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 agricultural products that are distributed all over the region. The best dairy and meat products are made here. The town is by the federal way connecting regional capital Krasnoyarsk with the area of beautiful lakes. A lot of people driving through the city in summer to get to them. The city is developing but at the same time keeping a lot of traditions from the past. We are in the middle of Siberia and Siberia is the heart of Russia.
2. Summary of Our Project
“Babushka” is a Russian word for “Grandmother” that has become known internationally. Our grannies are the center of our community as they are the main keepers of our traditional culture. Statistically women in Russia live much longer than men. They keep the families together, they help the children, they grow their grandchildren. They are the living history of our community. We devote this project to our Granny as Babushka is the heart of our community. With huge love and respect.
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
4. Problems We Had To Overcome
Most of the barriers we had to overcome were related to communication inside the families. Grandmothers who are the main heroines of our research project are usually quite modest and are scared to appear online. They are really worried about their public image and appearance. So the main challenge was to persuade them that their participation in the project is for the good of the community and themselves. Another big challenge was technical as we have only a few computers in class and some technical issues occur from time to time.
5. Our Project Sound Bite
Grandmother's role all over the world is a keeper of traditions in many communities. Uzhur Grannies are unique but at the same time they belong to the Grandmothers of the world that have made the humanity the way it is.
6. How did your activities and research for this CyberFair Project support standards, required coursework and curriculum standards?
The greatest outcome of the project was the students’ practical experience on how to do the research project. The skills of collecting, processing and presenting information are the key ones in many fields of their studies. The content is related to Regional Studies class about local culture. Students learned how to extract data, analyze and categorize it. Some of them discovered the concept of peer-reviewing for the first time. 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 meaningful.
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