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Rules
October 2003 Competition
Divisions
The minimum age to participate is 9. The maximum age to participate
is 19. Teams choose to compete in one of the three divisions.
- Students ages 12 and under
- Students ages 15 and under
- Students ages 19 and under
You can have a mixed team with older and younger students. The oldest
student in the team detemines the age division you compete in. Please
use the competition deadline of February 29, 2004 to calculate official
ages. |
Prizes
Three prizes are awarded in each of the three divisions (12 and
under, 15 and under, 19 and under) along with an overall Best of
Topic prize for each subject area.
Each winning team member (students and the Primary Coach) will
be eligible to attend a trip to ThinkQuest Live @ OracleWorld
in San Francisco, CA USA where they meet face-to-face, present
their work to thousands of conference attendees, participate in
workshops and presentations, and meet some of the technology industry's
most influential leaders (read about the 2003
ThinkQuest Live @ OracleWorld.) This trip to San
Francisco is valued at approximately $4,000 USD per winning
team member.
Winning web sites will also earn special recognition in the ThinkQuest
Library. (See below for more information.) |
Team Requirements
Teams work together to research their subject matter and create
an educational web site under the leadership of a teacher-facilitator
or "coach". Teams may be comprised of students and coach from
within a single classroom, or students and coaches working together
from different countries. Multi-country teams and multi-language
web sites are encouraged and supported.
Teams can have from 3 to 6 student members and up to 2 coaches
(one Primary Coach and one Assistant Coach). (Please
see below for specifics on Coach and Student Requirements.)
- Each team must have at least one Primary Coach.
- Each team will be required to participate in the Peer Review
process in order to qualify for Final Judging.
- All students from the same team must be the correct age for
their Division as of the Web Site Submission deadline.
- Teams can choose to collaborate online using Oracle's Think.com
environment.
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Coach Requirements
The Primary Coach
- The Primary Coach must be a full-time or part-time
employee of an accredited public, private or parochial school.
- The Primary Coach must accept the Registration Agreement.
- Before a team can submit their completed web site, the Primary
Coach must receive acceptance of the Web Site Entry Submission
Agreement from an Authorized Signator
for the school.
- If a team's web site becomes eligible to participate in the
Final Judging, a formal Winners Affidavit
(Updated July 9, 2004) will be
required to confirm identity.
- The Primary Coach will oversee the management of the Assistant
Coach ensuring he/she is in compliance with the ThinkQuest rules.
The Assistant Coach
- Assistant coaches may be employees of an accredited public,
private or parochial school, parents and/or subject-matter experts.
- The Assistant Coach will abide by these Rules for the ThinkQuest
competition.
Additional Primary and Assistant Coach Requirements Each
Primary or Assistant Coach...
- can coach more than 1 team but no more than 10 per ThinkQuest
Competition;
- must act as the point-of-contact for the team;
- must have an active e-mail address;
- must obtain a signed consent form from the parent/guardian
of each student member of the team (if required by local law);
- must ensure that each team participates in the Peer Review
Process;
- shall provide guidance, administration and practical assistance
for their teams.
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Student Requirements
- Each student must be between the ages of 9 and 19 as of the
Web Site Submission Deadline.
- Each student must attend an accredited public, private or
parochial school. Homeschooled students may participate
so long as they are part of a team that is associated with an
accredited public, private or parochial school. (i.e.
Primary Coach must be an employee of an accredited public, private
or parochial school and other team members are affiliated with
an accredited school).
- Each student is expected to make significant contributions
to the success of their project.
- Students must do the actual design and development of their
project, including the selection, research and development of
its content.
- A student may only belong to one team.
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Site Requirements
- Only a teacher or adult's email account may be referenced
on the site. Student email accounts may not appear on any page.
- Student last names may not appear on any page.
- All web teams must include a page called Our Site
that includes:
- An overview of the relationship between the team members
such as how they met and whether they go to the same school
or not.
- A description of the roles that each team member played
during the planning, research and production of the web site.
- How often, when and where the team met with one another.
- If applicable, how multi-country teams were formed.
- All web sites must include citations for all information
and images used. Sources may be listed on each page or on
a separate bibliography page.
