ThinkQuest to help Internet people Think Young!
The ThinkQuest Internet Challenge Awards are given to young teams of web site designers. This year, the award ceremony was hosted by CERN on 19 March.Young visitors to CERN are not unusual. But those you may have seen around the Laboratory last Monday were here for a special event - the ThinkQuest Internet Challenge Awards. This is an international program for students from 12 to 19 working in teams, across different schools and cultures, to design exciting, interactive, and educational web sites. At stake in the competition was over $1 million in scholarships and awards.
Martine Brunschwig Graf (top left), Geneva State Councillor responsible for public education, at the ThinkQuest award ceremony at CERN where some 70 young finalists were assembled.
For this year's Award Ceremony, the 70 finalists were CERN's guests on Monday after spending three days in Geneva. Ranging in age from 14 to 19 years and representing over 20 countries, the finalists were welcomed to the awards day by CERN Director General Luciano Maiani and by Dr Terence W.Rogers, President and Chief Executive Officer of Advanced Network and Services Inc.
Martine Brunschwig Graf, Geneva State Councillor responsible for public education, was one of the personalities charged with awarding the prizes.
Attracting the most innovative youngsters from across the globe for the Challenge's 2000 edition, ThinkQuest, the worlds largest non-profit Internet-based educational program, had the unenviable task of narrowing down a 2000-strong entry to just 70 finalists. The ceremony at CERN was the first occasion that many of them had had to meet their fellow team members. Hans, for example, a finalist from the Netherlands finally came face to face with his team-mates Shengquan of Singapore and Oyinda of Nigeria after having worked together for many long months. Raising the bar on international social and cultural awareness is one of the most important goals of ThinkQuest, besides using the Internet as an educational tool.
A visit to the web site www.thinkquest.org, should convince anyone of the quality of the entrants. Sites range from a "how-to" guide to preserving family history to a study of Vincent Van Gogh's work and life, and they represent the most innovative efforts of today's youth. Lisa Ernst, Executive Director of ThinkQuest, never ceases to be surprised. 'In my 5 years of working with ThinkQuest,' she says, 'I'm continually impressed by the talents of these young people.'
