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THINKQUEST e-NEWSLETTER
Vol. 3 No. 11,
July, 2000
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CONTENTS IN THIS ISSUE:

1.ANNOUNCEMENTS

---) TQ Live Chats

---) TQ Judging Criteria Posted

---) NEW! Feature Spot in the TQ Library

2. FEATURE:ThinkQuest Wins Grant to Prepare

Technology Proficient Teachers

3.THINKQUEST IN THE NEWS

---)ThinkQuest Junior "Best of Contest"

Receives Award at National

Educational Computing Conference (NECC)

4. COACH'S CORNER:

---)Teaming Up to Teach Teachers

Contributed by Sheryl Hinman

5.ELECTRONIC SCHOLAR'S NOTEBOOK

---) Simple Search? Think Again!

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1.ANNOUNCEMENTS

---)TQ Chat Sessions: Log On & Learn!

ThinkQuest is hosting chat sessions with moderators on

three topics for TQIC Teams.

* An "Ask-A-Cybrarian" Chat sessions with ThinkQuest

Cybrarian Dr. Patricia Libutti is scheduled for July 24

at 4 PM, EDT US.

Ask about search, citation, copyright, and plagiarism

concerns. Please read the information on

"Citation and Copyright Information"

( http://www.thinkquest.org/php/lib/citations.php)

and "Avoid Plagiarism"

( http://www.thinkquest.org/php/lib/avoid_plag.php)

* April Buther, Director, Educational Programs, from the

Internet Society will host a session on Judging (Understand-

ing the Rubric & Judging Criteria)

July 27, 4 PM EDT US. Be prepared to ask questions after

reading the Rubric

(http://www.thinkquest.org/tqic/tqic_rules.shtml#j_criteria)

* On July 31 at 4 PM EDT US: Technology Chat session, hosted

by Paris Treantafeles, Director of Technology, ThinkQuest,

will focus on ThinkQuest Servers.

Read "ThinkQuest Servers":

( http://www.thinkquest.org/tqic/tq_servers.shtml)

( More: http://www.thinkquest.org/tqic/chat.shtml

for complete information on the sessions.

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---) TQ Judging Criteria Posted

The judging criteria and rubrics for Internet

Challenge 2000 are posted on the web site:

(http://www.thinkquest.org/tqic/tqic_rules.shtml#j_criteria)

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---) NEW! FEATURE SPOT in the TQ Library:

SELECTED SITES TO SEE

Check out the ThinkQuest Library of Entries page

for this month's selected sites on Music and Literature.

(Feature: http://www.thinkquest.org/library/ )

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2. FEATURE:ThinkQuest Wins Grant to Prepare

Technology-Proficient Teachers

ThinkQuest received a grant from the United States

Department of Education aimed at educating pre-service

teachers in using technology as a teaching tool in the

K-12 learning experience. Part of the _Preparing

Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology_ grants, the

three-year program will be a comprehensive effort,

led by ThinkQuest.

The Program will be undertaken by a consortium of

universities, school districts, non-profit organizations

and businesses to prepare technology- proficient teachers.

The project is scheduled to begin in Fall 2000 and will be

limited to the consortium project members for the first year.

( See the Press Release on the Program:

http://www.thinkquest.org/news/062100.shtml )

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3.THINKQUEST IN THE NEWS

NECC 2000 : Dr. Linda Richards, Educational Technology,

U.S. Dept. of Education, and Dr. Terry Rogers, President

and COO, Advanced Network & Services, presented the

ThinkQuest Jr. Best of Contest award to a ThinkQuest

Junior Team. Students Timothy, Daniel, Colin, Justin, Lianna,

and Chelsea traveled from Pennsylvania to Atlanta to

receive the award given at the Tuesday, June 27 Keynote

address. "Rat Tales" is a literature unit of study based

on the book:_The Rats of NIMH_ by Robert O'Brien.

This classic looks at the experimental rats in the

National Institute of Mental Health, and is worth

reading as a grown up!)

(See the site at: http://library.thinkquest.org/J002079F/)

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4. COACH'S CORNER: Teaming Up to Teach Teachers

Coaches, the following article is intended for you to

guide your teams in preparation of a learning resource.

If the team wants to write lesson plans, you DO have

expertise in how others learn --and experience -- in the

teaching process. Sheryl Hinman, long time coach and

member of a winning Tomorrow's Teacher's

team contributed this Teacher's Guide Preparation.

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A well-written guide will enhance the value of your site by

organizing insights you have gained during the team process.

It's a great opportunity to " teach the teachers!"

The example below suggests ways that a teacher might guide

students through the Actor's Interpretation section of

Globenext: The Tragedy of Julius Caesar.

