Although our group is like six peas in a giant pod, we don't see each other often. This is because we don't go to the same school. Actually, we don't even live in the same city. Steven and Frank live in the same state, though, and we all live in the same country-except for Philippe, who refuses to leave Brazil and join us.

How did we meet, you ask? Very simple, really. One year ago, with the exception of Mr. Brazilian, we all went to Baton Rouge High School in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. We were all in the math and computer club then, and got to know each other pretty well through math and programming contests. Philippe, on the other hand, would not go to school with us, although he was in Baton Rouge for quite some time. He's Stacy and Steven's cousin, and he stayed at their house for two months during his summer vacation. Steven's birthday came and went, and everyone met Philippe, AKA Jalapeño, at Steven's birthday party.

Here we need to introduce Alice, a good friend of Stacy's. She told Stacy about ThinkQuest, and they started to form a team. However, Alice soon realized that ThinkQuest requires a lot of research and time, so she dropped out. Eventually, Stacy came to the rest of us with the idea, and here we are. A team that has worked diligently to bring you this magnificent site.

After we formed a team, the next step was picking a topic we all liked. We all got together (in a chat room), and in less than a minute decided we wanted to do space travel. The problem then became coming up with different topics for research and dividing the work to be done.

Frank
Frank used his artistic and programming abilities to create the website for our content. He designed the layout for the site, making banners, icons, links, games, and quizzes. For clarity, he also included diagrams and detailed explanations of how to play different games and how to navigate the site in general.

Steven
Steven researched the different types of energy required for space travel, creating a quiz and game for Frank to format. He put all the sources everyone used into MLA format. He also created the text only version of the site.

Philippe
Mr. Brazilian was the perfect person for the Portuguese translations. He is fluent in Portuguese and near-fluent in English, making him a superb translator. Whenever we were done with a topic, we sent it to him for editing and translating.

Dragos
Dragos researched launch and re-entry as well as manned and unmanned missions. He also wrote quizzes and games for Frank to format.

Ryan
Ryan, the math and science whiz, provided a clear background of the physics and chemistry behind propulsion. He came up with different topics for research, which kept things moving. He also wrote the entire glossary from his head. The images he used in propulsion explanations are his original creations.

Stacy
Stacy researched life support, types of spacecraft, dangers, and helped with missions. She also included quizzes and games for Frank to format. She also used a microphone and recorded an analysis for every topic.

Given that only two of us even live in the same state, it's easy to understand why our group never met in person to work on the projects. However, we were all online every day, especially when we worked on our projects. Weekly meetings in chat rooms and constant emails helped to keep everyone updated on the progress of the site.

We all had each others' email addresses, of course, and home and cell phone numbers for emergencies. More than often, though, getting on an instant messenger was enough to get in touch with someone. AOL Instant Messenger was a great help to us.

Besides being able to talk to each other about how things were going, what topics to research, and when we would have things done, we needed a way to share the research that we had done in order to add to, edit, translate, or post it. Emailing was always an option, but uploading it to a server turned out to be a faster and easier way.

Although we never met in person, it never affected our ability to work together as a group. If anything, we worked harder to make sure everyone knew how the site was going so that everything would be perfect and finished on time.