1. Description of Our Community
Our local community is the Republic of Singapore , an island on the southern tip of Peninsular Malaysia. It lies in a central strategic location in Southeast Asia , the center of a trade route between the east and west. Singapore is well-known for one of the busiest seaports in the world and her world-class Changi Airport , thus attracting many tourists every year.
Singapore , although a small nation, has many local attractions, with an aim to attract tourists. Tourism has flourished in all parts of the world after World War II, and it is now an important source of income for the destination countries in the tertiary industry.
In order to attract more tourists, Singapore has introduced themes into attractions to offer tourists many things to see and do so that they will extend their stay or plan to return. Singapore is also constantly upgrading and improving on both her Natural and Man-made attractions, to compete for tourists with other countries. She is embarking on the planning of introducing future plans of upgrading of each local attraction, to cater for education and entertainment purposes.
For example, the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) has been trying to make Singapore a dream destination for tourists by showcasing the local attractions via media such as television and international trade fairs. These attractions are not only meant for visitors, but also for Singaporeans, who never ceased to be amazed by the ever changing areas of interest, since they are constantly upgraded to both keep up with the times, and also to give each location a fresh new look for every visit.
Also, the Ministry of Education has included Geography as part of our education curriculum, allowing students to better understand importance of the tourism industry in Singapore , as well as the significance of the local attractions in Singapore . Apart from just studying it in the classroom, students will also get different opportunities to visit these places under the schools, where guided tours are organized to provide the students with proper facts which they can make full use of in different aspects of the learning journey. Combining both work and play together, these outings have been well received by the students. As the future generation are groomed with a commendable knowledge on these places, they will grow up learning to appreciate how these attractions have prepared for the future, and thus will also do this for future generations to come.
2. Summary of Our Project
In land scarce Singapore , whatever is used has to be accounted for, and the use of land has to be maximized. In order to prevent any wastage of land, attractions in Singapore have to plan ahead for the future, be it to attract more customers or to aid in a world wide conservation efforts of different species of animals found around the world. By carrying out research on different locations, we were able to learn about the attraction itself, any special programmes which it might currently have and lastly it efforts in preparing for the future.
Our project deals with the future of various attractions around Singapore , with the important aspect being how these different attractions are preparing for the future, in order to keep up with the times and also to preserve the old, through new methods. In a time when ground breaking technologies can be discovered daily, upgrading is not an option, but rather a must. Therefore, in this project, we will deal with how these areas of interests are making use of these technologies to maximise the attractiveness of the locations. A downside to the development of technologies would be that more and of the old is lost, so technology again is used to counter it. Advancement is science is used to prepare certain attractions, like those with a wildlife theme in mind, to protect and conserve these creatures for the future. As the power to make decisions lies with us, it is important for us to anticipate the events of the future, and take proper measures against it.
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:more than 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
E. Additional comments concerning your computer and/or Internet access (Optional):
For this competition, we have been given access to the lab, and this is done through biometrics, where our fingerprints and stored in a system. To enter the computer lab, a password has to be entered along with a scan of our fingerprints, and this ensures that only authorised users have access to the lab containing the latest Pentium 4 computers. However, this means that we are responsible for the lab, and so we would have to maintain the lab. This is not a problem, since through the course of the competition we have learnt to be more responsible as the lab has been entrusted in our care.
Furthermore, our information is also kept private, our school has a policy, which requires the installation of software called CleanState on the computers. This software clears the files off the computer after it has been shut down. Therefore, this is where the CD writers come into play, allowing us to backup whatever we have done during each of the meetings. This also teaches us the importance of having backups when carrying out any work, since anything can happen, and so this prepares us for any future problems we might encounter.
http://itclub.vs.moe.edu.sg/cyberfair2005/projectnarrative.htm#computer
4. Problems We Had To Overcome
A problem we faced right from the start was the decision making process, where we had to choose one of the many interesting topics set. As with any work done in groups, this will be an issue since every individual will have his valuable opinion, and after hearing each member out, and reached a consensus, deciding to carry out our project on Local Attractions, which seems like a fun topic to do, since it allowed us to travel to different places to carry out our research. We then chose certain tourist attractions which we felt had prepared for the future, and thus we carried out research on these places.
As the team comprised of students of different ages, the main problem we faced was getting together to meet as a team. Even within those of the same age, this problem was also present since we come from different classes, and any discussions had to be held after curriculum time. However, we still made it a point to meet as frequently as possible, so that each member of the group will be aware of the discussions going on in between meetings. These meetings served as sessions for us to share what had been done during the week, and after that, allowed us to plan distribute the work to be done to the members of the group. As it was important to encourage each other along the way, we constantly contacted each other during the week to help any one member which might have problems completing the task assigned to him, so this ensured that all the work was done by the next meeting.
5. Our Project Sound Bite
This competition has brought the members of the group much closer together, as we got to know each other better through the meetings and we have also learnt how to help each other out, since the strengths of one can compensate for the weakness in another, allowing us to complete the project. We have also learnt how to communicate more effectively, be more responsible and how to work together with others of different ages. The website which we have created would allow us to share the knowledge we have gained on different local attractions with our community, as we have presented our findings in a clear manner, allowing one and all to share the fun we had when we created the website.
6. How did your activities and research for this CyberFair Project support standards, required coursework and curriculum standards?
From this project, we learn teamwork, web design (Macromedia Dreamweaver/Flash/Fireworks , Adobe Photoshop). We managed to go to attractions which we ourselves have never managed to visit. We learnt how tourism could have a impact on our society, and learnt the importance of attracting tourists to our country.
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