School: School # 34
    Karshi, Kashkadarya, Uzbekistan

3 students, ages 15-16 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on February 23, 2004. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): 2004

Classes and Teachers: Hamidova Natalya, Urinova Mohira, students: Shahnoza, Shohruh, Shahnoza

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://karshi34.connect.uz/

1. Description of Our Team

Our team is called “Children of the world”, our coaches are: the teacher of English language Natalya Hamidova and teacher of Law Mohira Urinova, Shahnoza Hamidova is a student of Academic lyceum “Nuriston”, Shodiev Shohruh is a pupil of 11th grade of school #34, Eshonhodjaeva Shahnoza is a pupil of 9th grade of special boarding school in Karshi, and volunteer Ulugbek Meylikov is an administrator of Internet center at school #34. We are a good team, because all of us have been participating in other web-projects before and each of us worked as a team together, in addition our interests are alike especially in Internet and research work. While working on the project we have been gathering at school #34 every day after lessons, because this was the place where we could access Internet and where we had our own discussing room – a place where we usually shared our ideas and making the best solutions and final decisions. Each of us had its own task, each member had to conduct research and look for information in different areas, Shahnoza Hamidova was responsible for information from healthcare and environmental organizations, where she usually went with her coach Natalya and interviewed professionals from every organization, Shohruh was responsible for searching information on internet, and the “other” Shahnoza was responsible for information from books and reports about Uzbekistan on environmental and healthcare conditions. This was the work of ours when we were divided, but every two days we gathered to present all information to our teachers and a school director who passionately observed as we worked on the project. We usually worked on brainstorming on information we had gathered and would come up with what should be done next. There were some activities where our team worked together, for instance conference at academic lyceum on environmental pollution and the ways of preventing it, in addition we worked together at school #34 where we were passing out and conducting surveys how each person can help to save environment.

2. Summary of Our Project

Our web-project is based on information about environmental and healthcare problems of Uzbekistan like air pollution, water pollution, soil pollution, and the main environmental problem of Uzbekistan – drying of Aral Sea and how Uzbekistan collaborates with other countries to prevent them. Conducted research and interviewed of officials of International organizations, local entities and foundations that are involved in improvement and development of environmental and health conditions of Uzbekistan. Also our project includes information about geographical situation of Uzbekistan, governmental affairs, laws in sphere of environment, health care, and international documents signed between Uzbekistan and other countries for preventing the problems of environment and health. This web site is created like an educational research for pupils, community and people who are interested mainly in Environmental Problems and Healthcare of Uzbekistan and Uzbekistan as a whole.

3. Our Computer and Internet Access

A. Percentage of students using the Internet at home:less than 20

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:1

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

while creating web-site we usually had to work in the evening time because the speed was much better than at the day time, that was one of the difficulties; because we had to catch up with the school homework late in the evenings.

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

1) First of all we had problems with the language, the only person who was fluent in English was Shahnoza H, while other students and the teacher of law knew English on a fair level where they good understand the text and documentation, but could not express themselves in English well enough. It took us extra time to translate some of the documents in order to make everything clear and that there is no miscommunication. 2) Because of electrical problems we couldn’t access the Internet for about a week, this created a little delay in our completion of the project. 3) Shahnoza H. had to prepare for the National Debating tournament so she had to work late at nights on project related materials. 4) Cultural aspect was another “little” problem, interviewing officials was a little awkward because this is new to us. It might sound unexplainable, but we live in a small city, therefore that type of projects do not happen very often here, but all the officials were happy to answer our questions and were very curious about project themselves.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

The project has been a wonderful motivation to learn about environment and healthcare in Uzbekistan and the world. The project have taught us and made us realize how humankind is endangered because of environmental and health problems. It also taught us through unity, friendship and diplomacy people could achieve and reach optimal goals if they collaborate, unite, and work together to solve problems that earth faces nowadays.

