Competition

ThinkQuest Live Update

Please note that lodging and workshops for the ThinkQuest Live 2009 event will be in Redwood Shores, California. All other prize details will remain the same. If you have any questions, please contact Support.

ThinkQuest Website Competition Rules 2009

Agreements & Documents

By participating in the ThinkQuest Website Competition (the "Competition") an international competition sponsored by the Oracle Education Foundation, a California non-profit corporation (the "Foundation" or "Sponsor"), each Team (as defined below) member accepts the conditions stated in these Rules, agrees to be bound by the decisions of the Judges (as defined below) and warrants that he/she is eligible to participate in the Competition.

Schedule

The competition schedule is as follows:

  • Team Enrollment opens: August 20, 2008
  • Entry Submission Deadline: April 2, 2009, 7:00 PM GMT (3:00 PM EDT)
  • Winners Announced: June 1, 2009

The Foundation may extend any Competition deadline upon three days prior written notice to the Coaches (as defined below) and will post any changes to those deadlines on the ThinkQuest website at http://www.thinkquest.org/.

Teams

Team Composition:

  • A Team must be comprised of three to six student members and one Coach (each, a "Team").
  • A Team may also, at its option, include one Assistant Coach (as defined below).
  • Teams using the ThinkQuest Projects environment may be required to have additional members participating in their project workspace. These additional Project members are not considered members of the Team and are not eligible for any prizes unless they are designated as the Coach, Assistant Coach, or student team member for the Team.
  • A Team may have no more than one student member who has been on a winning ThinkQuest team in the past.
  • Teams may include students and coaches from a single classroom or from many different classrooms, communities, or countries.
  • If information about any Team member submitted to the Foundation is found to be an intentional misrepresentation, the entire Team will be disqualified.

Participants from Cuba, Sudan, Iran, North Korea, Syria, and any other countries designated by the Foundation and/or the United States Office of Foreign Assets Control, may participate in the Competition, but are not eligible to win a Prize (as defined below).

Coach Requirements:

Coaches may:

  • provide guidance to their Team(s);
  • help students form Teams;
  • help students locate resources (human, technical, and information);
  • help students upload Website files;
  • help students project manage creation of the Website.

Coaches may NOT:

  • work directly on any portion of the Website; and
  • work on the Website Description, Collaboration and Diversity sections of the Site Profile; and
  • judge Websites submitted in their team's Age Division, including their team's Website.

The Coach must:

  • be employed by and working in a teaching or resource capacity (e.g., teacher, librarian, technology coordinator, etc.) at an Eligible School. An "Eligible School" is an accredited school that is owned or operated by a government or local school board, or an accredited, non-profit, private school that is tax-exempt under U.S. Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3), or the non-U.S. equivalent of a Section 501(c)(3) school;
  • be at least age 21, OR the age of legal majority in his/her country/state of residence, whichever is older, on the day of the Entry Submission Deadline;
  • enroll his/her Team in the Competition by following the enrollment instructions found at http://www.thinkquest.org.
  • obtain written parental consent for each student on the team by using the Consent Form available at http://thinkquest.org/docs/.
  • provide and maintain an active email address during coach enrollment and throughout the Competition, so that he/she may act as the point of contact for the Team(s); and
  • complete and have notarized and/or confirmed by a notary, or apostille the Affidavit of School Eligibility attesting that his/her school is an Eligible School, prior to acceptance of any applicable prize.

The "Assistant Coach", if any, must:

  • Be at least age 18, OR the age of legal majority in his/her country/state of residence, whichever is older, on the day of the Entry Submission Deadline.

Student Requirements: Student Team members are responsible for the design and development of their Website including all of its content as well as the content of the Website Description, Collaboration and Diversity sections of the Site Profile.

Each student must:

  • Be at least age 9 and no older than age 19 on the day of the Entry Submission Deadline;
  • Be a member of only one Team; and
  • Make significant contributions to the success of the Team and be a full participant in the development of the Website.

Age Divisions

Teams must compete in one of three age divisions:

  • Age 12 and under
  • Age 15 and under
  • Age 19 and under

Teams are permitted to include student members of different ages. The age of the oldest student on the Team as of the Entry Submission Deadline will determine the age division in which the Team competes.

