School: Creekside Elementary
    San Diego, California, United States

15 students, ages from 9 to 11 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on March 30, 2002. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): 2002

Classes and Teachers: Devora Garrison, Joe Erpelding, and Anne Gillespie

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://powayusd.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/pusdcses/default.htm

1. Description of Our Community

We are some of the fourth and fifth grade GATE students of Creekside Elementary School. Mrs. Garrison and Mrs. Gillespie are our teachers and Mr. Erpelding, a Kindergarten teacher at our school, is helping, too. We have had 15 students working on this project. Our names are Blake, Jared, Vincent, Michael, Laura, Brooke, Alex, Tiffany, Chelsea, Alexander, Mark, Brandon, Brooke, Kylie, and Carmel. Our school is part of Poway Unified School District and is located in San Diego, California. We live very close to MCAS Miramar and consider them a part of our community. Many families who have a parent working on the base live in our area and attend our schools.

2. Summary of Our Project

San Diego is mostly known for attractions like the beach, the San Diego Zoo, and Sea World. Most people don't realize that we have a vast population of saiors and Marines stationed all over the San Diego area. MCAS Miramar is only a few miles from our school. At recess and lunch we see the aircraft from the base fly overhead during their practices. With the recent tragedy of 911, all of us are more aware of the incredible significance of the military and our own patriotism. The Marines and sailors at Miramar are dedicated to serving us and we wanted to show we care for them. The base intrigued us so we were determined to learn more about these dedicated men and women who serve their country and us so selflessly. We now want to share what we learned about them with all of you!!

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:2-3

E. Additional comments concerning your computer and/or Internet access (Optional):

We have two dedicated T-1 lines serving our school. We have a 21-station moblie wireless laptop lab and a stationary lab with 22 PCs. Through grants written within the District. We have digital still and video cameras, a scanner, and two MAC computers with iMovie for editing our videos.

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

Our biggest obstacle was time. Working on the project while maintaining a full classroom schedule was challenging. We also had to work around the differences between the kindergarten schedule and uppper grades'.

We are fortunate that our principal encouraged the project so we were able to get coverage for our classes while we researched the project with a field trip.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

This project has given us the opportunity to learn more about an extraordinary group of men and women. We are proud to share our Marines with the world.

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

Creekside’s Marines project met reading requirements by using strategies to understand the text. We used these strategies when reading about what the Marines do to help the U.S. We also thought of questions after making judgments with support from the text. Organizing and using multi-paragraphs when we wrote reports for our website helped us meet writing standards. Technology standards are gaining experience and developing skills using the Internet for research along with continuing to develop skills using digital hardware. We met these skills when we used the Internet to find information on the marines and what they do. When we took pictures with digital cameras and camcorders we developed our digital hardware skills. We also learned to input them onto our own website. History standards required using maps or globes. We used maps when finding Marine bases in San Diego. Internet research has been very effective. It was effective because it was much faster than flipping the pages of a book. It had more chances of getting information than books and had more information. It was also more recent and could be updated faster.

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

We were fortunate to have access to a wide variety of technological resources. Everything we needed we had at the school. Mrs. Gillespie and Mrs. Garrison won a grant from our District which provided much of the equipment we used: Power Mac, 2 iBooks, 6 PCs with Windows '98, 2 digital cameras, 2 scanners, 1 digital video camera, and 1 digital still camera. We used several pieces of software to help us design our page: MS Word, MS PhotoDraw, MS Frontpage, iMovie, and Outlook. Our students became experts using the different pieces of software and then became teachers themselves. The use of technology caused students to work together cooperatively. No one piece of technolgy was more helpful than another. The cooperation and eagerness of the students was our most useful tool.

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

After we decided to do the web project, we needed to have some interviews to gather information. We contacted many people we wanted to interview and ended up interviewing quite a few of them in person. We got to interview Major General Bowden, a General at our local Marine base. We also got to interview Mrs. Beydler, a woman married to a commanding officer, about what life is like with her husband in the Marines. Then we got to tour the marine base. We were proud to represent our school community as we met the marines in our community. The people we have come in contact with were thrilled that we were taking an interest in them. They all seemed very impressed with our project and our use of technology. The students have been wonderful ambassadors as they demonstrated their poise and proficient use of technology.

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

There has and will be effects on our community that the Marine Corps has started. The Marine Corps has helped us in numerous ways. They help if there has been a disaster, for example a fire. The Marine Corps helps to clean up when disasters happen. If children or even adults have been through hard times around the world, the Marine Corps will lend a hand. If you heard about the war on terrorism, then guess who helped out on that? If you guessed the Marine Corps, then you’re right on track. We want the community and world at large to realize what heroes we have living in our own backyard. The reason why we did this web page is because we wanted to start a partnership between our school and the base. We want people to be aware that the Marines need housing and donations to help their wonderful work to keep go on. We might need the Marines someday and if we don’t help the Marines out then they might not have the right equipment to help us out. We are hoping that we will foster a greater sense of community between our school, community, and the base.

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

There has already been an impact on us because of our project. We have a better personal awareness of things that are happening in our community that we were unaware of. We realized that these Marines need our help and support as members of the community. They need our friendship, and they need us to help care for their families while they are away. They need our help in encouraging the governement to build more housing so that the young marines and their families have affordable places to live that are in decent condition. The impact on the students has been staggering. They have become so confident in their use of technology and their parents are thrilled with their expertise.

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

All of the teachers involved in the project maintain personal web sites. It was a shock to realize how much longer it takes when you are instructiong students and then stepping back to let them create on their own.