CONTENTS IN THIS ISSUE:

1. A N N O U N C E M E N T S

- ThinkQuest Junior Entries Coming!

- Four ThinkQuest Participants Chosen for APEC Youth

Science Festival

- Partners meeting March 23-26, 2000 in White Plains , NY

2. T H I N K Q U E S T I N T H E N E W S

- ThinkQuest CD ROM Used in Instruction with Librarians

- ThinkQuest and Upcoming Conferences: Look for Us!

3. T H I N K Q U E S T T E A M A C T I O N

- "Twisters" Site Spun in Many Directions

- "Endangered New Jersey" Team Expands Awareness

- "Travel to Oriland" - Travels Beyond Russia

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

You Have the IDEA ---How Do You Find Out More?

Teams Tell TQ

1. A N N O U N C E M E N T S

- ThinkQuest Junior Entries Coming!

The Entry deadline for ThinkQuest Junior 2000

is March 31st. The online ThinkQuest Junior Awards

Event is scheduled for Thursday May 18th. Good luck

to all the ThinkQuest Junior participants!

- American Association for the Advancement of Science(AAAS)

Selects ThinkQuest Students for Youth Science Festival in

Singapore

Four ThinkQuest candidates were chosen by AAAS to be

part of the twenty students attending the 2nd APEC Youth

Science Festival in Singapore this summer. Students who

had participated in ThinkQuest who will be attending

include Helen Chang, Joshua Chong, David Mericle, and

Andrew Miller. Congratulations to all of you! The official

web site for the event is < http://www.2aysf.edu.sg/ >

-ThinkQuest Partners Meeting March 23-26, in White Plains , NY

The Partners Meeting, chaired by Dr, Grant Beglarian,

Director, ThinkQuest Partnerships. This annual meeting

brings together ThinkQuest partners from around the world

to discuss ways to strenghten ThinkQuest programs. This

year sixty participants from 42 organizations will be

attending.Look for a feature article on this event in the

April 2000 Newsletter.

2. T H I N K Q U E S T I N T H E N E W S

- TQ Used in Instruction with Public and School Librarians

Pam Berger, the ICONnect Task Chair, American Association

of SchoolLibrarians (AASL) < http://www.ala.org/aasl/ >, is

the instructor for an innovative program for librarians

on collaborative web building. She notes that a librarian

will be able to develop a site for their building. "The

building may be a school, a home, or a public library". A

part of the course was the exploration of the ThinkQuest

2000 CD ROM. The program is a Title III Project, Long

Island Educational Enterprise Zone, funded by a New York

State Technology Challenge Grant. Librarian-students

spoke with the ThinkQuest Cybrarian at the New York State

Library Association Convention, saying "Pam helped us know

ThinkQuest!". One of her publications,Information Searcher,

has past issues that can be read at

< http://www.infosearcher.com >.

- ThinkQuest at Upcoming Conferences: Look for Us!

Mark your calendars to visit the ThinkQuest booth if you

are attending the National Science Teachers' Association,

April 6 - 9 at the Orange County Convention Center, Orlando

Florida. ThinkQuest will be at Booth #672. There will be a

ThinkQuest presentation by Nancy Velez, Saturday. April 8,

5:00 P.M. . Check the Conference program for the location.

3. T H I N K Q U E S T T E A M A C T I O N

- "Twisters" Site Spun in Many Directions

http://tqjunior.thinkquest.org/4232

"Twisters" is a 1998 ThinkQuest Junior entry which didn't

win, or even make it to the finals. But this site

generated more than 155,000 hits, presently averaging 227

hits daily. Niki Mariskanish and Justin Latta are praised

by their peers for the resource which helps their peers

in reports and tests. "Twisters" created a place for people

to share their fears and incredible tornado experiences.

Nelson Publishing Company < http://www.nelson.co.uk > is

purchasing the rights to publish one of the interviews for an elementary

- "Endangered New Jersey" Team Expands Awareness

http://tqjunior.advanced.org/5736/index.htm

(Gold Award winner in the 1999 competition)

This ThinkQuest Junior site on endangered species in New

Jersey, frequently receives technical questions. One

biologist contacted the team about a species correction

and was amazed to discover that the site was created by

three students in sixth grade . "I thought it was the

state's official site! I'm very impressed!" he replied.

New Jersey put a link to the site on the state's site.

"Endangered New Jersey" was featured on New Jersey Search

and is included in their search engine database as a "N.J.

Proud" site. The site is currently featured in the magazine

New Jersey Outdoors' (Winter 2000 ).

