1. Description of Our Community
Let us present a small Siberian town Uzhur that is located more than 300 kilometers from Krasnoyarsk, the biggest city of the region. The main industry here is agriculture. The best dairy and meat products are made here and distributed all over Siberian region. The town of Uzhur is located by the federal road connecting regional capital Krasnoyarsk with the area of beautiful lakes in the south. A lot of people drive through our town in summer to get to the lake area. Uzhur is developing as a district center but at the same time the town keeps a lot of heritage and traditions from the past. We are in the middle of Siberia and Siberia is the heart of Russia. Welcome!
2. Summary of Our Project
“Siberia” sometimes sounds mysterious for people from outside Russia. They often imagine cold, bears and strange people in fur coats. But this picture is very incomplete. Our mission is to share the true image of Siberian people with the world showing their real stories. In our opinion the best way to present people is through the cultural events that are important for the community. That is why we decided to create an encyclopedia consisting of two parts: “Celebrations” and “Ceremonies” about our home town and some smaller villages around. “Celebrations” will tell you about the local specifics of celebrating Russian national holidays in our area. “Ceremonies” will show you traditions of private events that happen throughout the life cycle of most locals. We believe that local culture is mostly about community cultural events. And those events are all about people. With warm regards from Siberia!
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: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):
The main problem was the lack of computers connected to the Internet at school. Teachers had to bring their private computers and ask their family for the same help.
4. Problems We Had To Overcome
For many of the students it was the first experience in web design. They had to learn not only about the tools to create it but also about research techniques and proper source citing ethics. The students are of different ages and go to different public schools so it was a real challenge for them to work productively as a team. For most of them it was the first international project in their life. So it was hard for them to manage but very interesting and inspiring.
5. Our Project Sound Bite
Imagine people in Siberia! How they live and look like? Now go to our website and check if your guess was right or not. Learn more about us and compare our culture with your own one!
6. How did your activities and research for this CyberFair Project support standards, required coursework and curriculum standards?
The greatest benefit of the project was the students’ practical experience on how to do the research project. The content is very much related to Regional Studies class teaching about local culture. But thanks to the competition we had a chance to have a fresh view on the topic. Students learned how to extract data, analyze and categorize it. They discovered the concept of peer-reviewing. They applied the international rules of research ethics. They also contributed a lot to English language learning in practice. That is not very common for Uzhur, a remote Siberian town where the students have very little chance to really practice a different language. The project gave them a great opportunity to apply their knowledge for something very practical.
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