School: Solnechny Secondary School # 2
    Solnechny, Krasnoyarsk Region, Russian Federation

4 students, ages 15-16 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on March 16, 2011. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): 2011

Classes and Teachers: Viktoria Kochetenko

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://

1. Description of Our Community

olnechny Secondary school # 2 resides in the town of Town Solnechny is located in Krasnoyarsk region. It is a small isolated settlement in Siberia. The most of its population is military men and their families. Some parts of the city are well planned and comfortable to live in. But there are some areas which are not very well organized. As the town is relatively small we have just one school so most of the children know each other. We also communicate a lot with students from Uzhur town, that is near Solnechny.

2. Summary of Our Project

The purpose of our project is to draw children’s and their parents' attention to the problems of old buildings’ redesigning and to apply their creativity to developing ideas. Our project consists of three parts. First part includes doing some research on what people think needs to be redesigned and some ideas on 'new buildings'. Students also did some research on history of old public objects of our town. Then they organized childen’s activities on creating the models of public objects out of cartons, paper and other materials. After that they tried to use images of those models to “redesign” the town landscapes and evaluate the results.

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):

The were some breaks in internet connection during the work.

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

None of us can be referred as a 'web designer'. That's why we tried a lot of ways to make our work easier. One day we almost gave up because all the web design stuff seemed really complicated but a friend of us showed us Google sites as a tool to solve out problem. And we were able to complete our project with our own efforts.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

Our project is aimed at using children's creativity to find the ways to make our home town a better place to live. That is how we spread the message 'We are responsible for our community! Let's discuss how we can improve it!'

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

Teaching with projects is something new in Russia. And this it the first international project these students participate in. They learned a lot of new information about our town and its people, some things from the theory of architecture. After their work on this project the students have better understanding of design and acquired new skills in modelling and web design. Teaching and facilitating through the Internet was sometimes very challenging but both the teacher and the students improved their skills significantly.

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

We used both PCs at school and at home, 1 digital camera, Google sites web application for the web site design, Picasa web albums application for the presentation, we also interviewed some people on the topic. We also used cell phones and Skype application to discuss and coordinate our team work.

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

The students would like to act as ambassadors of their community and their country both on-line and in person. They actually did really good work talking to people during the project survey because the questions about renovation raised some community problems to be discussed and solved.

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

Many people from our community such as students and teachers from our school, parents and neighbours got really interested in the project. Some of them give some very useful feedback after the project was completed. The idea itself caused discussion about the necessary changes in our community.

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

First, the project team is giving special thanks to our great gifted children who volunteered for design discussion and modelling. They did really good work and we had a lot of fun together! Second, thanks to Anna Ilyushenko, a teacher from Uzhur town who gave us information about Cyberfair and some very useful pieces of advice.

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

We discovered some history of our home town and met some very interesting people who were interested in our project. We turned out to be a great team that would learn and create things together. Sometimes participating in the project was challenging but after all we are so grateful for the opportunity to present our community in this creative way!