CyberFair Project ID: 6395

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International Schools CyberFair Project Narrative
Title: Mamenxi dinosaurs
Category: 6. Historical Landmarks
URL: http://www.yellowsheepriver.com/~gs000062/2010
Bibliography: http://www.yellowsheepriver.com/~gs000062/2010/zhuan5.html

School: school
    lanzhou, gansu, china

4 students, ages 16_17 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on March 17, 2010. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): 2000

Classes and Teachers: han yafeng

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://gs000062.edu.17888.com/

Project Overview

1. Description of Our Community

The town of Haishi Bay was the place where the government of Honggu District of Lanzhou City located, which was the region's political, cultural and economic center and also a world famous fossil land of Mamenxi Dinosaurs, but also a newly emerging modern satellite town. The Town of Haishi Bay is located in the middle of Lanzhou, Gansu and Qinghai, Xining, the two capital cities, each with a distance of 110 km. The 109 State Road and Lan-Qing railway across the whole territory of the town and made it the connecting roads of Qinghai-Tibet. The average elevation was 1770 meters, the annual average temperature was 7.1 ? -9.1 ? and the total area of 32 square kilometers, covering three administrative villages and five communities, with a total population of 35240, including 5370 rural population, the existing arable land was 3417 mu. National key projects including western natural gas go to east and Lan-xi rail lines and Lan-xi highways all went through the area.

2. Summary of Our Project

We heard about Mamenxi dinosaurs when we were in childhood, but we never knew its hometown was my hometown Haishi Bay. Now we gradually grow up, when we first heard that the 'First Dinosaur in China' was in Haishi Bay, we were very surprised and very curious, through the internet, we understood the Haishiwan Mamenxi dinosaurs generally. The website competition was a good opportunity for us to fully understand the Mamenxi dinosaurs; we also would like to take this opportunity to introduce the Mamenxi dinosaurs to the world. Our research on Mamenxi dinosaurs were mainly in the following aspects: one, online searching; two, field visits; third, visiting to museums.

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:2-3

C. Connection speed used in the classroom:dial-up modem

D. Number of years our classroom has been connected to the Internet:2-3

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

We were not familiar with the activity. Our teacher kept encouraging us. Our topics were different. We got together and discussed every topic and finally made sure that our topic was “Looking for memories hundred million years ago---Haishi Bay Mamenxi dinosaur.

Time is limited. We paid all of our rest time. Lack of hardware equipment. Made full use of the two computers that connected with the internet. Not familiar with practice. Practice ourselves. The road to interview was too far. We took it as a excursion.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

Review: To grasp opportunity and actively take part in and try one’s best, though you are failed, you will not be regretted.

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

In our plan, we used the knowledge of Chinese, history, geography, computers, archeology, and geology and humanities and other subjects. Now our study is book-based, the teachers had lectures in the podium and we sat and listened. In the physics class or in the chemical class, we also occasionally encountered several experiments, and then our teacher demonstrated it in the classroom, but now such a model has not satisfied us. We are successors in the new century, we should not be confined within the knowledge in books, and there’re should be more practice.

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Project Elements

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

Telephone, internet and letters

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

Our school was located in the Honggu district in Lanzhou, Gansu in northwest China. The Honggu district was rich in coal resources and oil resources. This reminded us the geological conditions billions of years ago; there must be certainly a dense forest, then there were definitely lots of species here. In the last century, archaeologists have excavated a few dinosaur fossils here. Through the internet, our group collected a lot of information and news about Mamenxi dinosaurs, and in many websites, we also saw lots of precious pictures and chose lots of pictures to use on our website. In fact, the dinosaur unearthed in Honggu district was known by everyone, since a dinosaur statues was located in the square in the opposite side of the Honggu government, but many people did not know where the dinosaur site was. When we went to explore the site, the students were very happy, talked and laughed along the way, and those who helped us also praised us, the shop owners appreciated that schools should organize more events and introduce our local customs to the nation, to the world, because this kind of activity was really very less and could really practice the children's social skills.

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

The class meeting held by the monitor of Class one, Grade three had an atmosphere that was very active. The reason why we proposed to convene this class meeting was simple, because we had never heard of the Mamenxi dinosaur that unearthed near us. We have always thought of that the huge dinosaur statue was only for visiting and we didn’t know the origin of it. What made us difficult to understand was that people who born and grew in Haishi Bay has never heard of it. Haishiwan have unearthed dinosaur, is this not a tragedy? It also reminded us that to hold a meeting on Mamenxi dinosaur in Haishi Bay was necessary. Now we had such an opportunity to understand more details of Mamenxi dinosaur, in class meetings, several classmates who made websites were all on the podium and introduced Mamenxi dinosaurs to everyone, and they made it very impressive, we all listened carefully and involved. In addition, we found a lot of pictures and written information about Mamenxi dinosaurs, which made this class meeting very successful, in the sound of lively discussions, we unconsciously learned a lot of knowledge again. Ancient dinosaurs only grew in beautiful and natural environment, due to climate change, they lost the original environment and finally led to the extinction of dinosaurs and the formation of fossils, which was enough to illustrate that ancient the Haishi Bay was a place that with dense forests, warm climate, rippling blue waves and was suitable dinosaurs and other marine animals. The extinction of the dinosaurs was a great loss and there should be a deep thinking. The society was in progress every passing day, science and technology was developing to the trend of high, refined, sharp and new, but our partners have no room for survival. Over-developed industry and the use of fossil fuels contributed to climate warming; excessive deforestation, the decline of 'Earth's lungs' function, over-grazing, large areas of land was bare, dust storms swept; over-fishing, and even poaching, species developed from rare to extinctive. The environment was deteriorating and we should wake up and protect our environment for survival. Learning about knowledge about dinosaurs, students had positive response and began to protect and care for the environment. The value of this activity was best expressed.

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

In order to explore the dinosaur remain, we must first find our way. We used e-mail to contact the archaeological enthusiasts who had explored the dinosaur remain and we also inquired the teachers in our school face to face, they provided us with useful information. In the field visits, we also asked the small shop keeper, the water plant staff and the shepherd and finally made sure where the dinosaur remain located. During the visits, there have been some interesting things, there were several big grooves in the mountains, we could not determine which one was right, but because the heavy rain, the mud and water buried the sites in the ruins so that we passed the dinosaur remain three times but we didn’t find the right location. Eventually, students climbed to the summit and asked the shepherd and finally made sure that the dinosaur remains which we passed three times.

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