International Schools CyberFair 2000
Project Narrative

Historic Wilson County, Texas
A Virtual Field Trip

Information About Our Site

1. Link to our CyberFair 2000 Entry
2. Link to our School Home Page
3. Date of Project: March 24, 2000
4. School: Floresville Elementary School
   District: Floresville I. S. D.
   City: Floresville, Texas, U.S.A.
5. Teachers or Classes:
   Diane Berger, teacher.  Classes: G/T groups (gifted/talented) grades 3 - 6.
6. How many students worked on this project? 58
7. Their ages were: 9 - 12
8. Project Contact Email: dberger@floresville.isd.tenet.edu

Project Overview

1. We entered our Web site in CyberFair Category:
   Historical Landmarks
2. Description of "Our Community"
   Our community includes those who remember and cherish the historic past of Wilson County, Texas, and those who would learn about that past and maintain those memories. Wilson County is a rural county located south-east of San Antonio in South Texas. We have many historic buildings, landmarks and communities, and are famous as well for having produced numerous Texas Rangers.  Come visit us and see what is unique about our home!
3. Summary of Our Project
   We have created a "virtual field trip" to historic Wilson County. As we researched and wrote, we kept in mind this question: "If a student from a foreign land wanted to know about what life used to be like where we now live, what would we show them? How would we tell them our story?" We'd want to show them our courthouse and the Old Jailhouse Museum. We'd want to tell them about the Rancho de las Cabras which was built at the same time as the Spanish missions in Bexar county. We'd want them to know that no other county produced as many famous Texas Rangers as Wilson County. We'd want to tell them about the smaller communities within our larger community, some of which exist now only in memory. We'd want them to learn who we were and who we are.
4. Our Internet Access
   Our school, Floresville Elementary, is connected to the Internet using a LAN (Local Area Network) and a T1 line, through our district.  
5. Problems We Had To Overcome:
   One of the major problems many students encountered was that there is not much information (either in libraries or on the internet) about  the subjects they chose to study.  They overcame this problem by researching the original point of focus and by putting the information online themselves.  Several students had difficulty contacting individuals who they were going to interview.  It was difficult to schedule times for tours of buildings, interviews, etc.  By persevering, students were usually able to get the time they needed with their sources.  Giving proper citations was a problem for some students.  They did not realize that it is much easier if you write down all the bibliographical information from the source as you use it, instead of going back to get it later.  Citing works correctly for students as young as 8 or 9 can also be difficult.  We tried our best to give credit where it was due, even if the form was not always completely correct.  Siblings who worked together on their project had difficulty keeping track of who had done what.  At certain points in our project, some students were much further along than others.  Instead of having "down time", the students who could do so helped their peers.  Those who could touch-type helped with the word-processing; others scanned and resized photos for their fellow-students who were working on other parts of their projects.  We helped each other get the job(s) done!
6. Our Project Sound Bite
   Our participation in Cyberfair allowed us to meet individuals and to learn about parts of our community that would have otherwise remained unknown to us.  Students and community members formed relationships which we hope will continue for some time.  

Project Elements

This section explains how our project addressed the project elements found in the CyberFair Assignment to Schools.

1) How did your activities and research for this International School CyberFair project support your required coursework and curriculum requirements?

In Texas, we have required learning objectives called TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills).  These target the core curriculum areas of Reading/Language Arts, Math, Science and Social Studies.  Technology TEKS have also been recently added.  The G/T program (gifted/talented) is required to provide students with challenging activities which they could not get in the regular classroom, while also addressing the core curriculum areas.  One way in which our G/T program does this is to allow students to share their learning with a larger community by building web pages and putting them online.  In the course of creating our Cyberfair project (A Virtual Field Trip to History Wilson County) we strengthened our skills in Reading (during the course of research), Writing (as we created our reports) and Social Studies particularly (as we learned about the history of our community).  We learned research skills (by using libraries, online sources, personal interviews, and so on).  We also extended our technical skills by putting our research into web page form (which required us to know how to process text in a web-editor, manipulate images, link web pages, etc.)  We worked as groups to review and proofread each other's reports and to complete the Project Narrative.  We hope to provide a valuable education resource for our community (our school community as well as our Wilson County community at large) by the creation of our web page.  We learned that when there is a need for information on a particular subject on the internet (Wilson County, for instance!) that means there is a good opportunity to fill that need, and we hope that is what we have begun to do.

2) What information tools and technologies did you use to complete your CyberFair project?

