Welcome to all new and returning coaches. The Quest is ThinkQuest's newsletter for coaches, offering invaluable advice and guidance to help your team successfully complete the Thinkquest competition.

We wish you the very best of luck with Thinkquest 2008 !

Read the Step-by-Step Guide as it is a great resource for coaches. Here you will find a checklist of all of the important tasks, reminders and deadlines to keep your team on track. Print out this checklist and keep it on hand. This will help you keep track of your teams' progress by guiding you through each requirement of the competition, so you don't have to worry about missing any important steps.

The Coach Resources is supplementary to the Step-by-Step Guide. Here you will find a lot of advice and guidance on every stage of the project lifecycle, from planning your project through website submission. Well worth a read!

Don't forget to take advantage of the TQ Calendar. Log into http://www.thinkquest.org with your coach username and password, and click on the Calendar tab. Important dates and deadlines are provided in the calendar. You can even add your own team events, allowing you to plan and track your teams' work. Students can view and edit the calendar by logging in with the team username and password.

Have you had a look at the TQ library yet? It provides excellent examples of Thinkquest projects. Take time to review previous TQ winning sites with your team to get ideas on content and design. Remind students that these websites were created by students just like them!

Make sure you carefully review the Evaluation Criteria and discuss them with your team. Understanding what components judges will be asked to evaluate is important when planning a project. Judges make their decisions based on these rubrics:

• Content
• Writing and Organization
• Originality
• Educational Relevance
• Global Impact
• Citations
• Collaboration
• Team Diversity
• Website Structure, Appearance and Function
• Media Use

Thanks for participating in Thinkquest 2008! We hope you find the Quest helpful and welcome your comments.
Thinkquest Staff