ThinkQuest Internet Challenge

[generalbrando]

A few years back I participated in this contest that I thought I should share with everyone.

http://www.thinkquest.org

The basic idea is that teenagers (up to 19 I believe) build web pages on educational topics in groups of two or three under the mentorship of 1-3 adults who must be directly affiliated with a school. You'll have to read over the rules on the site to get the real thing because I haven't read the rules since I competed and they may have changed.

The reward makes the pain of building a web site with two other people worth it: $25,000 in a scholarship for college (for first place). True, this will only make a dent in the costs for some places, but that's not pocket change by any means. And I think that if you web developers out there go and take a look at the winning sites you'll see that you can probably at least make it into the finals.

Another quick thought: maybe teams who assign only a few students to build their site anyway would be willing to subject their time and energy to the constraints of such a contest. The result, if nothing else, could be a really educational robotics page that you'd be proud to post here.

[generalbrando]

I'd like to point out the Thinkquest Internet Challenge again. Oracle has taken on the program and made some interesting changes. Topics are directed every year, although there is an open category option. One topic category is water - focusing for instance on the fact that over a billion don't have easy access to drinking water. Sound familiar?

Anyway, with some effort in the off season, this is a great way for students who've dedicated themselves to making an awesome FIRST page to get themselves a huge scholarship, or maybe at least a trip to Cali for the conference.

If anyone wants more info, the link is the same. If anyone is interested in starting a team and needs more help, I am familiar with most webdev stuff and would be willing to be an assitant coach.

If nothing else, you should pop over there and check out the library of entries - you'll find some very fun sites