Entry Requirements

All Entries that do not adhere to the following requirements are subject to disqualification:

1.) Submitting an Entry: Teams that do not submit a complete entry by the Entry Submission Deadline will be disqualified. A completed entry ("Entry" or "Entries") consists of the following THREE items:

  • the collection of website files the Team has produced and successfully uploaded to the ThinkQuest server (the "Website");
  • a complete Site Profile, an online form providing requested information about the Team and its Website ("Site Profile");
  • a Coach Checklist, included in the Site Profile, that must be completed by the Coach.

In the event that one or more Teams miss the Entry Submission Deadline due solely to a confirmed technical failure or malfunction of the Foundation's systems (as determined by the Foundation in its sole discretion), and that Team's Coach contacts ThinkQuest support within 2 days of the Entry Submission Deadline, then the Foundation may, but is not obligated to, extend such deadline in its sole discretion, upon notice to the Coach.

2.) All website content must be uploaded to the ThinkQuest server. No portion of the Website content can be hosted on an external server. This includes multimedia files on services including, but not limited to, videos (e.g. YouTube), game building servers (e.g. Quia), guestbooks, blogs, and/or other hosting services.

3.) Websites may not contain any objectionable material. "Objectionable" means any content in any medium or format that (as determined by the Foundation):

  • is inappropriate, offensive, libelous or defamatory, pornographic, sexually explicit, or unlawful or that encourages any of the foregoing;
  • a reasonable person would consider harassing, abusive, threatening, harmful, vulgar, profane, obscene, excessively violent, racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable;
  • infringes or violates any person's (living or deceased) privacy, publicity or other property rights;
  • promotes software or services that deliver unsolicited email, including bulk e-mail, surveys, contests, "junk mail," "spam," or chain letters;
  • disrupts or interferes with the Competition or any services, system resources, accounts, servers or networks connected to or accessible through the Competition, including use of viruses, worms, corrupt files, or Trojan horses; or
  • is subject to any restriction upon transmission under any law or under contractual or fiduciary relationships (such as information pertaining to minors where no parental consent has been obtained).

4.) Websites may not contain any commercial content. Commercial content is content that promotes the sale of a product or service either directly via the Website or via hyperlinks to external sites. Commercial content includes but is not limited to logos, brand names, slogans, text, images, videos, or any type of multimedia file(s).

5.) Websites (or content from websites) previously submitted in ThinkQuest competitions are ineligible for submission.

6.) Copyrighted Materials: By submitting an Entry, Team members represent that they have the unrestricted right to submit the content and it does not infringe upon any third party's proprietary or other rights. Any content, including, but not limited to, text, images and videos, that is not the original creation of the Team must be completely and accurately cited, and if permission is necessary to use such content, the Team shall disclose how such permission was obtained. Teams may either cite sources directly on each page or use a summary "Citations" page to adequately disclose the sources and/or permissions to include content.

While Team members are encouraged to seek guidance from coaches, parents, friends, published sources and other collaborators via the internet, Team members must do their own work and must not permit any person (other than student members of the Team) to perform such work and must not copy the materials (words, images, data, audio and video files, and other media) of others, except as permitted below:

Websites may include material that was created by another person before January 1, 1978 so long as an accurate citation is provided within the Website; and Websites may include material that was created by another person on or after January 1, 1978 so long as written permission to quote or use such material is obtained as required by the creator or owner of such intellection property AND an accurate citation is provided within the Website noting permission was granted. Team must also be able to provide a copy of such permission to the Foundation, if requested.

7.) Plagiarism: For purposes of these Rules, "plagiarism" means:

  • any copying of another person's work that results in the Entry not being substantially the original work of the Team, regardless of whether the copied work is cited;
  • copying a significant amount (as determined by the Foundation) of words or ideas from someone else without giving credit or attributing those words or ideas as one's own;
  • if quoting content from a source, failing to put that quote within quotation marks;
  • use of website templates without giving credit to the original creator/owner of the template; and/or
  • any behavior that the Foundation determines to be plagiarism in its sole discretion.

Any plagiarism or copyright violation, as defined above, can result in an Entry's disqualification.

All decisions with regards to disqualification for plagiarism are at the discretion of the Foundation and are not subject to review.

8.) Categories: Entries must be submitted in one of twelve categories. To view a list of the categories and examples of topics in each category, please visit the categories page.

