1. Description of Our Community
There are approximately 450 children who attend our elementary school. Battle Ground is a small community of about 1000 people. Many of the residents work in the nearby city of West Lafayette, where Purdue University is located, or across the river in Lafayette. We are a historical community since the name of our town is related to the Battle of Tippecanoe. Prophetstown was the town of many warriors amassed during Tecumseh/Prophet’s Confederation to rid the frontier of settlers. Prophetstown was located along the Wabash River where it intersects with the Tippecanoe River, both of which are near our town. William Henry Harrison, our 16th president defeated Tecumseh’s and the Prophet’s warriors here on November 11, 1811. While the community has that small town look our students are bussed from surrounding housing additions or country homes. Very few of our students' parents are involved in agriculture despite the agricultural look of much of the land around our community.
2. Summary of Our Project
Indiana History is the Social Studies curriculum in fourth grade. Since we have a significant event in our town relating to this history we always focus on it in some sort of significant way. It is "important" to be knowledgeable about one's own community heritage. This year the Tippecanoe Battlefield Museum and the Battle Ground Elementary School worked collaboratively in the recognition of the 190th anniversary of the Battle of Tippecanoe. We visited the Museum this year in September instead of November, the date of the battle, in order to begin the process of the students becoming "experts" on the Battle of Tippecanoe. We then picked an area and studied it in detail. We have some pictures of this day. http://www.wvec.k12.in.us/battle/classpage/album01/battleday/battleday01.html With our topic we then did further research at school through October. We wrote the presentation with partners and practiced speaking orally to the class. A few days before the anniversary of the Battle we again went to the museum with parents and practiced several times. Three schools were invited to attend the day of the Battle for us to "share" our expertise. The presentation then was recreated this spring to "share" on the Internet for Cyberfair and Canaltrek. Keeping community heritage alive is the "care and share" value of the community. The Museum is a testimony of this value. Our recreating this event for the Internet community is focus of this project.
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:4-6
C. Connection speed used in the classroom:dial-up modem
D. Number of years our classroom has been connected to the Internet:4-6
E. Additional comments concerning your computer and/or Internet access (Optional):
Our classroom's Internet access is through an Internet Provider. We have a 56K modem. The school lab is wired through a T-1 line and is connected to the school corporation. The school corporation now has its own server that maintains many of the school related sites. Our lab contains 30 machines with Netscape's Composer as a web editor that the students used.
4. Problems We Had To Overcome
Actually our technical problems were little. We used software I knew and our lab has an Internet connection. Each student was able to create their page in the lab. Time was our biggest obstacle. March comes very quickly!
5. Our Project Sound Bite
"It's about their history and participation in their community," emphasized manager Cindy Bedell when explaining the joint project between the museum and the Battle Ground fourth-grade. This a quote taken from our local newspaper and exemplifies that "Care and Unite" value.
6. How did your activities and research for this CyberFair Project support standards, required coursework and curriculum standards?
Our fourth grade curriculum covers state and local Indiana history. The CyberFair project is an authentic application of many of our curriculum standards. ( Standard 1 History: Students will describe how significant people, events, and developments have shaped their own community and region; compare their community to other communities and regions in other times and places; and use a variety of resources to gather information about the past.) The activity also supports the language arts standards. We read a biography of Tecumseh and Harrison and the writing, interviewing, researching, and oral speaking are all part of our standards. There is a link to these included standards on the Tippecanoe page. http://www.wvec.k12.in.us/battle/battleday/tiippecanoe.htm The created site then gives the students an authentic place to publish what they have studied.
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