School: St. Paul Lutheran School
    Farmington, Missouri, United States of America

9 students, ages 12-13 years old worked together to complete this CyberFair project on March 22, 2010. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010

Classes and Teachers: Leanna Johnson and Eighth Grade class

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://stpaulgiants.com

1. Description of Our Community

Our community of Farmington, Missouri, is located in the Midwestern part of the United States. We are a rural city of about 15,000 people and located on the TransAmerica Trail for bicycling. This route goes across the United States.

2. Summary of Our Project

Our project focuses on competitive bicycling but we also show how popular bicycling is in our local community. We spent some time learning about the Tour of Missouri and gathered information about how it’s organized and funded by the state. We investigated the sport, science and history behind bicycling. And finally, we supported our local community by making it a better place for cyclists to stay while traveling the TransAmerica Trail.

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

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

We had to fight the temptation of being lazy and not doing our work all the time. We had to overcome the ever-present problem of us girls being the girls we are and bickering when we should have been working together on our project. But we have overcome our problems.

We had to work a lot of field trips into our schedule and also we built not just this website, but another for our community! It was a lot of work!

5. Our Project Sound Bite

We hope to show that no matter how young or old, bicycling is a good sport to participate in for lots of reasons. Good health is important!

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

Almost every standard of the ISTE-International Society for Technology in Education (http://www.iste.org/, NETS-National Educational Technology Standards for Students standards (http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForStudents/2007Standards/NETS_for_Students_2007_Standards.pdf), are met by this CyberFair project. We also follow guidelines as presented by iNACOL standards for learning-International Association for K-12 Online Learning (http://www.inacol.org/research/nationalstandards/). Research and collaboration online allowed us to apply our digital skills. We will be better prepared for the future by securing these standards as daily classroom practices.

We learned online video-conferencing skills, online synchronous and asynchronous learning, interview methodology by using email, Skype and Elluminate digital tools. We believe these tools are the future and our engagement with them better prepares us for our future careers.

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

Our tools: Radio interview, paper flyers for fundraiser information, Dell computers, the Internet, local newspapers, and mobile phones.

We used Google Sites to build our two websites, Google Documents to upload PowerPoint presentations, YouTube to provide links to videos, a Canon camcorder for videotaping and photos, Microsoft Word for transcription of documents, and emailing and texting for correspondence with the community, as well as participating in a radio interview for our fundraiser. We used Skype and used Elluminate to have synchronous discussions with our mentor, Mrs. Johnson, because she was not actually in our classroom. She met with us online and visited us in class. We learned how to make a Google Sites by using online support and help forums.

Google Sites gave us the opportunity to build the website easily. Because it is web-based, we could work from home or school. The best part is that you can leave comments if the site is shared among the workers. So, we were able to leave comments to each other and collaborate on the project together anytime we wanted. Our teacher left suggestions for us as we worked on the websites, and we had a couple meetings with her online using Skype and Elluminate. That was something we really had fun with. It shows how well you can collaborate on a project without being face-to-face with each other.

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

By putting out flyers and doing interviews to spread the word about our project, we let other people know about it. We traveled to Jefferson City, Missouri, to speak with Lt. Governor Peter Kinder about the Tour of Missouri and found out that the Tour of Missouri race brought in $38.1 million dollars through tourism. We talked with several people over the Internet to set up our interviews with them in person or on the phone or when we went on the radio.

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

It raised money and informed people on the Tour of Missouri and it impacted our community by raising the awareness of how much we actually need tourists to come into our little town. If we keep up the increase in tourism, then we could get important things with the tax money it generates to keep it a nice community.

By donating items to Al’s Place, we are helping out total strangers when they come through our town. We will make it possible for them to email home and have all the good things to get a good night’s sleep. We want them to know that Farmington is a great place to visit!

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

It involved the people of the community a great deal. We depended on the information that we obtained from the people of the community to help us out a lot in our journey to completing our CyberFair project. We have a lot of help and support from our community to get this done with all information we could grab.

The city administrator took us on a guided tour so we could see what our community does to promote friendship and tourism. The lieutenant governor spoke to us about the Tour of Missouri. The local cyclists invited us to help them with their events and promote bicycle safety. It was fun to learn all these things. We didn’t know that one sport was so important for us locally and internationally.

The newspaper and radio stations helped us promote our fundraiser and our project. It was very helpful to have support from them, too.

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

We have learned how to work together without fighting. Also, we had the experience of interviewing workers of our town and state. When we do this when we are young, we get the experience that we need to be successful in life, like developing our communication skills. We get to interact with others, so that in a business situation we are not constantly bickering with each other and getting fired from future jobs. We get good social skills that are necessary to learn when were young so we have what we need when we are older and on our own. Also, giving us and kids all over our world this experience is rewarding for the judges of our projects--a chance to see how well we are being taught and how hard we are pushed to achieve and succeed.