School: Cannelton Elementary
    Cannelton, Indiana, United States

4 students, ages 8-10 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on March 15, 2008. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): 1998, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, '06, '07

Classes and Teachers: Mrs. Goble - CES Media Club

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://www.cannelton.k12.in.us

1. Description of Our Community

Cannelton is a small and very historical town located on the banks of the Ohio River in southern Indiana. It has a rich heritage which dates back to 1837 with the founding of the American Cannel Coal Company. It now has about 2000 residents, many of whom have lived here all of their lives. Cannelton has seen many hardships and many triumphs throughout the years yet it is still going strong. Cannelton residents want to keep our town alive and prosperous, as well as preserve its heritage.

2. Summary of Our Project

Our project, Furry Friends of Perry County, was created in order to help promote the adoption of homeless pets in Perry County. We also hope that it will make people from all over the world more aware of the plight of homeless animals, and motivate them to get involved in any way they can to help these animals and/or help organizations such as animal shelters, animal sanctuaries, and other animal rescue facilities to find loving homes for animals in need.

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: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):

At our school we have a T1 line to the Internet. In our classroom we have five computers connected to the Internet. We have had internet access at our school for eight years now. About 50% of our students have Internet access at home.

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

We only encountered a few problems while working on this project. The main problem was keeping up with the animals at the shelter. There is a high turn-over of animals there. This was really a good problem though, because it was because animals were being adopted, at a fairly high rate. :-) Sadly, there were always new animals coming in as well. So, we had to make sure to keep updating the dog and cat lists. Another problem was when we all ended up getting the flu at nearly the same time. The illnesses, and also two snow storms, took about two weeks off of our work time. We managed to finish our project in time though by working together and helping each other with all aspects of it.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

Furry Friends of Perry County, to us, is very important because it makes people everywhere aware of the plight of homeless animals. Homeless pets are a problem all over the world, and we are hoping that our website will give people a realization about this problem and will motivate them to adopt a homeless pet when they want to have a furry friend in their lives.

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

Curriculum standards in civics (Social Studies) are addressed in this project. We learned that we can make a difference in the lives of homeless animals by taking an active role in finding them new homes, helping them to get spayed or neutered, and helping to fund their care at the shelter. We worked cooperatively, researching about the shelter and animals and interviewing the staff members of the shelter. We organized the information we found on their site in an easy to understand and comprehensive way. Service learning is an important way to learn and this project gave us the opportunity to help our community, and give other communities strategies, so that homeless animals can be adopted. Creating the website itself met our language arts standards and also gave us skills in working with word processing, webpage building, researching on the Internet, photograph editing, and allowed us to use creativity skills in design. All of these are lifelong skills that will help us in future. We discovered that young people can make a difference in the lives of others, including the lives of our furry friends! :-)

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

Mostly we used still cameras, computers, oral interviewing skills, telephones, Internet and e-mail, and webpage and image editing software. We were very happy to have the assistance from Perry County Animal Shelter in gathering photographs and information about the animals and the shelter itself. We also were very happy to have cooperation from Best Friends Animal Rescue Society who gave us information and support about spaying and neutering and why adoption of homeless animals is a good option for obtaining a pet. We used the computers to create the website and to edit the photographs. We used the digital cameras to take photographs of the animals and the shelter. We used the phones in interviews. All of these tools came from our school. The most valuable tools are the computers and the Internet. Without the Internet we could not share with the world about our homeless animals and about wpaying and neutering and why it is so important. Helpful tools were the digital cameras, so we could have photographs of these homeless pets so that they could be adopted quickly by letting people see what wonderful animals they truly are.

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

We acted as ambassadors and spokespersons for our Cyberfair projects and our school by organizing fundraisers and collecting items for the animal shelter, and also by creating the website itself. We visited the shelter numerous times to gather information and take photos of the animals for the project. Posters were made to tell the community of the animals and these were placed in many businesses in the community. We also organized classes in our school to sponsor animals of the shelter for their spaying and neutering. Future endeavors include helping at the upcoming Animal Shelter Open House and more fundraising for the shelter. We heard from some people who have adopted animals from the shelter that they found out about their new pet from our efforts...some from the posters and some from the website. We also have heard from various people in the community that they like seeing the posters showing the animals because they like it that students are taking an active role in helping the animals find new homes. The shelter staff members have told us that they believe that our frequent visits to the animals of the shelter lifts up the animals' spirits, and they think it is having a positive long-term effect on their well-being in the shelter as well. So, we plan on keeping our visits up from now on. Knowing that we are helping the homeless animals is what keeps us working hard. Our biggest reward is in knowing that because of something we have done for the animals we are helping them find good loving homes.

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

The positive impact is that we are helping to get the word out about the homeless animals of our county and it is helping them to get adopted. We believe that our project will continue to make a difference for the animals in that it will help more of them to find new homes. We also believe it will help people to understand the importance of getting their pets spayed or neutered so that there will not be more homeless animals. As we mentioned above, various people have told us that they like seeing our pet posters in area businesses and hope to continue to see them. Some people have told us it was due to our posters and website that they found out about their new pet and adopted it. We have a great working relationship with the Perry County Animal Shelter and we believe it will continue to be as we continue to work to help the animals there find new homes. It is knowing that our website is having a positive impact on the lives of the animals at the shelter that keeps us going. We will continue to keep the website current, updating the animals' lists so that people will see all of the sweet and wonderful pets they can adopt from the shelter. The Internet is our key to this because it gives a world-wide audience to us, which is a powerful tool!

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

Members of the community who helped us include our fellow students from the school, especially in fundraising and collection of food and other items for the shelter. It also includes the staff of the Perry County Animal Shelter because without them we could not have the updated information about the pets featured on our site. Our teacher, Mrs. Goble, helped us a lot, getting us to the shelter and giving us time after school in her room to work on the project. She also allowed us to use an original design webpage background for our background/template. She even shared photos of her and the dog she and her family adopted from the site! (She found him on our third visit to the shelter!) A great big thanks also needs to go to Best Friends Animal Society because they helped us with information about spaying and neutering and also about the 'adoption option', why it is a great idea to adopt homeless animals rather than buying them from pet stores. They continue to offer their assistance to us in finding new homes for the homeless pets at our shelter. We want to thank everyone who aided us in any way to get the word out about the homeless animals here in Perry County. We especially want to thank Global SchoolNet's Cyberfair for giving us this opportunity to help homeless animals to have a better future!

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

This project has given us a chance to feel like we have an impact on the future of the homeless animals of our county. We know we will continue in our efforts to help them in any way we can. This has been, and continues to be, an enriching experience for all of us!