9.) Server Usage: Each Team is allotted a maximum of 100 mb of ThinkQuest server space for its Website. Teams whose Websites exceed the 100 mb at the time of the Entry Submission Deadline will be disqualified and will be notified of such disqualification.

A Team will be disqualified if any member gains unauthorized access to, or misuses, the ThinkQuest website or server by gaining access to areas that the Team does not have the explicit right to use or for using the server for purposes not related to the development and deployment of Entries for the Competition.

10.) Language: The Website, Site Profile, file and directory names (required in basic ASCII format), as well as other communications submitted to ThinkQuest, must be in English. Translation of Website Entries into additional languages is encouraged, however, translation must be completed by student team members. Judges will evaluate the Website based upon the English language version.

11.) Supported Technologies: Websites must function properly when viewed using different platforms, Internet browsers, and connection speeds or may be subject to disqualification.

  • Teams must test their Websites to make sure they are functional on a PC and Mac.
  • Websites must also be functional when viewed using IE version 7 and Mozilla Firefox version 2.
  • It is recommended that teams also test on other browsers such as Safari 3.1.

Websites must be built to run within a browser based on the following guidelines:

  • browser-based technologies such as Flash, Java script, dhtml, style sheets, and applets are supported;
  • server-based technologies such as PHP, Perl, SSI, Java, CGI, and FrontPage extensions* will not operate on the ThinkQuest servers. Use of these technologies is grounds for disqualification.

*FrontPage may be used to design and build a Team's Website, but FrontPage's server-side extensions and publishing utilities are not supported.

12.) Protecting Student Personal Information: For the protection of student Team members, the Website and Site Profile content may NOT contain any of the following:

  • student last names;
  • student email addresses or personal contact information (generic Team or coach email addresses are acceptable); and
  • guestbooks, discussion boards, forums, chat areas, blogs (including links to these types of forums hosted on external websites).

13.) Editing Website Entries: The Foundation may, in its sole discretion:

  • remove student personal information, guestbooks, forums, chat areas, blogs, etc. from Entries;
  • remove images, links, or other content deemed in violation of these Rules;
  • remove any other portion of the Entry deemed necessary.

If an Entry that requires amendments cannot be edited, the Foundation will not post the Entry in the Library and may choose to disqualify the Entry.

14.) Digital photo essays, stories and comic books: All photographs and artwork used for photo essays, digital stories and digital comic books must be the original work of student team members.

Judging

An independent panel of judges ("Judges") will evaluate the Website and Site Profile, in accordance with the Evaluation Criteria, which is incorporated in and made a part of these Official Rules.

Winners of the Competition will be announced on http://www.thinkquest.org/ on or about the Winners Announcement date. Judges' scores will not be posted or publicized.

All decisions of the Foundation, in cooperation with the Judges, shall, in all respects, be final, binding, and not be subject to review.

Award & Prizes

Age Division Awards:

19 and Under 15 and Under 12 and Under
1st, 2nd, and 3rd place.
Two Honorable Mentions		 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place.
Two Honorable Mentions		 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place.
Two Honorable Mentions

School Awards: For each team that wins an Age Division First Place Award, the Eligible School at which that Team's Coach is employed will receive a School Award ("School Award"). The school/s at which the student team members attend, or at which an Assistant Coach (if applicable) is employed, if different from the Coach's school, are not eligible for the School Award.

Global Perspectives Award: Judges will select one Entry that demonstrates excellence in Global Perspectives (as defined in the Evaluation Criteria).

Ties and Multiple Awards: A tie may be declared for any of the awards, in which case both teams will receive the applicable Prize. In addition, any Team is eligible to win one or more awards. Members of Teams that win two or more awards that include attendance at ThinkQuest Live (described below) will only be eligible to attend the single ThinkQuest Live event associated with the Competition in which they received the awards. Also, a student member of such a Team will only be eligible to bring one Chaperone (as defined below).

