NEWS

ThinkQuest Newsletter
December, 1999

Contents:

1. F E A T U R E: My TQ LIVE!

Now is the Time to Register for My TQ and Participate in TQ 2000 Programs

*Yo, It's Time for Braces" Finalists and Presenters at GII Awards

My ThinkQuest [MyTQ] is a fully customizable site allowing members toselect the specific content which is of most interest to them.Membership is free and in addition to the customizable content, members have access to our services including: Chat Rooms, Bulletin Boards, Mail lists, Help Desk, Tutorials, Team Maker Database (a way to search for potential members based on criteria that you can specify).

* Anyone who plans to participate in ThinkQuest Internet Challenge

* Anyone who plans to participate in a ThinkQuest for Tomorrow's Teachers Team

* Anyone who wants to customize their ThinkQuest website browsing experience.

You will find the step-by-step guides for ThinkQuest Internet Challenge, ThinkQuest Junior, and ThinkQuest For Tomorrow's Teachers.My TQ also contains Tech Guidelines, Participate, The TQ Server and Contest FAQ. To join My ThinkQuest, simply fill out our online form at http://www.thinkquest.org/my_tq/signup.shtml 

MyTQ includes an Acceptable Use Policy as an essential part of participation. The Acceptable Use Policy requires that you: tell us who you are, informs you about what you cannot put on any Thinkquest site, requires you to get permission if you use someone else's information, and specifies several conditions for use of the email service.

Next Issue: Look for a Copyright Statement to use in your entry.Advanced Counsel Jay Rosen has focused on the kind of language that will help you with this specific task.

It's important to keep your site up to date for several reasons. Besides the fun of finding out more and trying new technology, don't forget that teams that have not previously won an award are eligible for the Gem Award. Improving your entry may bring more visitors and help you to get the Gem!

To have your account reopened, please send a message to the ThinkQuest helpdesk with your full name, Team ID, and Team Password. Once this information is confirmed, we will notify you that your account has been reopened.

Paris Treantafeles Software Developer & System Administrator

ThinkQuest is happy to pass on a communication about a Millenium web event. It is sponsored by m2live: 

"Here's your opportunity to speak up and let the world know what you're thinking. On December 31st, 1999 the largest New Year's Eve celebration in history will take place and the Millennium Live broadcast will capture it. Starting in Fiji and traveling through every time zone across the globe, the whole world will be connected for the first time to watch, experience and celebrate the beginning of the new Millennium. Concerts, New Year's celebrations and other local events highlighting the unique cultures and people throughout the world will be captured via a televison broadcast, radio broadcast and Internet site at m2live.com.
Through the web site, submittals from individuals of all ages, races and genders will be gathered to be included in the broadcast. The thoughts, hopes and dreams of the people of the world will be presentedfor all the world to see.
We encourage you to submit your thoughts, pictures, photos or songs at www.m2live.com and you'll have the chance of seeing your entry on virtually every television set in the world!" 

From Jamie W. Parry, m2live

ThinkQuest made Newsweek!!! Only four sites were listed as being great for teens and ThinkQuest is one of them.

The placement appeared in a special edition of Newsweek called "e-Life, The Best Stuff for Your Family." It's under the "Just for Kids" section and the article is called "Teens are Web People, Too". It mentions two TQ sites The Soundry (1998) and Modern Miracles: Organ Transplants (1999). ThinkQuest is featured in both the print and Internet editions; the Internet edition has hot links back to ThinkQuest. Here is the URL:

ThinkQuest also made the online edition of Wired magazine, Wired.com. Check out this URL:

- Andrea V. Papa Director of Marketing and Communications ThinkQuest Programs 

* GII Award Finalists and Presenters: Team 5029: Yo, It's Time for Braces New York, NY. 11/29/99. 

In June, 1999, ThinkQuest Junior awarded a team of three students, Madeline, Valentin and Svetlana, from Queens, NY a Platinum Award in the Health category. Their educational web site about orthodontic braces was aimed to help ease children's fears by informing them about the entire process. "Yo, It's Time for Braces" has been featured in November 1999's issue of Girl's Life Magazine, The Orthodontic Cyberjournal, the New York City Board of Education's website, Yahooligans, Bonus.com, Spotlight-Verlag, an English language magazine in Germany, and on many other education-related web sites.

The "Yo, It's Time for Braces" team was thrilled and honored to have been named Finalists in the 4th Annual Global Information Infrastructure GII) Awards in the category of Health. Jen McClure, Public Relations for the GII Awards reported on December 15 that the Team did not win in the category and that they were presenters at the Awards.

Furtherinformation on the GII awards can be viewed at http://www.gii.com.

- Press Release Excerpt Prepared by Team 5029 http://tqjunior.advanced.org/5029/ 

4. E L E C T R O N I C S C H O L A R' S N O T E B O O K (C) 1994, '99

Los Angeles, CA. 11/20-21/99. This column was originally intended as an idea starter for ThinkQuest 2000 entries.

Three ThinkQuest Commentators prepared a set interview questions and used them in interviews with five ThinkQuest finalist Teams. Brad,Suzanne,and Lu interviewed the teams that created: 

eB4T [eBiz for Teens], http://library.advanced.org/28188

ES2000 Endangered Species, http://library.advanced.org/25014

Laughing Out Loud to Good Health, http://library.advanced.org/25500

The Contemporary Art Experience, http://library.advanced.org/26183

and The Asian Century: Paths to Power http://library.advanced.org/26638

A summary of the responses to each of the main questions follows.

The teams responded that "meeting each other" (if they were a multicountry team), "getting a chance to come to L. A. ", "seeing other's applets" and "finishing the site" were "best parts" of their journey. Other responses included the fun of meeting so many other people ("seeing Ariel Pt. 12 as a person"), and the Awards Event itself. There were a few surprises for some members at the face-to-face meetings with team mates: "He was supposed to be six feet tall!" Teams kept in touch primarily through e-mail and ICQ, as well as a few expensive long distance phone calls. One member who was traveling during the height of the web construction visited Internet cafes to keep in touch with team mates.

Question: "What, in your opinion, makes your site stand out from all the rest?"

All teams reported that their topics are unique, and each team saw definite audiences for them. The eB4T team to create a site for teenagers to help them make money, The Contemporary Art Experience team saw a deficit of resources on women artists from Australia, and Laughing Out Loud believed that "everyone was stressed, everyone could relate" to their site. The Asian CenturyTeam wanted to see their continent and cultures given attention, and the Endangered Species team saw "making a difference" as an important goal for their work.

Question: "What do you plan to do with your site after the competition is over?"

Most teams found that the time factor made a difference in what they planned and included. Plans for maintaining the site included additional information, construction of a database, and maintaining the site so that the site could "grow by itself".

Future ThinkQuesters may get some ideas for purpose and possibility for their sites from this brief view of winners' remarks. The ideas you may gather from the interviews includes considering your audience, making your topic unique, learning from communications among team members, and seeing what others considered as the best parts of their experience.

Thank you, Team members who responded to electronic and in-person interviews. Expect to see your reflections in future Electronic Scholar's Notebook columns! 

- Patricia Libutti, Ph.D., ThinkQuest Cybrarian

* Languages Used in TQ Entries 
[Can You Guess How Many?]

* Opinion: Net Safety and My TQ