CyberFair Project ID: 7603

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International Schools CyberFair Project Narrative
Title: Macedonia- Land of the Sun
Category: 6. Historical Landmarks
URL: http://januseva95.wix.com/macedonia
Bibliography: http://januseva95.wix.com/macedonia#!bibliography/c1gjf

School: SOU Jane Sandanski
    Strumica, Strumica, Macedonia

4 students, ages 17-18 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on March 21, 2013. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): first time

Classes and Teachers: Sofija Tosheva

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://www.janesandanski.tk/

Project Overview

1. Description of Our Community

Strumica is the largest city in eastern Macedonia, near the Novo Selo-Petrichborder crossing with Bulgaria. The town is first mentioned in 2nd century BC with the Hellenic name ?st?a??? (Astraîon, Hellenic for 'starry')] by Ptolemy and Pliny. It was later known as Tiveriopolis; it received its present name from the Slavic settlers of the Middle Ages. Strumica is the main agricultural center in the Republic of Macedonia. It has food industry, textile factories and a developed domestic and international trade network. We want to show the world that through the uniting and big dreams people are able to create something extraordinary and share it with others. We hope that people will become interested in visiting this region and getting to know more about our local community, its history and magnificent monuments culture tradition and architecture We are a team from public high school 'Jane Sandanski' with more than 1500 students and 90 teachers and stuff. We have many national and international awards from competitions in different areas.

2. Summary of Our Project

We have chosen the category Historical Landmarks in order to show the world that there is a small but amusing country on the Balkan region which is worth to be talked about and because of its complexity it can never be forgotten.It’s a country with unique history which shows us the development of our nation throughout the centuries and testifies about our forfathers who fought for free and independent Macedonia.The whole Macedonian history is written in many manuscripts and books but the real witness are the numerous Landmarks situated in Macedonia whispering about its past.According to this fact we proudly present The Historical Landmarks of Macedonia in our project named Macedonia-land of the Sun.

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):

-Till 2010 the only classroom that was equipped with computers and internet access was the IT classroom with 20 computers. Nowadays as the government project “Computer for every student” was implemented, our school has nearly 120 host computers and 580 thin clients. Each host computer is divided to be used by 5 thin clients via Ethernet network.

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

A) Incorporating and Combining our Ideas Due to the composition of the team we had for making this project, we managed to make a symbiosis of our ideas and we translated all of our knowledge into a form through which we can influence the world and present our country as a small place, yet very rich with cultural and historical marks. B)Time Management As each project this one too requires total dedication and commitment. First, we had a problem finding room for collective operations. But thanks to the understanding of the principal of our school, we provided a room where we had access to wireless-connection and we were free to concentrate on making our project. We also had a problem choosing a topic on which we will write and explore. In the beginning, we faced a problem that refers to less information about our country’s archeology. Most of the information we had are from archeologists who we contacted with. C) Problems on our way This project requires previous experience including skills from different areas. Our team consists of four high school students with different profiles and therefore was not easy to coordinate with time. We prepared for four years in the field of informatics and gathered information from all areas. We can not precisely define how long it took us to complete this project, because to be competent to work on such a project, time is nothing, only dimension, which is unclear.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

We, capturing a part of the history, culture and traditions of our country, gave a proof that our country is small place on the Balkan, yet rich with natural and historical treasure. To some people the word “Macedonia” may sound like an echo from the past, resonating with stories of Alexander the Great. Despite the vast layers of the past, it has a vibrant and interesting present. There are also traces of rich culture, tradition and history at every step –colorful customs, beautiful scenery and healthy food and drink created from the riches of the land. Our project consists of a wide spectrum of authentic archeological, historical and geographical information which may be used for educational purpose.

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

Through all this 'journey', we have learned a lot of things about our country. Its history as well. We have found out how much our forefathers contributed into building the remarkable history of our land. We also learnt different and new skills from this project: we tried to find out the detailed history, the special characteristic, the behavior and the special spirit and attitude of the people in Macedonia. Trying to minimize the differences in our thoughts, we learnt how to understand each other, giving both ideas and suggestions. We learnt how important is to cooperate with your fellow and communicate all the time. This project helped us to figure out that the key to know our identity and our living place is through the old buildings, national parks, culture and tradition, ancient cities etc. We all know that history classes are not so interesting for all students. But through this project we believe that the national feeling and spirit, national pride and estimation to this historical message of our antecedents will be easy developed. Through the photos of all these different buildings, animals pictures, national parks, the photographic memory of the students will help a lot in their studying , which will be more exciting and interesting.

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Project Elements

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

Doubtless, the computer is a vital tool. It helped us a lot into collecting information from Wikipedia, and from other different web pages, downloading different images which describe better our community. There were also Skype meeting when we didn’t have opportunity for face-to-face meetings. We also used laptops, the school computers, scanners, flash drives and digital cameras.

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

It was something like our responsibility and honor to make more people know our beautiful country by playing the role of ambassadors. Many people in the world do not have enough information for Macedonia and this is a way for them to educate and learn a little more what is happening here. During the programming section in our school we tried to repaint the content of our project, but we didn't discover everything. One day as participants in the English Club 'SQUARE' we promoted our project, with purpose to meet the students with our history. The project was promoted on our school’s website and also in the news on the local televisions in our town.

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

Fabricating this project, made us feel quite proudly of our nation. This project witnesses that Macedonia did exist in the past. When the project was announced in the local media everybody was speaking well of it, because beside all of the tortures, agony, divisions that our nation had suffered, we are here to promote the legacy they left after them. We are here to say that we are proud Macedonians, despite our neighbors. They have strong influence in European Union, and they obstruct us to use our constitutional name Macedonia. This project is our respond to them.

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

Everybody was here for us from the first moment. Our friends helped us a lot with their knowledge in this area. They helped in collecting the material. The enthusiasm and the willingness we saw in their faces was a motivation for us to contribute even more into the project. Also the impact didn't stay away from the older staff in our school. Our IT professor, Sofia helped us to deal with the difficulties while making the web-page. History teachers' help was quite substantial for us. Furthermore our families and other relations gave the best of themselves with exposing us some specific information about our land.

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

With our participation in CyberFair we received a deeper understanding of homeland in which we live. We earned more experience, build up our communication skills, we had fun doing this project and discovered that the team work takes big part in succeeding your goal. We learnt to work with patience and listen to what each other of the group member have to say and then express our opinion and make suggestions about it. We also found out that there are too much knowledge needed to be explored and understood.

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View our CyberFair Project (Project ID: 7603)

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