Prizes: Each Team member (students, Coach, and Assistant Coach, if any) whose Entry is selected for an Age Division Award or Global Perspectives Award, and each Eligible School that is selected for a School Award, will receive a prize ("Prize"). The Prizes are as follows:

Age Division 1st Place
Laptop computer with approximate retail value of $1,500 USD
Trip to ThinkQuest Live
$5000 USD School Award*

Age Division 2nd Place
Laptop computer with approximate retail value of $1,250 USD
Trip to ThinkQuest Live

Age Division 3rd Place
Laptop computer with approximate retail value of $1,000 USD
Trip to ThinkQuest Live

Global Perspectives Award
Digital camera with approximate retail value of $750.00
Trip to ThinkQuest Live

Age Division Honorable Mention Award
Laptop computer with approximate retail value of $750 USD

* For schools located outside of the United States who win a School Award - If the Foundation is unable to validate the eligibility of the Coach's school within three months of Winners Announcement, the School Award will not be granted.

ThinkQuest Live: Winners, as defined above, will receive an opportunity to attend ThinkQuest Live. Attendance at ThinkQuest Live includes a trip for the winner, for student winners a Chaperone (as defined below), to San Francisco, California, including:

  • Round trip coach class airfare transportation from the major airport nearest the winner's residence (as determined by the Foundation) (or round-trip ground transportation if winner lives within 150 miles of San Francisco, California, as determined by the Foundation);
  • Approximately five nights' double occupancy hotel accommodations; and
  • Participation in ThinkQuest Live activities (including ground transportation to and from the hotel and airport, ThinkQuest Live workshops, local excursions, meals while attending ThinkQuest Live, and attendance at the ThinkQuest Live Awards Banquet).

The trip to ThinkQuest Live has an approximate retail value of $3,722 USD per winner traveling alone, and $7,125 USD per winner traveling with a Chaperone. All expenses not included in the ThinkQuest Live trip description above (including, but not limited to, additional ground transportation, meals, food & beverages, taxes, gratuities & insurance) will be the sole responsibility of the winner. Winner and, if applicable, a Chaperone, must travel on dates that permit attendance at ThinkQuest Live, or the ThinkQuest Live trip may be forfeited. Additional restrictions may apply. If Prize is won by a Team member who has not reached the age 18 OR the age of majority in his/her country/state of citizenship, whichever is older, the Prize may be awarded in the name of a parent or legal guardian in the Foundation's sole discretion. The Foundation reserves the right to substitute Prize of equal or greater value. No other substitution or transfer of Prize permitted. The actual value of the Prize depends on dates and airport of origin. Any difference between actual value and stated approximate value will not be awarded. Winners are responsible for all applicable taxes. Sponsor makes no representation as to the treatment of Prizes under United States Federal tax law or under other tax laws such as foreign, state or local tax laws (as the same may be amended from time to time). Team members that are eligible to attend ThinkQuest Live, but elect not to attend or are unable to do so, will not receive a cash equivalent or substitute Prize.

ThinkQuest Live Chaperones: Each student winner who has not reached the age 18 OR the age of majority in his/her country/state of citizenship, whichever is older, must be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian (a "Chaperone").

Additional Cash Payment for U.S. Winners: Winners that are United States residents will receive a cash payment for presumed United States tax liability. The actual value of the cash payment, as set forth below, will vary depending on the actual retail value of the Prize awarded. Sponsor makes no representation as to the sufficiency of such amounts to satisfy any such tax liability.

  • Winner Only (trip plus technology item): $2,281 USD
  • Winner Only (trip alone): $1751 USD
  • Winner Only (technology item alone): $529 USD
  • Winner and Chaperone (trip plus technology item): $3,882 USD
  • Winner and Chaperone (trip alone): $3,353 USD

Notification and Verification of Winners: Coaches of winning Teams will be notified via email. In order to accept the Prize, ALL members of a winning Team (students, Coach, Assistant Coach, if any) and Eligible School will be required to:

  • Sign and have notarized and/or confirmed by an apostille the Winner's Affidavit of Eligibility and Release, Chaperone Designation (if applicable), Consent for Medical Treatment of a Minor (if applicable) and Guest Release (if applicable).
  • Coaches must also complete and have notarized and/or confirmed by an apostille the Affidavit of School Eligibility and Release.

The ENTIRE Team may be disqualified if ANY member of the Team does not:

  • have winner documentation, as described above, notarized and/or confirmed by an apostille by the stated deadline; and
  • submit a valid affidavit and release to the Foundation by the stated deadline.

For Chaperones and guests traveling to ThinkQuest Live, all required paperwork must be notarized and/or confirmed by an apostille and submitted to the Foundation by the stated deadline.

