School: Florida Virtual School
    Orlando, Florida , United States

5 students, ages 15-18 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on March 21, 2003. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): 2003

Classes and Teachers: Deborah Adams

E-Mail contact:

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

1. Description of Our Team

When we were offered the opportunity to be in this competition we thought it would be a pretty good experience but didn’t really notice the advantages that we could get out of it. Not only did we meet new people, but also we learned a lot about what is going on in the world. Due to so much frustration to get everything in on time we were all hurrying each other but we all new we didn’t mean anything bad by it. The way that our team came about was that we were given the opportunity to join the competition. Next who ever signed up had to notify Mrs. Adams in which she later emailed us and told us who the team was. Alexis and Diane put together the entire website. We would email everything to her and she would put it together on the website. Diane also played a big part in putting the biographies together. Maria researched on global health issues, as well as putting together the team description. Allison, and Jennifer did the research on water shortage, oil spills, etc. Mrs. Adams was so much help. We had met in chat room session which everyone discussed what needed to be done. On March 21, 2003 we had our last chat meeting in which our website was basically almost done and we reviewed it. We each had the website opened and went page by page to review it for errors, spelling, and for whatever had to be deleted, and or added. We all enjoyed doing this project together. Everyone did their part and even more. Our coach helped us and guided us all the way through. She supported us in all of our decisions, and is part of what made our website a success.

2. Summary of Our Project

Our web project concentrates on environmental and health issues of today. Upon extensive research, our group identified problems that threaten human health, and the environment. Global Warming, Water Shortage, Air Pollution, and Lack of Natural Resources, are four serious problems that not only our nation faces, but has become a worldly dilemma. Our group has identified four possible solutions to helping eliminate some of these problems worldwide as well as individually.

In addition to the environment, health problems pose a serious threat in parts of the world today. There are major health issues that the world is encountering. Places such as Africa harbor millions of AIDS victims inwhich little can be done. The main purpose of this website is to inform people of these issues and how threatening they are. Steps can be made to tame these problems, but often it will take the individual to start the ball rolling.

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:4-6

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

The Florida Virtual School (FLVS) is a public distance learning school in the State of Florida. FLVS serves over 12,000 students throughout the state with students in all 67 counties and provides courses throughout the U.S. Florida Virtual School has literally hundreds and thousands of learning sites incorporated into its school, because learning occurs, as the school’s motto indicates, “Any Time, Any Pace, Any Path, Any Place.” The mission of FLVS is “… to provide students with high quality technology based educational opportunities to gain the knowledge and skills necessary to succeed in the 21st century.” In a few short years, FLVS has become a world leader in delivering high school education with 21st Century tools and is a nationally recognized e-Learning model. Any students, with access to a computer and the Internet, can enroll without charge to the student.

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

The mission of our project is to provide others with knowledge about important environmental issues. While working on our high quality, technology-based educational Website we had one major problem to overcome. The barrier or technical obstacle that we faced was working from different cities in the state of Florida. FLVS is a full online high school. We all live in different cities around the state. Our teacher e-mailed the entire class and asked if anyone would like to participate in this project. The five of us wanted to participate. We never met in a face-to-face traditional classroom. We all met in the course chatroom to work on this project. We all took part in the learning process.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

This opportunity has granted us many opportunities to grow. Whatever the task, be it researching our issue, organizing our Website, communicating with each other or making a presentation, we accomplished it in a professional and mature manner. We understand that our Website may have an impact on others and this is very important to our group. When we look at all that I have completed with our site, we realize how much we have learned and accomplished throughout this wonderful experience.

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

The activities that make up the Political Issues Project required the students to become familiar with not only their national legislators, but also those elected officials who represent them on the state and local level. The activities that the students completed in this module enabled them to: 1. Identify, describe, and evaluate an important political issue in the World today; 2. Identify what "Interest Groups" and "Political Parties" are and how they attempt to influence government; 3. Take an active role in government by learning how to personally contact representatives; 4. Monitor their elected officials by investigating voting records on particular issues; and 5. Create an effective persuasive argument on a modern political issue. The students learned the importance of delegating responsibilities and working together. They also increased their technology skills throughout this project. The group concepts that the students practiced included learning to work together even though they did not live in the same area. The students better understand the specific ideas because they understand problems that our world faces, and by being aware of this has influenced the group greatly. This project plays a significant role our online American government class because this project is teaching others about how governments can work together to eliminate the environment and health issues of today. Environment and health issues are a part of social studies, and that's a required class for high school.

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

The learning goals for this activity focused on skill-based learning including communication skills, team-building skills and critical thinking. The learning goals for this project were met, and the evidence for this is present on the Website. You can see this through the hard work presented by the students as they worked together to create this environmental project. The resources and materials used during this project were on-line newspapers, the classroom chatroom, telephones, classroom research materials, and computers with Internet access. All of the information was just a click away! Books will always be a wonderful way to obtain information, but online sources are often quicker and easier. The particular software programs used were Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Google search engine and www.r-u-on.net. The Internet helped us to do research. We would scan information and topics from all different sources. For example, we would search many of the news and government statistics Websites for the project information. Having books that dealt primarily with Environmental issues really helped us to complete this project. We interacted and questioned each other through the entire project. We also deliberated as well as to built coalitions to manage completing this project in a fair and peaceful manner.

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

Every time you do some kind of research you should always find a way of letting people not only learn about the project, but also let them know how they can help with the project. In this case we have used two ways of allowing people to know about what we have researched and how they can help. First of all, we went to our fellow classmates and made them aware of several environmental issues. Immediately, they wanted to help. We directed them to our new website which offers helpful information. This way more and more students will find out about the major global issues throughout the world. Next, some of the city parks were approached and were told about the global issues going on. Many might ask, why a park? Think about it if they make flyers making people aware of environmental issues then more people will find out about the problems and the website. Some of the parks that were attended were glad that we had approached them because they have their own park clean ups and people that help. We have planned to encourage more visitors to our website for the future is by making pamphlets on the computer. Gisela Conde was very impressed with the website in which we have put together. She told one of the girls (Maria Rubio), that the effort and work put into this website was extraordinary and outstanding. She commented that our website was very well organized, and had a lot of useful information which would definitely catch peoples attention to help out in their community.

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

The impact our project will have on the community will hopefully be beneficial and informative more than anything. Surprisingly, most individuals do not worry about our environment and included in this website are eye opening statistics and questionnaires to help inform the uninformed. With this website, our hope is that the community will begin to involve themselves and their families in environmental projects. The masses are often blamed for creating these huge problems; however it takes the individual to help fix them.

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

There were some very important people that helped us to complete our Website project. Mrs. Stecker was a major asset who helped us learn how to complete our Website. She was very helpful and patient while teaching the fundamentals of the Dreamweaver/Fireworks software program. We really appreciate her help in furthering our education and knowledge of technology. Another great person that has impacted our learning was Mrs. Nemaric. She is a proofreader and she assisted us with fixing some of the errors that were present in our project. We appreciate their time and effort that they have given to our group. This was a critical part which encouraged and motivated us to work hard.

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

Team