-- Thanks to Ken Ronkowitz, Team Coach

- "Travel to Oriland" - Travels Beyond Russia

http://library.thinkquest.org/27152

This team was invited to the French Origami Convention in

Paris in the beginning of June as the guests of honor.

"Paper Europe" (December 1999) from England featured an

article about Oriland, called "Origami Originality". The

article focused on the coaches' psychological research and benefits of

origami, as well as

photos of "Travel to Oriland" and the award in the

ThinkQuest Competition. Thanks to Yurii and Katrin, Coaches

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) Copyright 2000

Patricia Libutti, Ph.D., ThinkQuest Cybrarian

You Have the IDEA ---How Do You Find Out More?

Teams Tell TQ

This month, The Electronic Scholar's Notebook article

features ways teams focused on content research for the

sites. Often, the research paths influenced the design.

Read the variety of ways that ThinkQuest Internet Challenge

winners discussed their research styles.

All teams were asked: "How did you do your research for

the site? What kinds of information sources seemed most

important?"

Laughing Out Loud to Good Health

< http://library.thinkquest.org/25500/ >replied:

"I was responsible for the whole stress section, bits of

the emotions section and also I did quite a bit of the

laughter section. For stress and emotions, I used mainly

books from my coach (she's a health psychologist), mom

(studied psychology) and from various libraries (including

that of the University of Cape Town). Because laughter is

a very new healing method, most of the information for that

is on the Internet. For me, the most useful and important

research sources were the people that I interviewed and

consulted. They varied from a stress management

professional, to a micro-biologist, to a professional

stand-up comedian and to university lecturers (and of

course my family and coach!) Their opinions and

expertise in their fields gave me a much better

understanding of what I was researching (and they also

pointed out inaccuracies of my writing and gave

me more books/sources to look for more information)."

Diving: Human Contact With the Underwater World

< http://library.thinkquest.org/28170/ > wrote:

"The coaches used their contacts with professional divers

and provided the team with text material and pictures. The

students, on their part, searched in libraries and surfed

the net for additional information.The photos, taken both

from the personal archives of Bulgarian divers and those

found on the net, seemed essential because of the diversity

of the underwater world which contributed to the colorful

design of the site. The books, given by divers, turned out

to be the most important source of information for they

were complete and had in details everything about diving.

The team had to sort out that information, understand it,

carefully to translate it and make it comprehensible for

the general reader."

ES2000 [Endangered Species 2000]

< http://library.thinkquest.org/25014/ > had one researcher:

"Helen Cheng was the primary content researcher, she used

online as well as traditional resources. She also lives in

San Diego,home of the San Diego Zoo and CRES (Center for

Reproduction of Endangered Species) where she was able to

visit and ask questions, as well as take photos and video

for the site."

Globenext < http://library.thinkquest.org/50033/ > noted

similar sites:

"We searched the web for similar or related sites. This

took awhile because there was quite a bit to wade through.

We, also, looked into different texts on Julius Caesar and

Shakespeare. I think the interviews with the directors and

actors are also part of our research. I think it was all

important. The other web sites helped us see what

contribution we could make to the topic. We did not want

to be redundant. The reading offered us additional

information."

Radical Times

< http://library.thinkquest.org/27942/indexf.htm > found

personal witness crucial:

"We obtained research materials from the library, the

Internet, online bookstores, and from people. I think the

personal experiences we heard from the real people of the

antiwar movement were the most most revealing about the

Antiwar Movement. The Antiwar Movement is not readily

covered in the textbooks, and one can really learn about

the movement from the voices of the witnesses themselves."

Sleep from A to Zzz

< http://library.thinkquest.org/25553/ >went to the experts:

" I went to Arizona during spring break which gave me the

opportunity to speak with Dr. Bootzin at the University of

Arizona, who has done a lot of sleep research. I also

attended one of his lectures about insomnia. I also

interviewed Dr. Kiley, the Director of the National Center

for Sleep Disorders Research, which is part of the National

Heart, Lung, and Blood Association, and attended a workshop

put out by them and one of their meetings. I went to a

sleep lab to interview the technicians at John Hopkins'

Bayview Medical Center. Other research was done

by reading various books. A few sites online provided

information as well. The most important part about my

research was definitely my primary research: attending

meetings, visiting labs, and making interviews. It gave a

first hand account of the information and made it

more real."

These pathways show all of us that creativity is part of

every part of web work, not only the design segment. The

many and often ingenious pathways to interessting and

important information show we can learn from many sources.

The teams then faced the major challenge of

arranging their information and conveying their research

in comprehensible, readable (and interactive) styles. Next

month: What did teams experience during that section of

their work?

(C) Copyright 2000 Advanced Network & Services, Inc.

All rights reserved.