Two teams enter ThinkQuest: An Internet competition   Students share their experiences in creating their ThinkQuest projects: generating ideas, doing the research, and overcoming challenges.   By Alicia Bartol SCR*TEC

hinkQuest, hosted by Advanced Network and Services, Inc., is a global Internet learning program that encourages students from ages 12 to 19 (and in grades 4 to 6 for ThinkQuest Junior) to create Web pages that help bring their classroom learning alive through technology. As the ThinkQuest site explains, the aim of challenging students to create entries is to help students "learn to harness the power of the Internet, while also creating a valuable library of Internet educational materials for use online, in the classroom, and at home."   The more than one million dollars worth of scholarships and awards give incentive to competitors. Moreover, although only a handful of entries can win in each category, all of the entries are showcased in the ThinkQuest library, allowing students and teachers around the world to use the sites for learning.        This month, KidSpeak interviews two ThinkQuest teams to hear how they created ThinkQuest sites on philosophy, gangs, and fish.

Learn how three high school boys created their first Web site, without any previous knowledge of the Internet or HTML.   Hear lessons learned from Chris and Dave, who are about to enter ThinkQuest for the third year in a row!

Students interviewed for KidSpeak are nominated by teachers. Send nominations to the editor. Copyright. © 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1997 ALTec, the University of Kansas