A total of 21 teams from South African schools won international ranking in the 2007 annual ThinkQuest Competition. Two South African teams were among the top 20 international teams in their age groups.
The Web sites created by the teams are available as an education resource at www.thinkquest.org/library/index.html.
The South African team to win International Honourable Mention was made up of pupils from Parklands College and Sophakama Primary School. The team was entered by Maxwell Mdini, a teacher from Sophakama Primary School, at Du Noon, an informal settlement on the northern outskirts of Cape Town.
Mdini was receiving computer training at Parklands College, a nearby prestigious private school, when he heard about the opportunities offered by ThinkQuest. As Sophakama Primary School has neither the technical infrastructure nor the expertise to create a Web site, he teamed up with assistant coach Richard Knaggs and students from Parklands College.
Using Parklands facilities, the team created the award-winning Web site ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES INTERNATIONAL. In keeping with ThinkQuest International rules, only the first names of the team members are made public. They are: Alexander, Atanas, Brett, Itumaleng, Matthew and Mitchell.
The Oracle Education Foundation will donate a laptop computer to each of the team members, the coach and the assistant coach of Sophakama Primary. The school of the main coach will receive a US$1 000 award.
Wendy Beetge, Head of Transformation at Oracle South Africa, is delighted that Sophakama Primary will receive a US$1 000 award: "This is exactly the type of co-operation across financial and social boundaries we like to see. We trust that this example of co-operation will be followed by other teams as well."
According to Richard Knaggs, coach of the winning team: "Taking part in this ThinkQuest competition has been the richest and most complete learning I have ever experienced; from learner, to educator, to assessor, to Oracle, to technology and beyond! Every educator has to do it."
ThinkQuest is an annual international Web design competition organised by the Oracle Education Foundation to encourage learners from all over the world to think, connect, create and share. Students work in teams of three to six to build innovative educational Web sites to share with the rest of the world.
Teams submit their Web sites in April each year. In the first phase of judging, judges from all over the world log into the Web sites and evaluate them from their own computers. Each Web site is evaluated by at least six judges during the first phase. Of the hundreds of Web sites evaluated in this way, 61 were selected for the second phase of judging.
For the second phase, judges from different countries are brought together in San Francisco to evaluate and discuss the Web sites during a four-day period. They select a first, second and third, and seven "Honourable Mentions" for each of the three age groups.
Peter Waker, Vice-President of the Computer Society of South Africa, who promoted and administered ThinkQuest in South Africa this year, is delighted with the results:
"Not only did one of our teams get "Honourable Mention" and all the awards that go with it, but another team was in the top 20 for their age group. 'The Great White Shark' by the Sharks Team from Bay Primary School in Kalk Bay is a delightful site created by three young ladies who very cleverly used the advantage their environment gives them. They have 'great whites' at their front door and used the opportunity nature offered them on a plate.
"We are proud of all 21 teams that received international ranking. Learners from all over the world visit www.thinkquest.org/library/ to find information. We are impressed that their Web sites will be part of a portal that receives more than a million hits per month."
*Honourable Mention in 15 and under **Finalist in 12 and under
Enrolment for ThinkQuest 2008 will open on 15 August. Teams can enter at www.thinkquest.org.za.
Press release by Peter Waker
Vice-President (Education & Training) Computer Society of South Africa
Phone 021 447 8450
waker@interware.co.za
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