ThinkQuest Library

Entries may be displayed in the ThinkQuest Library following the Winner's Announcement, at the sole discretion of the Foundation.

  • The Foundation has sole discretion in determining whether or not to add an Entry to the Library, and how long to display such Entry.
  • Entries that contain Personally Identifiable Information that cannot be removed by the Foundation (i.e. files that cannot be edited, such as flash files, CGI script etc.) will not be displayed in the Library.
  • Each Website that is displayed in the Library will incorporate the ThinkQuest Banner. Code associated with the ThinkQuest Banner will be preloaded in each team's web directory and should be tested prior to the Entry Submission Deadline.

The ThinkQuest Competition Agreement describes certain rights and licenses granted to the Foundation to use the Entries in the Library. Please review the ThinkQuest Competition Agreement for a complete description of these rights. By submitting an Entry, each Team member agrees that they have, or will grant the Eligible School the rights necessary for the Eligible School to grant the Foundation the rights to use the Entry, in accordance with the ThinkQuest Competition Agreement.

Program Tools

The Foundation may make available certain software tools or other materials ("Program Tools") for use by Teams participating in the Competition. Coaches are responsible for:

  • Insuring that Program Tools (if any) are used by Teams in accordance with these Rules; and
  • Any specific terms accompanying the Program Tools, including any applicable Software License Terms or Terms of Use for such Program Tools ("Terms"); and
  • Insuring removal of Program Tools from computer systems upon completion of the Competition and/or termination of a Team's participation in the Competition.

Unless otherwise specified in writing by the Foundation or its suppliers, Program Tools may be used only for activities directly related to the Team's participation in the Competition. A team will be disqualified if any Team member modifies or reverse-engineers any software, or uses any software in a manner inconsistent with the Terms.

Certain Program Tools may not be available to participants from Cuba, Sudan, Iran, North Korea, Syria, and any other countries designated by the Foundation and/or the United States Office of Foreign Assets Control. Use of Program Tools is not necessary in order to participate in the Competition or to win a Prize.

For more information regarding the Oracle Education Foundation Adobe grant program please visit http://www.thinkquest.org/adobe/grant.html.

General Conditions

This offer is void where prohibited or restricted by law and is subject to applicable federal, state, and local laws and regulations.

The Foundation and Judges are not responsible for (a) late, lost, stolen, damaged, garbled, incomplete, incorrect or misdirected Entries, (b) errors, omissions, interruptions, deletions, defects, or delays in operations or transmission of information, in each case whether arising by way of technical or other failures or malfunctions of computer hardware, software, communications devices, or transmission lines, or (c) data corruption, theft, destruction, unauthorized access to or alteration of Entry materials, loss or otherwise.

The Foundation and Judges are not responsible for electronic communications or emails which are undeliverable as a result of any form of active or passive filtering of any kind, or insufficient space in any email account to receive email messages.

The Foundation reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to disqualify any Team member from this Competition or any other promotion conducted now or in the future by the Foundation or any of its affiliates if his or her fraud or misconduct affects the integrity of the Competition. A Team may be disqualified: if there is a violation of any portion of the Rules or ThinkQuest Competition Agreement; if any member of the Team is found to be acting in an inappropriate, disruptive or unsportsmanlike manner or with the intent to abuse, threaten, or harass any other person; and/or if there is any attempt by any member of the Team to deliberately damage any Website or undermine the legitimate operation of the Competition.

The Foundation disclaims any liability for damage to any computer system resulting from participation in, or accessing or downloading information in connection with, the Competition, including but not limited to the installation or use of any third party software.

The Foundation reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to modify, cancel, terminate or suspend this Competition should any virus, bug, technical failures, unauthorized human intervention or other causes beyond Foundation's control, corrupt or affect the administration, security, fairness or proper conduct of the Competition. In any such event, a notice will be posted on the ThinkQuest website at http://www.thinkquest.org/ and the winners will be selected from among all eligible Entries received prior to such time.

Employees of the Foundation, Oracle USA and its subsidiaries and their immediate family members are not eligible to participate in the Competition.

These Rules, and the ThinkQuest Competition Agreement, and Evaluation Criteria, incorporated herein, constitute the entire agreement and understanding between the parties regarding the Competition, and supersede and merge all prior discussions and agreements between them relating thereto.

Last Updated: August 20, 2008