Review Technical Requirements
At a minimum, your students will need the following simple tools to participate in the ThinkQuest Website Competition:
- A computer with an internet connection. If you are working in a lab or classroom that has only a single internet-connected computer, you can transfer files created on other computers to the internet-connected computer using a USB Flash drive.
- A web browser (such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Safari). It's a good idea to test your site on a variety of browsers.
- A text editor, such as Notepad (for Windows computers) or Simple Text (for Mac computers). However, unless your students are adept at coding HTML by hand, it will probably be easier to use web design software (such as Adobe Dreamweaver) rather than relying on a text editor. Consult the Create Website section for a comprehensive list of resources and tools, many of which can be downloaded for free.
Curriculum Standards & Assessment
The ThinkQuest Website Competition provides a comprehensive way to meet curriculum standards. For example, researching and writing content can align with Language Arts standards, designing graphics and layout can align with Visual Arts standards, and learning how to use web design software can align with Technology standards.
In addition, your team's website topic can be focused on meeting a standard in a specific subject area (for example, a website about Ancient Greece could be designed to meet Social Science standards). Consult your local Department or Ministry of Education for information on curriculum standards for your state, province, or country.
Additional resources:
- International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE): In the United States, the National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) are commonly used.
http://cnets.iste.org
- Partnership for 21st Century Skills: ThinkQuest aligns with the suggested guidelines for preparing students to become global citizens and successful contributors to tomorrow's workplace.
http://21stcenturyskills.org
If you will be incorporating the ThinkQuest Website Competition into your classroom curriculum, you may wish to create specific rubrics to assess your students' progress. (Note that ThinkQuest Judges will evaluate all entries according to the
Evaluation Criteria.)
Free assessment and rubric tools:
Disclaimer: It is the team's responsibility to ensure that a) information on third-party sites aligns with ThinkQuest standards and
Rules and b) technology created using third-party tools can be hosted on the ThinkQuest servers and does not otherwise breach the
Rules. All links to third-party sites are provided only as a courtesy to make teams aware of additional resources that may be helpful; ThinkQuest does not manage, endorse, or take responsibility for the content on third-party sites.
Team Building
When forming a team, it's important to select students who work well together and bring different strengths and perspectives to the team.
Once you have formed a team, introduce your students to the ThinkQuest Website Competition by talking about how much fun it will be and explaining that millions of people will be able see their work on the internet. Beyond conveying enthusiasm, you also want to give students a real sense of what the competition involves:
- Share examples of websites from the ThinkQuest Library. Remind students that all of the websites were created by young people just like themselves. If a website includes an "About Us" page, review it to learn about the team members and how they worked together.
- Review the Rules to ensure that students understand the competition's requirements and Entry Submission Deadline.
- Review the Evaluation Criteria to ensure that students understand how their entries will be scored by the ThinkQuest Judges.
- Review any additional rubrics or expectations you have for students.
To help the team work together effectively, it's also important for students to share their own expectations. Here are a few ideas for discussion:
- Ask students to share their ideas about what makes a successful team and to come up with their own ground rules. For example, how will they make decisions? How will they work out disagreements and conflicts?
- Discuss and determine the different roles and responsibilities that students will have on the team (for example, team leader, writer/editor, artist/photographer, web developer, etc.).
- Although students may have individual roles and responsibilities, remind them that they will be working as a team and relying on one another for success.
You can use the
Teamwork Guides for additional team-building activities.
Project Timeline
Teams have approximately eight months to develop and submit their entries for the ThinkQuest Website Competition. However, the actual time needed to develop an entry can depend on many factors, such as school schedule, experience and motivation level of students, and scope of the website. Regardless of how much time teams spend developing their entries, it's important to create a project timeline so that students can use their time most effectively.
View the Checklist page for sample eight-month and three-month timelines.
These sample timelines are intended to help guide your team, but it's recommended that you develop your own, team-specific timeline that includes items such as team member assignments, major milestones and deadlines, and team meetings, field trips, and other events.
Once you have developed your own detailed timeline, make sure it is accessible by all team members, so that they can refer to it regularly and update it as needed. (If your team has access to ThinkQuest Projects, you can use the
Project Calendar to post the timeline.)