OUR DIVERSITY Our team is made of 6 students from 3 different schools and 2 different countries (and continents). In addition, our team members have variety of ethnic backgrounds and experiences. We have a student from Croatia who helped us better understand the small farms, avian flu that actually appeared in Croatia, as well as how important chicken is worldwide.  The rest of our students have different ethnic origins, including two students who are children of the first generation immigrants and an African -American student. We started our research in response to the news of the Avian Flu, and did nor think about what a great role a small animal like chicken plays in cultures around the world - including our cultures. The research we did for this site opened our eyes to how the issues that are important to us are also important to people from around the world. Through discussions with our parents and experts  we realized that the problem of infectious diseases is more far reaching than just our city or our country. Also, the issue of poverty is important to all of us. Several of our students grew up in a city and had no knowledge of what it takes to raise chicken and how the success of chicken farms affects how we live.  We had fun with dishes from different origins and realized that although we come from different backgrounds we all enjoy food . We were amazed how many different tastes can chicken have and the spices that people from different cultures used. We also realized that all cultures have their own traditions, but they are often related. and somewhere in history maybe had same origin. For example a tradition of painting Easter eggs was a little different in each or the cultures, but each culture had a neat way to carry the tradition on.  We had fun communicating with each other and realizing how our differences make us more interesting, just like our food or colored eggs.   GLOBAL RELEVANCE OF OUR SITE Chicken industry is a major employer and source of cheap, healthy nutrition all around the world. Changes in this industry affect how people live in all corners of the world. The good example of the effect of chicken industry on our world is the current issue of avian flu. This disease is spreading from continent to continent very fast. It is important to be familiar with this disease since all of us can spread it. For example, if you visit a farm in Croatia that has avian flu cases and then fly to the United States an visit another farm, you may start the spread of disease in North America. This is not as impossible as it seems. Just think about how many people travel from Europe or Asia to America every single day! An outbreak of the avian flu means that chicken have to be destroyed. This means less chicken are available to lay eggs or be slaughtered for meals. Less chicken means more demand and more demand means higher prices of chicken and egg. If the prices are higher, less people can afford it. Since this is an important source of protein, this means that many people will lose a good source of nutrition. As you can see, issues that concern chicken are important everywhere in the world, for the people of all socio economic levels, races and nationalities. Why is it important for kids our age to know about this? First of all, we should be informed. Knowing the facts can make it easier to make a choices in everyday life. For example, with the outbreak of avian flu it is good to know that it is safe to eat chicken and eggs that are properly cooked. In addition in today's world people move around a lot! We need to be aware of the issues in other countries to make us safer. For example, it is important to know the ways to prevent getting Avian Flu if traveling to country that is affected. It is also important to become aware of different jobs and opportunities so that we can prepare and plan for our future.  It's amazing to realize that our world is actually very small and that although we may speak different language or look a bit different we are all affected by the same issues and our futures are very much linked by global economy!