The Oracle Education Foundation Salutes This Year's ThinkQuest International 2008 Winners
Students from 13 Countries Take Top Prizes in Global Website Building Competition
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REDWOOD SHORES, Calif.,
01-JUN-2008 10:59 AM
- Students from 13 countries took top honors in this year's ThinkQuest International 2008 Competition.
- ThinkQuest, a program of the Oracle Education Foundation, is a renowned global contest that challenges students to create innovative websites to share with their peers around the world.
- The competition is utilized by teachers to engage their students in developing critical skills for life and work in the 21st century.
- This year's winning teams collaborated in the research, writing and creation of websites on educational topics ranging from mathematics to promoting tolerance and preventing bullying.
- ThinkQuest International 2008 included 972 teams from 60 countries and the winning entries included students from Argentina, Australia, Canada, China, Egypt, India, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, Tunisia, United Kingdom, United States and Vietnam.
- Each team had approximately eight months to complete their final websites. The submissions were then reviewed by an international panel of volunteer judges who selected the winners in each of the three age divisions.
- The judges also awarded the "Global Perspectives" prize to the team best exemplifying respect for diversity and recognition of global interdependence. A full list of the winning sites can be found here: http://thinkquest.org/library/winners/2008_international.html.
- Prizes for the winning teams include:
o Age Division 1st Place: Laptop computer with approximate retail value of $1,500 USD
o Age Division 2nd Place: Laptop computer with approximate retail value of $1,250 USD
o Age Division 3rd Place: Laptop computer with approximate retail value of $1,000 USD
o Age Division Honorable Mention: Laptop computer with approximate retail value of $750 USD
o Global Perspectives Award: Digital camera with approximate retail value of $750 USD
o School Award: $1,000 USD
o Winners get invited to attend ThinkQuest Live this September.
- The ThinkQuest competition, now entering its 14th year, is an example of project learning at its best. Student teams create educational content to be used by teachers and students around the world; their work is published in the popular ThinkQuest Library, visited by 30 million learners each year.
Supporting Quotes
- "ThinkQuest encourages students to develop skills that are critical for success in a global economy," said Clare Dolan, Vice President, Oracle Corporate Citizenship. "The students develop a high-end learning project from scratch. Throughout this challenging process, they learn via their personal experience and through their team interactions. It is truly inspiring to see what the students accomplish. The educational websites that they produce are absolutely first-rate and serve as invaluable educational resources for their peers worldwide."
- " This process is for me, a renewal of sorts in my belief that kids can and do change their world. To review these websites, and to see the amount of effort that goes into each one, puts a positive light on the future," said Bill McGrath, PhD and ThinkQuest judge. "Children have an advantage in this ever-changing technological world and they apply that fearless "techno-advantage", as ThinkQuest shows us, into solutions for current and future issues. We (adults) would be well advised to learn to listen to our youth. They are learning global collaboration as a part of this process, they understand the importance of diversity and utilize the media of the day to convey messages that in time, will be shared by millions around the globe."
Supporting Resources
- ThinkQuest:
- ThinkQuest Stories and Video:
- 2008 Winning Websites:
- The Oracle Education Foundation:
About ThinkQuest
The Oracle Education Foundation sponsors ThinkQuest and Think.com, free online programs for the primary and secondary education community. It also makes grants to select schools and nonprofits to promote global online collaborative learning. For more information, 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.
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