The ThinkQuest Website Competition 2009, sponsored by the Oracle Education Foundation (OEF), is now open to teams of students aged nine to 19 from anywhere in the world.
Each team must be coached by a teacher or school employee.
Teams are challenged to develop an educational website on topics of their choice. Website entries may utilize a variety of technologies and take a variety of creative forms.
Participating students develop important 21st century skills such as teamwork, critical thinking, self-direction and technology skills.
Entries are due on April 2, 2009, giving teams up to seven months to create their websites.
Professional educators from around the world will judge all entries.
Qualifying entries will be published in the ThinkQuest Library, the world’s largest online repository of student-developed learning projects, visited by millions of Web learners each month.
Prizes may include laptop computers, digital cameras, school grants, and a trip to the awards event in San Francisco, depending on placement.
In tradition to launching the ThinkQuest Website Competition 2009, the OEF is expanding and enriching ThinkQuest to help increase the adoption of 21st century skills by students worldwide.
The highlights of the new enhancements include:
• The integration of OEF’s Think.com online learning community under the ThinkQuest brand to make it easier for students and teachers to publish and create learning projects;
• An expanded library of student-created educational resources; and
• A comprehensive professional development program for educators, including a newly developed Project Learning Institute that offers training on how to design engaging learning projects.
Full details of the new ThinkQuest offerings and benefits are available at http://www.thinkquest.org.