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

While creating the project we got to know a lot of useful information in many areas of sciences like law, international affairs, functions of embassy, governmental structures, computer science, and civics. While using resources of Internet, we learned how to use digital camera and scanner, utilize search engine “GOOGLE” and “Rambler” (favorite ones) and improved typing skills on computer. Also we have learned to communicate with people like ambassadors, while being delicate, polite and professional. Also we increased the level of our knowledge in healthcare, how to prevent ourselves from illnesses; environment where we learned that if every person is going to take care after nature we will be able to make the world cleaner and healthier. We also have learned how to create a web page, and members of our team have improved their English language skills. We have become acquainted with the positive steps of diplomatic relations which are currently being undertaken, the creation of project have helped us to understand various ways of creating better future. Participating in this project gave us an opportunity to improve our leadership traits by organizing seminars, conferences and attracting community to our activities. But the main thing is we learned to listen and respect opinion of each other and work as a team.

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

Our team has been using 3 computers with Internet access; also we used digital Kodak camera, scanner, and printer. Also we used international documents of UN, millennium report of UN, Uzbekistan report of ECOSAN, a lot of information was taken from interviews, internet helped a lot in searching information with search engines like google, yahoo, and rambler. Also we used a lot of web-dictionaries and encyclopedias. We got familiarized with software like Internet, Microsoft Word, MS PowerPoint, Adobe Acrobat, and WordPad. Knowledge of HTML was a little confusing, while FrontPage made it a little easier to understand.

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

We had a large activity with students of Academic Lyceum and school#34, in both we had organized a conference about environment and health care in Uzbekistan, where we discussed environment and health issues of present and how diplomacy relates to the issues. The next day we passed out surveys with questions concerning to environment and healthcare and what could they do to make the conditions of living better to each participant of the conference, a lot of students were enthusiastically interested in conference and our team decided to launch a small union of “CLEANATUREKEEPERS”, who are going to take care of the surrounding areas of school. Lots of students were interested in participating, so we can say that our activity brought some use even outside the project, we also sent address of our website to our friends and organizations and asked them to analyze our web-project, also Shahnoza have been showing the project to her friends and classmates in lyceum on her laptop. Students were amazed how “cool” our project was and asked if they could participate in the future projects.

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

Our project greatly influenced our team, we understood that we want to live in a clean environment and be healthy, so we decided to find some sympathizers who would share our ideas to make our surrounding better, so after we made a conference as it was said above we created CLEANNATUREKEEPERS union. We planted some trees around school # 34, Academic lyceum “Nuriston” and the boarding school. Nowadays our group is searching for sponsors so we can expand our activity. Also by the help of our union we repaired the water system of the school #34 where the water was leaking all the time. Shohruh (participant and now supervisor of the union) and a volunteer of water system department brought tools from their houses and repaired the water pipe. Now the water pipe of this school is much better than before. Also our union made a big collage about harm of burning dry leaves, so now the cleanness of the school#34 and Academic lyceum is under our control.

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

We would like to express gratitude and give special thanks to the director of school # 34 who wrote official letters asking company officials for the interview. Also we would like to say special thanks to our parents who provided us with transportation and moral support, a great “big” thanks for the voluntary union members “CLEANNATUREKEEPERS” who supported our project practically. We appreciate help and cooperation of all organizations we interviewed, they gave us the basic information we needed, especially UNDP, UNEP, UNESCO, WHO organizations workers. Thanks a lot to Mr.Khudaynazarov – the supervisor of Internet center for financial help for arranging the conference and providing us with Internet access 24 hours a day. Thank a lot to Mr.Khudjaev – a student of “UWED” (University of World Economics and Diplomacy) in Tashkent, for providing us with web-information about diplomacy, and a huge thanks to Mrs. Mitchell- a teacher of middle school in Texas for providing us with information about international organizations and for giving useful advices in creating the project. Finally, we would like to thank Farhod Hamidov (student of Northern Kentucky University and brother of Shahnoza H.) who had “DSL” internet connection for providing sources to information online as well as providing redirection service to our website.

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

Our team was surprised to find out that Internet includes so much of interesting information about Uzbekistan; also we were surprised to know that there are so many funds in Uzbekistan, which help to solve problems in various areas. Lessons: We became more experienced in the sphere of environment and healthcare and with the help of this project we are motivated to do good things for protecting our environment. We discovered that the main thing in working as a team is respecting each other and pay attention to each other’s advices and opinions.