"ThinkQuest is an outlet whereby students can strive to achieve their potential," according to Carol Calderwood, assistant coach of a winning team. "To work with international teams, where nobody has met each other except through their collaboration online, brings an interesting element. These special young people relish the challenge and develop some incredible skills to overcome the barriers of distance, language, culture and technology. Their abilities never cease to amaze me."

The ThinkQuest competition opened in October 2004. Teams of three to six students and up to two adult coaches had approximately six months to complete their projects. Working collaboratively, students and educators from all over the world submitted the 397 educational Web sites from which 12 winning entries were selected. An international panel of volunteer judges selected first, second and third place winners within each of three age divisions, and awarded "best of category" honors to six entries. The winning Web sites' topics include cybercrime, the Indian Ocean Tsunami, transportation technology and the Wild West. Another seven Web sites were awarded Honorable Mention.

The ThinkQuest competition, now entering its 11th year of operation, is an example of project-based learning at its best, and is an effective way to engage students and educators in global collaboration with technology. Beyond learning about Web publishing, and mastering the subject matter of their Web site, students learn important life skills. These include teamwork, time management, collaborative problem solving, negotiation and compromise. Teams create educational content to be used by other teachers and students around the world, and their work is published in the popular ThinkQuest Library.

"The ability to collaborate using technology is a necessary skill in today's global economy," said Jim Ballard, vice president, Oracle Education Foundation programs. "When you give students a challenge like ThinkQuest, they have the opportunity to show not just how much they know, but how well they work together as a team. In addition, when the educational content they create is published in the ThinkQuest Library, teachers can use it to educate and inspire their own students. So, in effect, the ThinkQuest teams' contributions impact the lives of students around the world and the learning goes on and on. "

The award winning Web sites can be viewed at http://thinkquest.org/winners.

About ThinkQuest
ThinkQuest, a program of the Oracle Education Foundation, is an international competition in which teams of students and teachers are challenged to create the best educational Web sites. These sites are hosted in the ThinkQuest Library, a free resource used by millions worldwide. For more information please visit http://www.thinkquest.org.

About the Oracle Education Foundation
The Oracle Education Foundation sponsors ThinkQuest, and provides grants to select schools to support global collaborative learning with technology and professional development for teachers. For more information please visit http://www.oraclefoundation.org.

About Oracle
Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) is the world's largest enterprise software company. For more information about Oracle, please visit our Web site at http://www.oracle.com