• telephones (as an  information-gathering tool; some interviews were also conducted by phone)

• digital still cameras, digital camera used for MPEG movies, standard cameras and scanners to convert hard copy photographs for use on the web page, scanners to digitally preserve historic photographs and items
  
• tape recorders (for note-taking prior to writing)

• computer software (especially Netscape Composer, Microsoft Front Page, Adobe Photo Deluxe)
  
• libraries (special thanks to the Wilson County Library)
  
• books, newspapers (special thanks to the Floresville Chronicle Journal)
  
• museums (special thanks to the Old Jailhouse Museum and the Texas Rangers Museum)
  
• oral interviews (more than anything else, we used our friends, relatives, and community members and their memories!)

We found that, for our particular project, digital cameras and scanners were particularly useful.  We had access to those through our school, and some of us also had our own digital cameras.  Our Virtual Field Trip is in large part truly visual; in order to show the interesting views of Wilson County (buildings, cemeteries, statues, etc.) we needed to include many images.  We could not have completed our project without the ability to quickly include many such images.  Also particularly useful to us was the "thumbnail" feature on the software program "Microsoft Front Page".  When we wished to show many photographs on a single page, this software allowed us to create an index which would load quickly, yet let visitors see large and clearly detailed versions of those photographs.

3) In what ways did you act as "ambassadors" and spokespersons for your CyberFair project both on-line and in person?
Most students made their initial contacts with community members through the networking efforts of their parents or family friends.  We are a fairly small, rural community and many families have lived here for generations.  Other students simply went and asked for information from county officials in the courthouse (for example).  One community member made a list of "experts" who would be willing to be contacted, and one high school teacher, Tambria Read, was a particularly enthusiastic participant in this way.  In the course of their research, students explained to community members what we were trying to accomplish in our project. 

In at least two cases, we were particularly grateful to online contacts who gave us permission to use copyrighted work from their web pages.  The Texas Ranger Hall of Fame Museum web page allowed us to quote portions of an original poem.  A sculptor (Lawrence M. Ludtke) allowed us to use an image of a sculpture he created.

Community participants seemed genuinely pleased that students wished to learn about the past which many of them remembered personally.  Often the best "side-effects" of the project was that young and old had a reason to sit down and visit with each other.  Students were impressed with the knowledge embodied in their elders, and the elders were often impressed with the high-tech talents of the young people.  (The digital camera was an especially big hit!)

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

Through our "gift to the community", approximately 130 photographs of historic value have been scanned and stored in a digital format for any interested individuals to view.  Through the use of school web space, these valuable historic documents are both safe from further deterioration and available for viewing at any time to the community.

Many individuals in the community now realize that certain young people, at least, are fascinated by the past and how their predecessors lived.  They now know that we attempt to teach more at our school than just the basics and that we attempt to give students the opportunity to go above and beyond.

Although our web page is going up right at the contest deadline, and so has not been promoted in the community at this time, we hope and trust that it will be a valuable educational resource for students and an entertaining trip down memory lane for those who shared their past. 

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

We'd like to thank all those members of the Wilson County community who helped us in our quest to learn about our past.  Many individuals gave us their time and their memories, and we cannot mention them all here.  Some, however, deserve special appreciation.  They include: L. Newnam and J. Fietsam for helping Mrs. Berger get started and knowing who to call; T. Read for being willing to be called; V. Duff, our Wilson County librarian who knew where to look things up; F. Randall and J. Witten for the historic Wilson County photographs; Mrs. Randall again for permission to use the Wilson County seal, along with L. Stadler, and H. Hamilton who helped create it;  the numerous courthouse officials who helped with research on that building; those who gave tours of the Old Jailhouse Museum;  all those individuals, named and anonymous, who were willing to be interviewed; the many parents who took time and trouble to help with the individual reports.

Three web sites were particularly useful as sources of information.  The first was the Texas Ranger Museum and Hall of Fame  which was invaluable as a source for the students researching Texas Rangers and their history in Wilson County.  The second was the Lawrence Ludtke, sculptor  web page which provided us with an image of Gov. John Connally.  The third is a great general resource on all matters Texan: The Handbook of Texas Online. 

6) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises: Were there interesting discoveries you made, lessons you learned, or surprises that occurred as a result of this project? If so, take the time to share these insights and observations with your audience.

Note from the teacher (Mrs. Berger)  The result which pleased me most of all was that in so many cases, this project caused young and old to sit down together and talk.  It created an opportunity which would not have existed otherwise for family members, acquaintances and community members to share their memories with the children.  It also allowed those children to show an interest in the past which might have remained unstirred.