CyberFair Project ID: 7867

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International Schools CyberFair Project Narrative
Title: Cal Coast CyberFair: Connecting Youth Through Volunteerism
Category: 2. Community Groups and Special Populations
URL: http://calcoastacademyinternational.weebly.com/
Bibliography: http://calcoastacademyinternational.weebly.com/

School: Rancho Coastal Humane Society
    Encinitas, CA, USA

5 students, ages 15-17 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on March 14, 2014. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): 2013, 2014

Classes and Teachers: (Students: Cameron, Sabrina, Max, Jordan, Alex,) (Teachers: Barbara, Masha, Irina)

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://https://rchumanesociety.org/

Project Overview

1. Description of Our Community

With sweeping mountain and ocean views and rolling hills of citrus and eucalyptus trees, Rancho Santa Fe is located just a few miles from the Pacific Ocean and some 20 miles north of downtown San Diego.

Rancho Santa Fe is recognized by the State of California as a California Historic Landmark. The Village of Rancho Santa Fe, The Inn at Rancho Santa Fe, as well as championship golf courses, tennis clubs, equestrian centers, soccer and baseball fields all enrich your lifestyle. The original Rancho Santa Fe, called “The Covenant” (after the document that established the community) is a 6,200 acre rural enclave carved out of the first Mexican political land grant. The Santa Fe Railway purchased this in 1906 and planted eucalyptus trees as a resource for railroad ties. When the wood proved unusable, the railroad decided to develop a planned community of country estates. In 1922 the area was named Rancho Santa Fe and development began. Today, with 4,800 residents, 45 miles of horse trails and its historic Village, the Covenant , which is administered by the Rancho Santa Fe Association (www.rsfassociation.org) continues to symbolize elegant rural living.

2. Summary of Our Project

We worked with the Rancho Coastal Humane Society.

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:4-6

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

D. Number of years our classroom has been connected to the Internet:more than 6

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

We had many challenges. Our situation is changing all the time. We are in a temporary school location. Our regular teacher left the school, and now we are working with 5 different teachers. We had a very short deadline. We have had many technology issues. Internet access is not very reliable at our school. Not everyone has their own computer. The video editing software we used to make our video is on someone’s home computer. We could not find the right kind of external microphone.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

CyberFair has given us the opportunity to improve our project-management skills and to help out our local pet shelter.

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

By participating in CyberFair, we earned community service credit towards our graduation requirements.

For decades the United States has required service learning or community service. Students from other countries may are not familiar with service learning. Service learning involves students in community service activities and applies the experience to personal and academic development. Many people in today’s society view volunteering as un-important, or not really a necessity. This is a very common mistake, and should be fixed as soon as possible. Volunteering can greatly impact the lives of many people, and transform their perspective on life. While volunteering, it is are not only helping others, people are helping expand your own horizons, while gaining valuable knowledge simultaneously. Schools should not only require community service, they should be encouraging it. Many students are not fully grasping the importance of volunteerism, motivating kids, teachers, etc. is a great way to get people involved in giving back to their community. This is a lofty job for one person no doubt, that is why we must work together as a whole to make our community and eventually our world a better place. Even the smallest of ideas and start some of the biggest movements, join in and help today!

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Project Elements

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

We visited the Rancho Coastal Humane Society and conducted live interviews with the staff.

We used computers, cameras, and the Internet to create our videos and our website.

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

We shared our video on social media sites such as YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.

We will present our project at an upcoming local education conference.

We will present our project to the rest of our school and parents.

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

We hope that our project will help save the lives of animals in our community.

We learned that the public can help the Humane Society, by:

Donating blankets Donating dog toys Donating tennis balls Donating items for their thrift shop Volunteering their time

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

We had help from our teachers, the staff at the Humane Society, and two Russian educators who were part of the US-Russia Social Expertise Exchange program.

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

We discovered that everything takes a lot longer to do, than we think that it will.

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View our CyberFair Project (Project ID: 7867)

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