Six primary school learners from the Eastern Cape will depart for the United States of America on Friday, after winning an international web design competition which attracted 1 200 teams from over 20 countries.
The grade three and six learners from Cotswold Preparatory in Port Elizabeth and Stirling Primary in East London teamed up to create a website in the under 12 division of the ThinkQuest Narrative Competition.
This annual competition requires teams of up to six learners to create websites of educational value. The Deputy Minister of Science and Technology, Derek Hanekom, will host a special ‘bon voyage’ lunch for the learners before they leave for San Francisco.
All media are invited.
Date: Friday, 9 October 2009
Venue: Emperor’s Palace Hotel, OR Tambo International Airport
Time: 13h30 to 14:30
RSVP:
Nthabi Maoela
Cell: 082 944 0015
Veronica Mohapeloa
Cell: 082 882 3818
While in the United States of America, the learners will attend ThinkQuest Live, an awards function at which they will each receive a laptop computer. They will spend five days visiting interesting sites and taking part in workshops and other activities.
Under the guidance of two coaches, the teams, made up of learners from diverse backgrounds, developed a narrative website to market tourism in the Eastern Cape called; “Tour of a Lifetime”.
The ThinkQuest project tools enable collaboration between learners at different locations, allowing them to communicate with each other and gather information.
The project environment was created by Oracle Education Foundation, and is provided free of charge to participating schools. One of its most important features is that it is safe, with access limited to approved educators and learners.
The computer competition is one of the initiatives supported by the Department of Science and Technology as part its youth into science strategy. The Computer Olympiad, which is also responsible for the ThinkQuest web design competition, is one of the founder members of the Federation for Engineering, Science and Technology Olympiads and Competitions (FESTOC), established by the department as an umbrella body for science, engineering and technology Olympiads and competitions.
Issued by: Department of Science and Technology
6 October 2009
Source: Department of Science and Technology (http://www.dst.gov.za/)