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Topic Categories
This year we are introducing topic categories
to the ThinkQuest competition. Topic categories will change with
each ThinkQuest competition. For the October 2003 - May 2004
Competition, web site entries must fit into one of the following
six topic areas:
Non-native Species
Natural Disasters
Mythology & Folklore
Space Travel
World Economy
Medicine
Please view these rich examples of
each topic. Entries are constrained only to the major topic category,
not to the specific topic examples. The examples are intended only
to spark your imagination! |
Evaluation Criteria
A set of criteria developed in coordination with the Buck
Institute for Education will be used to evaluate sites submitted
to the ThinkQuest competition. Click here
to read the Evaluation Criteria. |
Languages
Web site entries must be submitted in English or Spanish as the
primary language. Points will be given for translating from either
primary language to the other, or for translation into Simplified
Chinese, Hindi, Bengali, Portuguese, Cyrillic, Japanese, German,
Korean, French, Bahasa Melayu, Arabic, Khalkha Mongol, Thai, Italian,
Hungarian, Quechua or Aymara. |
Tools
Since ThinkQuest web site entries are to be educational, an emphasis
on developing robust content is key. Content should
be built to run with a browser.
- Server-based technologies such as php, Perl, and Java are
not supported.
- Browser-based technologies such as Flash, Java script, dhtml,
style sheets and applets are supported.
Each team will be provided with 30 MB of server space within the
ThinkQuest system. This system can be used to store files
for back-up and work-in-progress during the October 2003 - May 2004
competition. Teams are encouraged to develop their web sites on
their own equipment and upload to the ThinkQuest system at submission
time. |
Peer Review
Teams will submit their web sites into two phases of judging. The
first phase is known as "Peer Review". Each team will
be required to review a number of web sites submitted by their peers.
The number of web sites each team will be required to review will
be announced the first week of March once all web sites have been
submitted. All sites will be distributed in random fashion.
The process to participate in Peer Review will be provided in
the Team Management section upon web site entry submission.
The coach will be responsible to ensure all team members participate
in the Peer Review process. Participation in Peer
Review is a requirement and your team will not be allowed to move
into final judging unless Peer Review has been completed. |
Judging
Upon completion of the Peer Review Process, the second phase of
Judging can begin. The second phase is known as the "Finals".
An international panel of judges will determine the overall winners
of the October 2003 - May 2004 ThinkQuest Competition.
Each decision of the ThinkQuest team and each decision of any
of the ThinkQuest Judges, shall, in all respects, be final and
shall not be subject to review.
The Judges will be selected and recruited by theThinkQuest Staff
and ThinkQuest Partners. |
Library
The ThinkQuest Library is a robust
collection of informative and useful web sites from thousands of
teams that have taken part in previous ThinkQuest competitions.
These ThinkQuest web sites have become educational resources for
students, educators and the general internet community around the
world.
All completed web sites from the October 2003 - May 2004 competition
achieving an average or better score are added to the ThinkQuest
Library as public web sites on the Internet for a one year period.
Winning web sites and popular web sites are displayed prominently
in the Library and will remain online longer. Sites
will be tracked for popularity and rated for usefulness.
Coaches of team web sites that qualify to enter the ThinkQuest
Library will be notified via email. |
Disqualification
A team may be disqualified from participating in the October 2003
- May 2004 ThinkQuest Competition if:
- There has been no timely and proper submission of the web
site;
- There is a violation of any portion of these Rules, Registration
Agreement, or Web Site Entry Submission
Agreement;
- A team has intentionally or negligently gained unauthorized
access to, or misused, the ThinkQuest web site or server by
gaining access to areas that the team does not have the explicit
right to use or for using the server for purposes not related
to the development and deployment of the ThinkQuest competition;
- A team or its members have been disqualified from prior Competitions
for failure to comply with the Rules and the Registration Terms
or are otherwise known to have misappropriated copyright materials
or other information belonging to third parties;
- The ThinkQuest Staff deems the content of the web site inappropriate
from an educational standpoint;
- Information about a team member (i.e. personal identifiable
information) is found to be false or inaccurate;
- A team fails to complete the Peer Review Process by the deadlines
provided;
- A team fails to complete the Winners
Affidavit (Updated July 9, 2004).
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Modifications
The ThinkQuest Staff may extend any program deadline and will post
any changes on the ThinkQuest web pages.
ThinkQuest is a program of the Oracle Help Us Help Foundation.
Please visit http://www.helpushelp.org
for more information. |
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