< http://library.thinkquest.org/50033/teachers_guide.html

includes two other perspectives and links >.

Preparation:

Brutus adheres to the Stoic philosophy, a system of beliefs

that emphasizes integrity and emotional control.

Examine the philosophy using sites in the links section of

the Teacher's Guide and try to predict how the beliefs will

influence Brutus.

On Site:

Read the lines silently, noting words you think should have

special emphasis. Decide how Brutus' belief in emotional control

might influence the way the words are spoken. Assign parts and

read the scene aloud, then listen to the audio recording.

Compare your reading with that of the professional actors.

Follow up:

Portia makes a plea for Brutus to open his heart to her,

arguing that a husband must be willing to share emotional

intimacy on an equal level with physical intimacy. Do you

agree with her argument? Register your ideas using the poll

available at the end of the page.

Teams: Advice for Making Your Teacher's Guide:

As your site develops, consider various questions.

What logical order should a student follow?

What features would be most informative and engaging?

What discussion questions would arise related to

various sections?

What actions and activities does the site encourage?

Then, plan for the three stages of a site visit:

preparation, on site experiences, and follow up.

Make the guide convenient to use. Place it in an easily

noticed spot such as the homepage. A simple format will

often be appreciated since teachers have to duplicate

on a photocopier.

Thank you Sheryl, for sharing your experience and expertise.

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5. ELECTRONIC SCHOLAR'S NOTEBOOK

Patricia Libutti, Ph.D.,

Cybrarian, ThinkQuest Programs

---) A SIMPLE SEARCH?

THINK AGAIN!

Did you ever wonder why search engines turn up such

different results you use the exact same search in

each search engine? This month, I invite you to play

around with a search and link with a tutorial to learn

the differences among search tools.

I used a 'simple term' : "thinkquest" , with the Favorite

Five Search Tools of the University of California,

Berkeley Libraries Internet Resources tutorial

( http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/ )

See the immediate appearance of results ( a bit disconcerting!),

then check the link listed above for the specific reasons for

differences.

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Google www.google.com

"Google results 1-10 of about 104,972 for thinkquest.

Search took 0.18 seconds."

Category :

Reference > Education > K through 12 > Educators >

Teaching Resources "There is an initial classification,

and ThinkQuest Contest pages initially show up.

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Alta Vista Advanced Query www.altavista.com

" Web Pages About 59,527 pages found."

In the initial results, pages of high schools and

colleges where ThinkQuest sites were included showed up.

The Advanced Query feature would provide a quick way to

narrow the search.

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Northern Light www.northernlight.com

"52,471 items for:thinkquest"

This site returns Contest information first,

with Partners' web sites listed: Japan, Denmark, Russia,

Norway, and Italy Partners' pages were among the first

sites seen, along with a relevancy rating, and a chance

to "see more results from this site."

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Infoseek infoseek.go.com

"Web search results: 3,764 matches "

There is a mix of kinds of sites on the first page.

ThinkQuest Programs, individual Library sites, sites

outside TQ that include TQ, and more.Relevancy ratings

are included, and the results differ significantly from

the search tool Northern Light.

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FastSearch www.alltheweb.com

"28584 documents found - 0.1289 seconds search time"

This site returned initial documents in a manner

similar to Northern Light: Partners pages were visible:

this time, Romania was on the first page.

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Want to know more? This is a complex subject, but the

first reason for differences lies in the ways the search

tools gather data from the Net This may include different

sources, different processes (human or "knowbot"),

and different algorithms to determine results display).

Link to the tutorials, and look up these differences,

as well as:

* size and type of tool,

* how to do phrase searching and *proper name searching* ,

* using Boolean logic in the specific tool,

* and recommendations for searching the specific tool.

You will finds the five Favorite Tools in Part II:

* The best 5 BIG general Search Engines - TABLE of features

* The best 5 Subject Directories - TABLE of features

If you are new to searching and want to use your time well,

look at:

*The BEST Tools for General Web Searching and Recommended

Search Strategies as well.

These tutorials were prepared by librarians, and many search

tools are explained.These skills are important for all of us,

not simply professional researchers.

SO-- you will know what to expect when...

you enter your OWN NAME...

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Note: This Resource is part of the new Reference Desk on

ThinkQuest's Library Page:

( http://www.thinkquest.org/php/lib/ref_desk/index.php )

Thanks to:

The specific link and logo for navigation

http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/

were made available to ThinkQuest for its Reference Desk

through the generosity of Joe Barker, Webmaster,

University of California, Berkeley.

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(C) Copyright 2000 Advanced Network & Services, Inc.

All rights reserved.