Abstract
Thinkquest is a worldwide competition funded by the Oracle Foundation that focuses student efforts on project-based learning. Each year students around the world assemble in teams under the guidance of a coach to identify a project and build a Web site to present that topic. In 1996, Oracle Foundation (http://www.oraclefoundation. org/) began an annual competition that by 2006 had grown to include 30,000 participants and an online library of resulting Web sites, the Thinkquest Library, and projects numbering more than 6,000 (Thinkquest, 2007a, para 2). The age of participating students spans ages 9-19. The team has to have a coach who then enrolls the team through the Thinkquest Web site in order that they are up to date with the requirements, submission process, deadlines, and evaluation criteria for the competition.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Thinkquest Library: Additional innovative learning resources for students of all ages on many different educational topics. This library could be a useful resource for instance in student and teacher research. As of February 2007, the Thinkquest Library included over 6,000 Web sites which were created by students from around the world as part of the Thinkquest competition. ( http://www.thinkquest.org/library )
Think.com: Think.com is an online collaboration site where educators can select a topic and then have students and others from around the globe engage in discussing and exploring it together. ( http://www.think.com/en_us/ )
Thinkquest Winners’ Page from 2006: Each year the Thinkquest competition has a Winners’ Page published in order to celebrate the work of the students which have been rated the highest in the competition. This site provides an online portfolio of these authentic representations of their research, creativity, and collaborations. ( http://www.thinkquest.org/aug05may06/ )
Thinkquest Live: The annual global event honoring the competition’s winning teams. Arriving from around the world, students and coaches celebrate their Thinkquest and academic achievements. In an unusual twist, some of the Thinkquest team members may meet at Thinkquest Live for the first time as they have worked on their online projects in geographically separated locations during the competition. ( http://www.thinkquest.org/competition/tq_live.shtml )