Find out about how the site was planned, made and refined. Choose one of the following topics for more:

--> Forming a team

--> Finalising the team

--> An obstacle to overcome

Thinkquest was a word that had no meaning to our team before we chose to undertake the challenge of creating our very own website. To be honest, one of our team members, Zhi Yong, had known about the competition for years, but had never considered entering until last October, when finally the first step was taken to put together a team for the project. Finding a group of people who were interested not only in working on a website, but also willing to put in 110% was not an easy task. Zhi Yong teamed up with Ashlee, the other student based in Middlemount to form a team with a third classmate, who later pulled out within a month. The problem lay in that Middlemount was a tiny town of merely 3000 people and provided a school of but 500 students from years 1 through to 12. The larger problem though, was the lack of enthusiasm and spirit to achieve, forming one of the sole reasons as to why the team decided to take part in Thinkquest. Each and every one of our team members are hard workers who challenge their limits and extend themselves through dedication and hard work. Eventually, a diligent team of members was formed after emailing contacts from overseas and asking around amongst old friends. It was in this way that Qing Qing (Zhi Yong's second cousin) and Lea (originally from a neighbouring town 4 hours drive away, though now studying in Sydney) were recruited. The result was a member in charge of each one's specific language and someone in charge of assembling the site. The position of team coach was entrusted to Middlemount Community School's computer technician, Mr Thomas, a spirited man who never doubted any of our decisions. To top it off, we were to choose an original, but 'compelling' (as the evaluation criteria requested) topic of interest among us. The result was very close between forensic science and exotic plants, but forensic science was chosen as the topic of the website.

The major workload came during the summer holidays, where certain jobs were delegated amongst the different team members - mainly translations and minor, but vital, tasks. Research and content write up were both very dependant on the school's resources for forensic science, as well as the internet. Over the eight weeks of holidays, all members of the team were spread out everywhere, with Lea (in charge of the German translations) traveling on a world tour that ended in Namibia, Qing Qing in Guangzhou (December is not the vacation period in China), Ashlee staying in Middlemount and Zhi Yong in Sydney (for several weeks). At this time, the team consisted of the full six members and emailing became the sole form of communication. Unfortunately, time was the judge of who was serious and who wasn't, as emails from two particular members became scarcer and eventually died out. For this reason, the originally planned French and Spanish versions could not go ahead. By this time, too much had been done to pull out and so with the remaining team mates, we completely committed ourselves to creating the most imaginative, creative, informative and factual website possible.