The Group: Who We are

The web design team of Miramar High School was created in 2002. Two years later, the team has grown two-fold and is in the midst of a major fund-raising campaign to make the school's web site the best for years to come. Andres found the ThinkQuest competition and chose five members to work with him. Now, the power of Miramar High's finest is turned toward this competition.

Through Adversity and Trepidation.

The road to success is never a smooth ride. The web design team has had to work with no money and -at one time- no sponsor. But their steadfastness has earned them new software. But there was no time to wait for that software. Each team member had to work from home, communicating through free FTP services, instant messaging software, and even physically swapping cds with work on them. Each member had to fit web design work in between their grueling International Baccalaureate schedules, and their existing school web site.

About Us: David (Content Manager)

As Content Manager, David was responsible for all of the research, text and stock pictures. He decided which energy sources would be covered in the web site and to what extent. He then researched where those new energy sources would be implemented and how. David also laid out how each page would link to each other in the site layout, and organized the Further Research bar..

David has been doing web design since 2002 when he was asked to design Miramar High’s Electric Vehicle Web Site. Since then, David has designed the school’s EV web site again for the 2003 competition and built Miramar High’s Travel and Tourism Academy web site. Outside of school, he has built the company web site of Off the Wall Entertainment Inc., a company picnic provider and planner. David, in 2003 along with another student helped establish the current Miramar High Web Design Team. He is currently vice-president and Content Manager of the Miramar High’s web site.

Outside of web design, David has won 4th place in the County Science fair for his project on recharging a 9-volt battery from static electricity collected on a coaxial cable. He had gone to county four times prior to that, for other projects involving physics, batteries, and environmental science.

David is currently participating in a group project to test the acidity levels of Florida’s everglades due to road construction and automobile pollution. He is also in the midst of writing several short stories and plays for other clubs.

About Us: Andres (Graphic Design & Interface)

As Graphic and Interface designer, Andres had to come up with the overall design and appearance of the website that resulted in an exceptionally consistent theme, easy to follow layout, and appealing use of colors throughout the site . A process that evolved from layout sketches in pieces of paper to an elaborate and intuitive CSS and HTML design.

Andres' interest in web-design began in 2001, when out of curiosity in the topic, he began researching and teaching himself web and graphic design. Since then, Andres has worked on numerous web projects for non-profit organizations, corporations, writers, music artists, graphic designers, industrial designers, and is now president of the webdesign club focused in developing his school website and training students to build websites for the school's various clubs and organizations.

About Us: Ryan (Code Programmer & Editor)

Ryan acted as a filter for our web site's code, he was in charge in the overall technical performance of the website. He took the raw code that had been created for the web site, and fine-tuned it; removing errors and coding imperfections.

Ryan has taught himself all he knows about web design, through online tutorials and books. Ryan has helped in several web site in he same capacity: providing a final check on all code and scripting.

Outside of web design, Ryan works to gain awareness and rights for the gay community. He is currently working on getting a Gay-trait Alliance in his school, where he hopes to provide a support system for gay and lesbian teens. After high school, he hopes to go to MIT for college where he'll study computer science and engineering.

About Us: Folasade (Graphic Designer and Illustrator)

Folasade has designed the colour scheme and images used on the site. She also painted the illustration used in its interactive segments, based on the scripts provided by David.

Folasade has been interested in design and illustration from the time that she realised that things can be both useful and pretty; however she has not delved very far into web design. She has been fiddling with web design on and off since 2000, creating small sites mainly to allow her to access her artistic works. She has, however, designed the cover of Miramar High's soon-to-be first literary magazine, and also used her design skills to create the décor of the French department's annual teacher luncheon "Le Petit Café Français."

When not working in the visual arts, Folasade is writing. Having won many awards for her works and, now, working for the Sun-Sentinel newspaper for Next Generation, she is excited at the future prospects of her career. She hopes soon to publish a short story written about a man's reveries about his married life whilst picking through his wife's underwear drawer.

About Us: Andrew (Translation & Flash)

As a member of the Basic Elements Website design team, Andrew has focused on making the site accessible to those that do not speak English.  Andrew was had the content of the site translated into Spanish so that more people in the world could learn about the benefits of alternative energy sources.  Early plans for the web site also called for him to create flash presentations based off of story boards that David had created.  Unfortunately, time and resources were not on their side, and that aspect of the web site was not fully completed. 

Andrew has minimal previous experience in web design, but has expressed an interest in this wave of the future.  He was enrolled in his schools Level 1 Web Design class which introduced him to FrontPage and Java Script, and since then been involved in various technology outlets.  Andrew has taken part in supplying content for his schools Athletic Department and Choir/ Vocal Ensembles websites. As of now Andrew is the treasurer of his schools Web Design Club for the 2004-2005 school year.

Besides his involvement with web design, Andrew interest and future goals lead toward a future of material sciences and engineering.  He would like to see the development of new metals and plastics that provide higher efficiency rates and greater performance.  Andrew continues to fuel his motives with outstanding achievements and creative ideas.

About Us: James (Sponsor & Coach)

Mr. James coached the Miramar High web team through the ThinkQuest competition.  He was always there to offer insight into web design, project planning and general guidance. Mr. James always offered a voice of reason.  He also played devil's advocate on several occasions.  The end result was a group that never lost focus of their objectives.

Mr. James is a science teacher at Miramar High. He also has had experience in database and other web-related computer fields.  He has worked with major company web sites including Martha Stewart's web site and Scholastic.  He owns PC computers at home, but he says that with his experience with Apple computers in the school system, he might just switch to Mac within the next few months.