School: Gimnazjum nr 4
    Zory, slaskie, Poland

22 students, ages 13-15 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on March 14, 2005. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): First time

Classes and Teachers: The teachers are: Mrs Bozena Tkacz-Biskupek, Mrs Elzbieta Bartosiewicz, Mrs Aleksandra Tomczak, Mrs Anna Gaszka, Ms Anna Gawelczyk, Ms Monika Raszka, Mrs Danuta Heesch. The classes: 1a, 2a, 2d, 2p, 3b.

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://www.gim4.dyndns.org/Gim4/

1. Description of Our Community

Zory, our home, is situated in the south of Poland, Central Europe. It’s not very big however the community is very united. We all are strongly attached to Zory and we feel true affection for it. By 'our community', we mean all those who live in Zory – young and old. We love our town, founded by Wladyslaw, Prince of Opole and Racibórz, in 1272, and want to show the world its beautiful monuments and unique architecture. Through our tour of historical landmarks, we hope people will become interested in visiting us and will get to know a lot about our local community, its history, traditions and culture through the centuries.

2. Summary of Our Project

Our pupils searched the history of the town and confirmed the discoveries and admiration for the monuments’ beauty and amazing historical landmarks by a lot of photos and drafts. The project describes the founder of the town Zory – Prince Wladyslaw together with his descendants and the monuments, mansions, churches and many other unique places that can be found in our town. We have also presented the uncommon history of the place we live in through the centuries.

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: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):

One of the two fully equipped computer classrooms was won by our school in all - Polish contest “Superschool”.

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

We have joined the Cyber Fair for the first time and ambitiously decided to make the entire project ourselves. We had to research and translate collected materials from Polish into English and finally design all web pages and presentations – it wasn't easy. The problem was with the coordination of the teachers and the students, since they are from different classes and all have different timetables. Because of the technical problems with the Internet access the cooperation between teachers and students was impeded. We also faced problems with computers – the viruses appeared, however our Information Technology teachers managed to overcome them and successfully complete the project. Finding necessary materials was not a problem, however we had to contact many people to get their permission for using all of the materials and photographs on our web page.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

“The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence”. The project proved that we don't have to travel abroad to visit beautiful places and listen to interesting stories, because we have them all around us.

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

Our students learnt many new skills for this project: how to use graphics to enhance communication, how to work with the text, to document resources and sources used, how to conduct an effective search on the Internet, how to carry out a long-term work and how to combine individual efforts to create a large group project. The students also improved their language skills. Speaking, listening, and writing in English language were all important components of this project. They have also found out a lot about the town's history, culture and traditions by searching the historical sources. Younger students learnt how to use the digital camera, how to record short films and how to create the web sites. Using of the Internet has been very helpful to us because enabled us to obtain needed information quickly and easily, made it possible to continue work at home in the evenings, even at weekends.

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

To complete our Cyber Fair Project we used: 6 PC Celeron 433 MHz computers, personal computers at teachers' and students’ homes, printers, digital camera, scanner, telephones, libraries, books, the Internet, museum as well as oral interviews. Most of the tools were available to us here at school. Our most valuable tools were: the computers, digital camera, town museum, the Internet, interviews and books. We used computer software: Microsoft Word to edit information, MS Outlook Express to receive and send mail, MS Internet Explorer and the Internet searchers to search and browse the Internet resources for example dictionaries and encyclopedias, Microsoft Front Page to design our web pages and sometime we used Windows Notepad to correct the html code, Macromedia Flash MX to design computer animations and presentations, MS Photo Editor and Corel Draw to manipulate some photos, digital camera software, CuteFtp to upload our web pages to server. It's important to mention that our school has won fully equipped computer classroom in the all-Polish competition, therefore we had no problems in finding the needed tools.

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

While working on the project, our students personally visited the Town Office, 'Zory's Lovers' Association' and the Zory Museum – History and Culture Section. They talked to the town's authorities and people who know the town's history very well. Every visit was agreed upon and announced by e-mail or telephones. Every time our students briefly explained the CyberFair idea and our project. Many of the adults were also interviewed by our pupils. Parents appeared to be very helpful as well. Some of them helped us by working with their children at home. All engaged people were amazed that our students were so proficient at researching and creating their own web page. They claim that it's very good that youths can use the computer techniques in such a young age and they are glad that our school glorifies Zory all over the world.

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

This project broadens people's knowledge about our town and region, the monuments and history. It encourages to come here and visit the beautiful Zory's historical landmarks. It also reinforces the local patriotism. Many citizens and local authorities have visited our web page and sent us emails saying that we've done well. Our site appeared to be very helpful for other schools too – they used the materials and photographs during their lessons. Our future students can benefit from our project too. It goes without saying that the work we've done will be very helpful to the Dutch and French students who regularly visit Gimnazjum nr 4 and Zory.

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

We would like to thank Mrs Barbara Kieczka and Mr Grzegorz Utrata (members of 'Zory's Lovers' Association') for providing photographs and information about historical streets and monuments in Zory, Mr Stanislaw Szwarc for allowing us to use his postcards ans illustrations, Mr Jan Delowicz for history lesson in town museum, Mrs Krystyna Jurkowska from school library for searching needed materials. Here we present our teachers responsible for the project: Mrs Bozena Tkacz-Biskupek - an information technology teacher and the initiator of the project. She was responsible for the whole CyberFair project and the contacts with various institutions through electronic mail. She was also responsible for the photographic part of the project. Mrs Anna Gaszka - a history and society’s science teacher. She was our historic consultant and dealt with source materials and the content of the project. She checked the historical correctness of our project. Ms Anna Gawelczyk, Ms Monika Raszka, Mrs Danuta Heesch - an English teachers. They prepared all of the texts for publication. They worked with the groups of students, checked their works and helped with all necessary translations. Mrs Aleksandra Tomczak - a Polish Language teacher. She was our consultant while preparing the project in native language. She checked and revised our project in Polish version.

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

Our project has been used during lessons about our town, so called “Knowledge about Zory”, during History lessons and during lessons about the society. It's also been very helpful when the Dutch students visited our school. Most of the materials and texts from the project were presented to the Dutch as a part of a teaching programme about local society. While conducting the research our students found out that very long time ago Zory had wooden waterworks – this appeared to be quite a big surprise, due to the fact that it's been a new discovery in Zory.