School: Uzhur Additional Education Center
    Uzhur, Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia

7 students, ages 10-16 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on March 19, 2016. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): 2013, 2014

Classes and Teachers: Anastasia Maslova, Anna Bukhtoyarova

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://

1. Description of Our Community

Uzhur is the capital of our county and its administrative and cultural center. It is located in a beautiful place by two small rivers among fields and forests. Uzhur is a small Siberian town with the rich history. It was involved in many historical events. People of different backgrounds and nationalities live here. It is far from big cities so the town was able to keep a special atmosphere where you can feel the history. People who come here to visit usually enjoy the living history of our small Russian city a lot.

2. Summary of Our Project

Our project is devoted to the Local Heritage Museum. It is a very special place for our town and the community.It contains natural and historical exhibits which can tell us a lot about the environment and ourselves. In our opinion this wonderful museum is not well-known enough outside Uzhur. So we would like to tell the world about the history of Siberian nature and people through the museum. Upon agreement with the museum director, we would like to promote the project in our region and beyond. We are doing that for our friends, families and the whole community.

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:dedicated connection

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

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

For all the students it is the first experience in web design and international project management. It took a lot of learning to acquire research techniques and source citing ethics. Most of the students are under thirteen and they go to different schools. So it was their first experience in project team building.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

Our goal was to do something really meaningful and important for the community. We decided to promote Uzhur Local Heritage Museum as one of the main community-building places. Our local museum presents our town as a very special place and at the same time makes it a part of the bigger picture - Russian and World history!

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

As our project was about Uzhur Local Museum the students learned a lot of material that perfectly fits the context of Regional Studies class. Though this class is the part of the school curriculum it is usually not simple to make students be genuinely interested in local studies. They often consider this material to be too familiar. But when local studies are integrated with English and Web design it becomes more interesting for them. The team had to learn a lot of new skills like web design and project planning based on the local studies. This task as well as the idea of “doing that for community” creates much better motivation for the topic itself.

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

The computers that the students were using at our school mostly have software that is rather outdated. As the school has no funding to update the versions to the new ones we decided to choose web based open tools. Google Sites tool was chosen because it was simple enough for the students first experience and of course because it was free. The major challenge for the students turned out to be the difference between the IT tools they use at school and the ones they have at home. So to be successful they had to learn multiple tools with the same functions understanding the principles of their work.

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

The idea of the project was first discussed with the Museum director who asked for help in promoting the resources within and outside local community. Collecting material for the project we asked questions about the museum and its role. Our parents, friends and neighbours shared their opinions with great pleasure. They support our idea to promote our Local Museum and to introduce Russian nature, culture and history to the people worldwide. The students are ready to continue promoting their project and hope to find the teams with similar topics to create some joint activities.

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

The primary community members involved in the project were History and Regional Studies teachers. And of course we have to thank the parents who became our first and very resourceful editors. They gave a lot of recommendations and support. After our project participate in the competition we are going to use it for collaborative online activities with the students all over the world. We already have interest on the topic from Germany and Australia. We hope to start international dialogue on local museums worldwide!

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

We are really grateful to the Uzhur Museum director who provided us access to the museum resources and gave us an interview on her vision of the Local Museum role in the community. The students would not be successful without the help of their parents who contributed their time and support to help the students. And of course they needed some guidance on web design and project management provided by their teachers.

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

We learned how difficult it is to present the heritage that seems familiar for us to the people from different cultures! You need to be clear and to try making them understand why this is important for us. Students learned that people of different ages and interests can collaborate together if they have a shared common goal. It was a great first experience for the team members!