Published: September 21, 2006 10:28 pm            

Web site honored on international level

Charles Russell's habitat project takes 10th place

Ashland — In the vast world of cyberspace it’s sometimes hard to find information to fit one’s needs. Finding innovative and educational Web sites for elementary students can be especially challenging.

A decade ago, the Oracle Education Foundation recognized this dilemma and created ThinkQuest, an international competition that challenges students to work in groups to create Web sites tailored to the needs of other students their age and grade level.

“They wanted to see good educational Web sites available for students, so they thought who better to make it than students,” said Charles Russell Elementary school technology assistant Cindy Elkins.

Almost three years ago a handful of fifth-graders at Charles Russell Elementary, led by Elkins and library media specialist Sheila Meade, took up that challenge and created a Web site titled the Amazing World of Habitat. The students are a part of the school’s Student Technology Leadership Program, a statewide program that encourages students to use technology to learn.

Six students were selected when they were in the second grade to work on the project. The group met after school over the last two years to build their site, which explores the Earth’s six major habitats.

Elkins said the project took longer than expected to complete and was then delayed a year because several of the students were too young to qualify for the competition after ThinkQuest revised its rules.

The delays and hard work paid off in the end, however, when the project was finally completed last school year and submitted to ThinkQuest judges. The Amazing World of Habitat placed 10th, Elkins said.

According to information provided by Oracle on its Web page, 685 Web sites were submitted from 17 different countries.

In addition to being able to claim international success at creating Web sites, the students learned valuable lessons they will be able to easily apply in today’s technology-driven world.

According to the students, they learned a variety of specific computer skills and how to use them together. Working in partnerships the students created pages of the Web site starting with a template and using a variety of multimedia programs to add information and features.

Jordan Steele, a fifth-grader at Oakview Elementary, worked on the project when he was a third- and fourth-grader at Charles Russell. Steele helped to create the Desert page.

“It was really fun. I learned a lot about my friends,” he said. “It was a lot of hard work but I did learn a lot from it. I learned a lot about my habitat. I learned how to make a Web site, how to work together really well.”

Steele said creating a Web site also has helped him learn how to better use them for research. “They are a lot easier for me to use. I’ve made one and I know how to use it. I knew a lot but not as much as I did when we finished this Web site,” Steele said.

Group member Courtney Hayes said she would probably use the Internet more for school if there were more student-created Web sites like theirs. “They have the same ideas we do and can use words we understand,” she said.

Hayes, who helped to make the Arctic page and the resources page, also learned a lot about copyright laws during the project.

“I did all the links to the Web site and found all the pictures on the Internet for it,” she said. “I had to make sure we could use the photos and that they were free.”

Other students in the group learned other lessons.

Emily Bond, who helped make the Grassland page, also created much of the computer art used for the site using a paint program. She said she discovered how challenging drawing with a mouse is. “We thought it would be kind of easy. It looked easy but it wasn’t easy,” she said.

Katie Tilton was another Web artist. In addition to drawing much of the climate art she also was the group’s photographer. She took pictures on a digital camera for the first time as part of the project and learned how to download them onto the computer and place them within the Web site.

Before the project, she said, “I would look at (a digital camera) and didn’t know what to do with it.”

In November, the students will get another chance to showcase their work at the state’s regional STLP conference at Morehead State University.

The conference is scheduled for Nov. 8. It’s similar to a science fair, so the students will create a booth to share and explain their project.

Group members are meeting after school to work on their display board and are planning how it’s going to look, Meade said. If the project wins at the regional level the group will be invited to compete at the state competition in May.

Elkins said the students will be honored at the conference for being world winners in the ThinkQuest competition.

        

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