What is the ThinkQuest Website Competition?
The ThinkQuest Website Competition challenges teams of students, ages 9-19, to develop educational websites on topics of their choosing. Each team must be coached by a teacher, who enrolls the team and guides the students. Website entries may utilize a variety of technologies and take a variety of creative forms.
Completed websites are published in the
ThinkQuest Library, the world's largest online repository of student-developed learning projects. Winning teams receive exciting prizes.
How do I participate in the ThinkQuest Website Competition?
The Coach is responsible for enrolling and creating the team. The team then develops an entry, which must be submitted by the Entry Submission Deadline. The detailed requirements are explained in the
Rules.
Is there a fee for participating?
No, participation is free.
How much time does the ThinkQuest Website Competition take?
ThinkQuest Website Competition teams have approximately eight months to create and submit their entries. Depending on the experience of the team and the scope of the website, the actual amount of time required to complete an entry may vary. Some teams use the entire competition period, while others produce award-winning sites in only a month or two.
See the
Checklist for sample eight-month and three-month timelines.
When can I enroll for the next ThinkQuest Website Competition?
Coaches can enroll anytime by visiting the ThinkQuest website. However, teams can only be created when a competition is open. For competition dates, check the ThinkQuest website.
What are the important dates and deadlines?
Please see the
Rules for important dates and deadlines.
What are the rules?
Please see the
Rules for the policies governing the competition.
What are the prizes?
The winning sites will be featured prominently in the
ThinkQuest Library, a world-renowned educational resource. In addition, winning team members are eligible for exciting prizes. Please see the
Rules for more information.
Who is eligible to participate in the ThinkQuest Website Competition?
The ThinkQuest Website Competition is open to teams from any country in the world. Please see the
Rules for full team requirements.
Why must the Coach be a school employee?
In accordance with local laws in some countries and our commitment to holding all teams to the same standards, ThinkQuest teams must be coached by an adult who is employed by an eligible school. See the
Rules for more details.
How many teams can I coach?
Coaches may enroll any number of teams for a competition.
Can more than one teacher from a school be a Coach?
Yes, any number of teachers from a single school can be Coaches, although each must
enroll and obtain authorization separately.
Can a parent be a coach?
A parent who is employed by an eligible school may serve as a Coach. A parent who is not employed by an eligible school may serve as an Assistant Coach.
Can a student join more than one team?
No. Students may only participate in one team per competition.
Can students participate in both the ThinkQuest Narrative Competition and the ThinkQuest Website Competition?
Yes, students can participate in both competitions, but there are restrictions on whom they can form teams with. See the
Rules for details.
Can homeschooled students participate in the ThinkQuest Website Competition?
Yes, homeschooled students may participate in the ThinkQuest Website Competition so long as they are part of a team that is associated with an eligible school (that is, the Coach is an employee of an eligible school).
Are students who have been winners in previous ThinkQuest Competitions allowed to compete again?
Yes, but there is a limit on the number of previous winning students allowed per team. See the
Rules for more details.
Can students complete the online enrollment?
No, the Coach must enroll and create the team.
What is the role of a coach?
The Coach guides the students through the competition and serves as the primary adult responsible for the team. The Coach may also determine how best to integrate ThinkQuest with classroom curriculum (if applicable). The Assistant Coach can provide additional guidance and support to the team.
Do I need to enroll for a new competition if I have previously been a Coach?
If you were enrolled as a Coach (formerly called Primary Coach) in a previous competition, you can use your existing coach account to create teams for all future competitions, as long as you are employed at the same school.
I have lost my coach password. What should I do?
Coaches should click the
Trouble Logging In? link on the home page and follow the instructions. (Students and Assistant Coaches should contact their Coach for assistance with team usernames and passwords.)
If you are a Coach who has forgotten your username, please contact us with your full name, school name, and location of your school.
Can I delete my coach account?
It is not possible for you to delete your coach account. If you have an issue of this nature, please contact us.
What is authorization?
View the
Legal Authorization section for information on authorization.
Can I authorize myself?
If you have legal signing authority for your school (generally, this means you are a principal, head teacher or other administrator), you may enter yourself as the Signing Authority.
