CyberFair Project ID: 6649

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International Schools CyberFair Project Narrative
Title: Water - source of health
Category: 7. Environmental Awareness
URL: http://www.waterishealth.byethost6.com
Bibliography: http://waterishealth.byethost6.com/bibliography.html

School: Eudoxiu Hurmuzachi National College
    Radauti, Suceava, Romania

7 students, ages 15-19 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on March 15, 2011. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): 2008, 2009, 2010

Classes and Teachers: Magdalina Saviuc

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://

Project Overview

1. Description of Our Community

Our local community is located in Romania , a Central European Country. Situated in the center of the depression with the same name, at an altitude of 360-380 m, Radauti has established its hearth in the confluence angle of Suceava with Sucevita. The oblong form of the dumps (NV-SE) favors the conduct of the wind blowing in this way, and the numerous water surfaces introduce some changes in the normal way of meteorological elements. The average annual temperature is 6.9°C; the average annual temperature of July is 18.2°C and of January -5.3°C. The average annual rainfall is 643.6mm. The clime is temperate. At first sight, an opened territory, the area of the town called Radauti is well hidden in a natural way, by the swampy land that surrounds it. This natural protection, associated with the vast possibilities of practicing the agriculture and cattle rising, have made Radauti, from the ancient times, an adequate place for living (the oldest signs found are from 7000 years ago). The first document that certifies the town dates from 1392, where Radauti was mentioned as the village of Radomir, making part of his properties, from which, as some versions say, it is supposed to have derived the name of the town. Other opinions say that the settlement has its origins in old times and the name “Radauti” comes from the Latin word Rottacenum, given by the soldiers to name the roman garrison in Siret. Under slave influences we assist at a distortion of the original name Rottacenum and its conversion to Radauti, as it appears in later documents. The name of the town proceeds from the name “Radu”, probably a ruler of the local community before the foundation of Moldavia. The oldest certification documentary of Radauti dates from 1413, in a document of Alexander The Kind. At the middle of XIV century, there was already a flourishing settlement here, so that Bogdan I (1359-1365) decided to build at Radauti the main church of the country, which became the center of a bishops. The archeological researches have found, around the St. Nicolas church (Bogdana Monastery) some proofs of human inhabitance previous to Bogdan’s age, which would plead for the existence, in Radauti, of an anterior center to the formation of the state.

2. Summary of Our Project

Our project is called “Water, source of health”. Water has a very important role in human society and its influence on our lives is tremendous. Therefore, preserving the quality of water is of utmost importance. We discussed with the school's doctor and decided to organize a manifestation that could help us inform our colleagues about the dangerous effects polluted water has on our health. In this process we had the support of the school board and of our colleagues.

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:4-6

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

Although our chemistry teacher helped and supported us, problems still occured. We all know that working in a team can be entertaining, but sometimes also difficult. We had also problems activating the Web Page. Some inconveniences appeared also when making the experiments. It was quite difficult to keep track of all the data we received from our determinations.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

This project started as an experiment, as a simple idea that no one of us saw as a success, as something that could be realized. The impact on some of the students and teachers couldn’t be neglected.

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

Working in a team, we developed our social skills and learned how to organize such an activity and a lot of new things about our health. We also had the opportunity to use the foreign languages learned at school. Our opinions were not always the same, but we tried to take into consideration the opinions of all team members.

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Project Elements

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

Because it’s a complex project, we needed solid information gathered throughout the Internet, from different medical pages, but we also needed some statistics taken from several books. We used 7 computers because each member of the team did his part on his own computer, a printer and a scanner. To create the Web Page we needed the following programs: Adobe Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Photoshop, PHP Designer 2007, Apache & Mysql Servers, Microsoft Office Suite (Word 2007, Power Point 2007, Excel 2007 ). For the experiments, we used the equipment and substances provided by our school's laboratory. Each part of the equipment played an important role, but the most important were the Internet and our PCs, without which we couldn’t have succeeded. The IT lessons from school helped us create the web page and the chemistry lessons helped us make accurate interpretations of the results of the experiments.

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

Globalization is the fundamental aspect of the contemporary world. That means that diplomacy is the first instrument in this new trend. Connections with the mass-media and local authorities are vital for an international project. To convince our colleagues to enter this Web Page and take notice of our activity we participated in the National Symposium 'Chemistry, friend or foe?' organised by the Bucharest University, where we received an honourable mention.

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

The fundamental part of our project took place in the school Chemistry laboratory and in the National Symposium held at Bucharest University. Not only did students learn things concerning the bad effects of polluted water, but also adults and officials. Everybody was shocked by the high number of diseases determined by polluted water. Our page helped students that hadn’t participated in our activities inform themselves about our project and also to learn new things about water. Our purpose was to raise an alarm about the current state of our waters. We think our project was a total success.

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

Our partners were: the spokesman of Save the children Organization, the Suceava County Scholar Inspectorate, Radauti Police, the County Health Organization. The experiments were conducted on samples of water gathered from around our city, as well as from within, as advised by local health agencies.

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View our CyberFair Project (Project ID: 6649)

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