School #2: Karkaraly, Kazakhstan

The School

Karkaraly is a small town of 10,000 people in central Kazakhstan. The town is nestled up against Karkaraly National Park. The town is surrounded by mountains.

Kazakhstan Facts:

Capital: Astana

Size: 1,687,443 sq miles (2,717,300 sq km). Kazakhstan is the ninth largest in the world, equivalent to the size of Western Europe, four times the size of Texas, or five times the size of France.

Population: 15,399,437 people. Kazakhstan has the 62nd largest population in the world, though its population density is less than 6 people per square kilometer (15 per sq. mi.).

Languages spoken: Kazakh (state language) 64.4%, Russian (official, designated the "language of inter-ethnic communication") 95%

Religions: Muslim 47%, Russian Orthodox 44%, Protestant 2%, other 7%

Independence: December 16, 1991

Bordering countries: Russia, China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and also borders on a significant part of the Caspian Sea. Kazakhstan used to be part of the Soviet Union and now shares its northern border with Russia- the longest land border between two countries in the world, 4,251 miles (6,846 km).

The Russian space program is based in Kazakhstan. In 1961 Yuryi Gagarin, the Russian cosmonaut, made the first manned space flight from the Baykonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Today, Russia leases approximately 6,000 sq km of territory enclosing the Baykonur Cosmodrome and still launches its space program from here.

The western border of Kazakhstan is the Caspian Sea. It is the world's largest enclosed body of water. Much of the Aral Sea is also in Kazakhstan. This was once the world's fourth largest body of inland water, but has dramatically shrunk since the former USSR diverted two rivers that fed the sea for irrigation purposes.

Geography: Mountains line the eastern and southeastern borders of the country. The tallest peak in Kazakhstan is Khan Tengri. It rises to 7,010 m (22,999 ft). But most of the country is steppe, a granssland prarie without trees. Historically, people of Kazakhstan were nomadic and lived in yurts on the steppe.

The Kazakhstani Flag

Zurich International School- Zurich, Switzerland

Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland with a population of 361,129 people (the metropolitan area has a population of 1.68 million). The city is Switzerland's main commercial and cultural centre. It is one of the world's pre-eminent global cities.

Switzerland Facts

Size: 41,277 sq km; slightly less than twice the size of New Jersey

Population: 7,604,467. Foreigners account for 20% of the population

Languages spoken: German (official) 63.7%, French (official) 20.4%, Italian (official) 6.5%, Serbo-Croatian 1.5%, Albanian 1.3%, Portuguese 1.2%, Spanish 1.1%, English 1%, Romansch (official) 0.5%, other 2.8% (2000 census)

It has the highest mountains in Europe, together with waterfalls, rivers and lakes set amid green pastures.

Switzerland is also known as "Confoederatio Helvetica", which explains the abbreviation “CH”.

Federal Republic since 1848.

English Class- Troy, Montana USA

Troy is a city in northwestern, MT with a population of 957 people.
USA Facts

Size: 9,631,418 sq km. About 1/2 the size of Russia; about 3/10 the size of Africa; about 1/2 the size of South America (or slightly larger than Brazil); slightly larger than China; about 2.5 times the size of Western Europe.

Population: 304,059,724

Languages spoken: English 82.1%, Spanish 10.7%, other Indo-European 3.8%, Asian and Pacific island 2.7%, other 0.7%

Independence: July 4, 1776 from England.

Montana Facts

4th largest state in the US.

7th least populated state in America. The density of the state is six people per square mile. The average square mile of land contains 1.4 elk, 1.4 pronghorn antelope, and 3.3 deer.
Montana has the largest grizzly bear population in the lower 48 states.

In Montana the elk, deer and antelope populations outnumber the humans.

Size: Montana, with an area of 147,047 square miles, is the U.S. state closest in area to Japan (145,883 square miles).

Montana state flag

USA flag

Omega Combined School - Namibia

Omega Combined School is one of the communities

located in the Bwabwata National Park, formerly called the Caprivi Game Park.

Namibia Facts

Capital: Windhoek. The name Windhoek is of Dutch origin meaning 'corner of wind'. Windhoek is located on Namibia central high plateau region.

Size: 317,700 sq miles. Just over twice the size of California and well over three times the size of the U.K.

Population: 1.8 million. The country is very sparsely inhabited. It is the second least populated country in the world, behind Mongolia. There is 1 person for ever 2.3 square km.

Large areas of Namibia are desert. Near the coast lies the Namib Desert. This desert is the oldest in the world. It is about eighty million years old, and has the world's highest sand dunes. It is sometimes called the Living Desert due to the wide range of its fauna. In eastern Namibia is part of the Kalahari Desert. The Kalahari Desert is the ninth largest desert in the world. It comprises of parts of Namibia, Botswana and South Africa, but the greatest part of the desert is in Botswana.

Languages spoken: English 7% (official), Afrikaans common language of most of the population and about 60% of the white population, German 32%, indigenous languages 1%

Independence Day: March 21, 1990 from South Africa

Bordering countries: Angola, Botswana, South Africa, Zambia

Namibia was the first country in the world to incorporate the protection of the environment into its constitution; some 14% of the land is protected, including virtually the entire Namib Desert coastal strip.

Description of Blog's Purpose

This is the blog site of a multi-cultural project.

The scope is to bring together classrooms from countries
such as Argentina, Romania, Kazakhstan, Namibia , United States
and possibly others.

"The name of this blog is The Pando Project. Pando is latin for
"I spread" and is also the name of a Quaking Aspen grove in Utah.
These trees are 1 singular organism, connected at the roots. We
thought that was a good analogy of human kind and liked the latin
name, as we intend to spread information on cultures."

The idea is to develop topics and have each classroom post a
blog article to voice their opinions. The forum will be open and
not limited.

We feel that this blog could give a great opportunity to observe
how each classroom voices their unique opinions. One of the
blog's goals is to allow the participating students to get to
know about each others cultures and countries. In certain
countries it will be the first time students will have the
opportunity to use email and communicate with others
using technology. For those, it should be impactful.

We are hoping that the blogging will begin sometime around the
new school year in September 09.