How do I create a team?
Only the Coach can create teams. Instructions can be viewed in the
Enroll section.
Who should use which username and password?
The Coach will receive a
coach username and password, which should only be used by the Coach. Students and the Assistant Coach should use the
team username and password, which are chosen by the Coach when s/he creates the team.
My team members are different ages. Which age division should we choose?
Your team should compete in the age division that includes all students on the team. In other words, the oldest student determines your age division. For example, if two students are age 14 and one is age 16, the team would compete in the "19 & under" division. Please use the Entry Submission Deadline to calculate age.
I have lost my team password. What should I do?
If you are a student or Assistant Coach, please contact your Coach for assistance.
If you are a Coach, please following the instructions for changing the team password in the
Enroll section of Help. (As long as you are able to log in to your coach account, you do not need to know your old team password to create a new team password.)
Can we change our official category later if we decide to do a different topic?
Yes, the Coach can edit all team information, including the selected category, up until the entry is submitted.
Can we submit an entry in our native language?
The official competition language is English. The website and Site Profile, as well as other communications submitted to ThinkQuest, must be in English. Translation of the website into multiple languages is encouraged; however, Judges will evaluate the English language version of the website. Note also that file names and directories must be in basic ASCII format (no accents or non-Western characters).
Can we update our site after the Entry Submission Deadline?
No. Once the Entry Submission Deadline has passed, teams will not be allowed to make any changes to their sites.
In exceptional circumstances we may permit the editing of a site (by us on behalf of the team) after the competition has closed and the site has been published in the ThinkQuest Library. Please have the team's Coach contact us with your team information, the site URL, the edits you want to make, and the reason for requesting the edits (for example, misleading or incorrect information).
What is the Site Profile and when must we complete it?
The Site Profile is a short questionnaire about your team and website that will be viewed by Judges. As specified in the
Rules, it is a required component of your entry. Teams that do not submit a Site Profile by the Entry Submission Deadline risk disqualification. See the
Site Profile section of Help for instructions.
How do we upload our website files?
Teams can upload files via the web-based File Upload tool or WebDAV. (For instructions, visit the
Upload section of Help.) To protect server security, teams are not provided with standard FTP or shell access.
How much server space do teams get?
Refer to the
Rules for the server space limit for each team.
How can I track how much space has been used?
Please refer to the space usage meter displayed in the
File Upload tool.
Does all of our site content need to be hosted on the ThinkQuest server?
Yes, the
Rules require that all of your site content be uploaded to the ThinkQuest server. No portion of site content (including videos and games) can be hosted on an external server.
What technologies are supported?
All sites must be built to run within a browser. Server-based technologies are not supported. See the
Rules for more details.
Why can't we use PHP, Perl, or Java?
By limiting use of these technologies, we limit potential security issues that could threaten server stability and affect the competition and the ThinkQuest Library.
Do the ThinkQuest servers support AJAX or similar technologies?
Yes. ThinkQuest servers support browser-based technologies such as JavaScript, and there are AJAX toolkits that rely mostly on JavaScript and should work fine on ThinkQuest servers. However, AJAX toolkits that use the
xmlhttprequest object may not work properly.
It is strongly recommended that you test any AJAX implementation on the ThinkQuest servers to make sure your website is working properly. Also, because AJAX requires modern web browsers, we suggest that you provide a "text-only" version of your website, so that it is can be viewed by visitors with older computers and/or accessibility needs.
For examples of ThinkQuest websites that use AJAX, please see
ProjectArcix: The Global Disaster Information Portal and
DRM: Two Sides of the Story.
How do we test our website?
View the instructions in the
Upload section of Help. It is very important to thoroughly test your website on the ThinkQuest server (not just on your local computer or server) well before the Entry Submission Deadline.
What are the criteria used for Judging?
Judges will evaluate sites based on the
Evaluation Criteria.
Who are the Judges?
Sites will be judged by educators from around the world, who are recruited by Oracle Education Foundation Staff and Partners.
What happens to our site after the competition is over?
All qualified websites from the competition will be added to the
ThinkQuest Library as public websites on the internet. Winning websites are displayed prominently.