed to reason with them. Our teacher was reasonable and flexible with time. She would have them come during the day, after school, and on her free time. In Conclusion, we spent a lot of our time working together trying to achieve our goal of completing our website.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

While participating in the Cyber Fair competition it has meant many things to us. We have made our school feel very proud of us because we are the first students to participate from our school. We also feel very accomplished as students by finishing this project. The project compelled us to relate the past to what the future may behold. To us it is very important to preserve our past. This is what are future will hold for us as the “Delawareans” of Old New Castle. Our community members are also proud that students have taken an interest and initiative to relate New Castle’s past to the future. In general the Cyber Fair project of 2007 has had a great impact on the participants from George Read Middle School as we plan to “INSPIRE AND UNITE”.

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

The International Schools CyberFair project was a unique and diverse project that challenged students to meet all of the state curriculum standards in the State of Delaware. http://www.doe.k12.de.us/programs/pcs/4bta.shtml)

The students met as a group and worked collaboratively to construct a web page describing the future of historic New Castle, Delaware. Students were able to complete a complex project that required a long commitment through out the 2006-2007 school year.

Although this is our first entry in the CyberFair competition, the students met the challenge with diligence and enthusiasm. Each of the students took pride in completing their web page and was eager to add new ideas and concepts to the final product. The experience of using multiple sources of technology was an effective way to immerse the student’s into the specifics of using web page software. Overall,the combination of technology and real life experience enriched their point of view and enhanced the history told through their experience and research.

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

To complete our Cyber Fair project, all of the participants used many resources that could help us with our project. Such items included cameras. With the cameras, we took photographs of our historical subjects. The pictures improved the visual appearance of our web pages, and made them more interesting to look at. Also, we went to museums, which helped us learn more facts about old New Castle. To actually create our web page, the Cyber Fair participants used a computer program called Dreamweaver. Dreamweaver definitely helped make creating our page simple. Students brought most of these tools while the computer teacher, Mrs. Deitrich, supplied the cameras. In my opinion, the most important tool that the Cyber Fair team used was museums. This is because, in the museums, you could learn the facts about Old New Castle first hand.

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

During this project we went on a field trip into historic New Castle and we asked the guides about all the different houses and monuments in Old New Castle. Most of the houses on our web page are the houses we visited. For example, the Amstel house is one of the houses we visited. We asked a series of questions for example: How old is the house? Who visited the house? Who lived in the house? Houses, monuments, and structures are what make historic New Castle unique. Our experience as young adults looking at some buildings from history was an advantage to our knowledge and helped us to understand where our school got its name from and how important history is to our future.

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

Our CyberFair project has had a great impact on our perspective of the community. By researching for information the information about our community we learned a lot more about Old New Castle and the future of preservation. We learned about the history of our community and learned a lot about it’s historical landmarks, which makes Old New Castle a unique place to be. The CyberFair project will have a big impact on the future. When the historical landmarks fade away, the information on our page will keep the people informed about their town’s history. Our CyberFair project will make a difference in our society today and in the future.

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

We consider ourselves a part of the New castle community so therefore our participation played an important role in the completion of this project. In addition to our student involvement we asked our historical society questions about the history of our community. We needed a primary source of information that only a historian could give. This gave us great insight on the life and customs of those who lived here for so long ago. We also asked volunteers at the homes of George Read and other famous settlers what their lives were like and how their life in the past compared to our life today. Without the great knowledge of these people from our community our project would not be what it is now.