Fwd: Think Quest

[Guest guest]

For Students and Educators: If your class, students, or school would like to

participate in Think Quest - please read below and check

www.abilitymagazine.com for details. Winner's will get scholarships $$ and

awards. 2000 Winners are listed below. Read News Release

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Forwarded Message:

Subj: Think Quest

Date: 1/4/01 2:55:44 PM Eastern Standard Time

From: ABILITYMagazine@... (Chet)

CC: maricarlin@..., LongIslandAbility@...,

suzannat@... ( - Long Island Office)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: JANUARY 4, 2001

AND THE WINNER IS!

THINKQUEST TO ANNOUNCE 2000 WINNERS AT BIRTHPLACE OF THE WEB

ARMONK, NY ThinkQuest today announced that it will be holding its

ThinkQuest 2000 Internet Challenge finalist judging and celebration at

the birthplace of the World Wide Web, the world famous CERN, The

European Laboratory for Particle Physics, in Geneva, Switzerland. More

than 120 students and coaches from around the world from as far away as

India, Ireland, and Iowa ñ will be attending the weekend event on March

17 - 19, 2001. ThinkQuest's Internet-based programs

(www.thinkquest.org) are free to enter, and recognize winning students,

coaches, and schools with scholarships and cash awards.

Our ThinkQuest finalists have produced and contributed their entries to

the global Internet community, and it is fitting that their efforts be

rewarded at the very place where the World Wide Web began,î states Dr.

Terry , CEO and president of Advanced Network & Services, the

non-profit corporation that founded ThinkQuest. We hope that their

creativity and inventiveness will inspire other teens to join the

ThinkQuest revolution. In fact, we expect to increase participation to

one million students by year 2005.î

The ThinkQuest Internet Challenge matches teens of different

backgrounds, continents, and cultures, to create educational websites.

This year's participants come from more than 80 countries, and the

finalists, who will be going to Geneva, represent almost 20 countries.

The ThinkQuest students communicate and collaborate by email and chat

sessions, assign themselves tasks from research to graphic and web

design, and work with an adult coach to bring their website from

conception to culmination. For most of the finalists, the Geneva event

is the first time they will meet their teammates in-person.

The weekend will include an opening reception, International Food

Festival, interviews with the Internet Society judges, tours of area

attractions and of course, the Awards Ceremony and Dinner where winners

will be recognized for their efforts. Their website creations, ranging

from the " Art of Speech " to " Van Gogh at Etten - Sketches and

Billboards, " are posted and easily accessible at

http://www.thinkquest.org/tqic/finalists_2k.htmlwww.thinkquest.

About ThinkQuest

The annual ThinkQuest Internet Challenge, a philanthropic and

educational initiative, invites teams of students, ages 12 to 19, to

work together to create an interactive, well-researched Web site on a

topic of interest to them. These teams work for more than eight months

to gather data, conduct research, and learn about the Internet as they

build educationally rich sites. Upon completion, the entries become a

permanent part of the ThinkQuest Library, available to teachers,

students, and Internet users across the globe. Collectively, the

ThinkQuest participants, many of whom are new to technology, have

created 4,000 Web sites on topics ranging from diplomacy to space

exploration to growing up with epilepsy. These Web sites are found at

<www.thinkquest.org> the most heavily trafficked educational destination

on the Internet with an estimated 120 million hits, and 2.5 million

unique users, per month.

Since its inception in 1996, 50,000 young Web designers from 100

countries have participated in the not-for-profit ThinkQuest programs.

There are two ThinkQuest contests, the ThinkQuest Internet Challenge

(for students ages 12-19) and ThinkQuest Junior (for girls and boys in

grades 4-6). These programs encourage collaboration, leadership, and

critical thinking and help raise studentsí self-esteem, along with their

technological skills. Contest rules are designed to narrow the ìDigital

Divideî by giving greater weight and higher rankings to mixed gender

teams that include members from diverse levels of computer competency,

and cultural and geographic backgrounds.

Students who are interested in signing up for the ThinkQuest 2001

programs should go to website www.abilitymagazine.com and log onto <

HYPERLINK - THINKQUEST - " http://www.thinkquest.org " www.thinkquest.org >

for details and rules.