Our Story Project Information
1. Name of site: http://www.k12.nf.ca/fatima/vtour.htm
2. School: Fatima Academy
Avalon West School District
St. Bride's
Newfoundland
Email: darwalsh@calvin.stemnet.nf.ca
3. Teachers:
Darlene Walsh, Pat Dohey, Diane Williams
4. Classes Participating: Grade three and
Grade eleven students
5. Number and ages of students participating:
13 Grade three students, ages 8 - 9
7 Grade eleven students, ages 16 - 17
Project Reflection
1. Fatima Academy is a small, rural school located on the
southeast coast of Newfoundland. It has a student
population of 260 in Kindergarten to Grade twelve.
2. "A Virtual Tour of the Cape Shore" is a project geared to
display and showcase our unique corner
of the world Grade eleven students researched and, for the
most part, built this site in 1999. We wanted to update
information and add what was missed in the last year such
as new events that has happened and historical information
that has been discovered. The Grade three students wrote
reports on why they like to live in Branch, Point
Lance and
St. Bride's. They also wrote about why they liked to visit
Cape St. Mary's and Gooseberry Cove. A couple of
students in Grade three wrote a report on Lears Cove,
the
new playground, and Long Ago. The Grade three
students
scanned the pictures to go with these reports for the
website. The students were involved in research,
both
primary and secondary, to find out information about
the
different communities that make up the Cape Shore.
With
the teamwork of students, teachers and others in the
communities, we were able to update this unique site.
3. In doing this project, it seemed like
we had a limited
amount of time to do this. We all worked very
hard
together to get this done. Time wasn't
the biggest obstacle
for us in this project because we had lots of time
to do it.
We have, however, gathered sufficient information
to
complete this project.
4. In order to create our website we had to use several
technology tools. First, the Grade threes and the Grade
elevens used the digital camara
to take pictures of various
sites in the communities. Also, we used
the flatbed
scanner to scan some pictures that we had brought
from
home. With Ms. Williams' help, the Grade threes made
sound files to display their talent by singing "Here On The
Cape Shore." In addition, we also used different
programs
such as Netscape Composer and Paint Shop
Pro. Finally, we
also used Netscape Composer to construct our webpage
and Netscape Communicator to test
it.
5. The project goals related to our curriculum in many
ways. For instance the Grade threes are
learning about
each of their communities in their Social Studies class and
by constructing this website, it gave them a greater
appreciation about their community. In level II, we are
doing a course called Leadership. In this
course we were
introduced to this project and 7 of these students
were
asked to help out with the project.
6. The impact of this project on our learning has been a
great success. We now have a wide range of knowledge
on
each community of the Cape Shore and from this we
have
a great appreciation for our
ancestors and the history of
our community.
7. We connected through our community by doing
interviews with several people and also researched in
books. We also took pictures of historical sites
and other
scenic routes.
8. If
we were to do this project again we would add new
information to update and improve the site. We would also
like to look at different aspects of the area such as folk songs
and add more sound files containing these songs. Then the
whole world could learn about folk songs of the Cape Shore.
Other ideas could also be explored.
9. The recomendations that we would give to other
students and teachers planning on creating a website
similar to ours would be that,
it is a fun and rewarding
experience. Creating a website like
this causes you to look
for information on different communities and this
helps
you to become more aware of the history
and culture in
that particular community. Creating thistype
of website
takes a lot of time, work, and dedication. Wesuggest
that
if you are a very dedicated person you could create
a
website similar to ours.
10. Thoughts on this project:
"Helps you to learn more about the Cape Shore History."
"A great piece of innovative technology!"
11. Mrs. Walsh, the coordinator of this project, has some
thoughts about
the project to share.