My name is Deborah O'Connor and I live in a Massachusetts town about 40 miles northwest of Boston with my husband, our 7-month-old Llewellin Setter puppy, and our 17 year old cat. I have a Bachelor of Arts degree in Biology from Merrimack College in North Andover, MA and a Master of Education in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Massachusetts. During my 25-year teaching career I have taught middle school earth and life science, as well as biology, chemistry, anatomy & physiology, and Advanced Placement Biology. I happily commute 21 miles every day to Pinkerton Academy in Derry, NH, where I have taught for the past 15 years, and am currently the Science Department Chair.

About a year and a half ago Ammu asked me to consider coaching a ThinkQuest team. It was a challenge I took on with some trepidation, as I have absolutely no knowledge of web- design and programming. My role as content editor and taskmaster paled in comparison to the contributions of the team. In spite of this, Ammu asked me to coach a second team! I had the pleasure of meeting Ngoc, and Johnny at ThinkQuest Live 2005 in San Francisco, California. I am continually amazed at the abilities of these young adults, and how they are able to accomplish this great feat of developing a savvy, educational website with global implications. They hold a bright promise for the future.

My name is Jonathan and I’m currently doing my first year of college at “TH Rijswijk”, where I plan to get my Bachelor of Engineering (B. Eng) degree. Most people call me Johnny and I like this name better. It came about when I was about 10 years old and I saw a movie called Short Circuit. Well it was about a robot that got the name Johnny. He believed that he was really alive and could think for himself. Two people wanted to help him prove it by making him laugh. I don’t remember the rest of the movie.

Internet connectivity. My father was quite interested in the Internet revolution, so he decided to make a web site about the area where we lived. As he gained expertise in all of this, he exposed me to new opportunities and also taught me HTML. A half year later we moved to the Netherlands. Here, I got a part time job, bought my own PC, and we also got a broadband Internet. From then on, I invested a lot of time into learning everything I know today -- from online forums, tutorials, and more. Now, my father comes to me with questions :)

It was on the forums where Ammu found me trying to help people with all kinds of questions about Macromedia Flash. I joined her team in 2004 and we won first place with the site “Patent Wars on AIDS drugs”. I went to ThinkQuest Live in September 2005 where I met with lots of great people like Ngoc, Ben, Shakeeb, and I also finally met with Ammu face to face.

Now I’m a coach, sharing my knowledge and experience with the team wherever and whenever it was needed. It has been every interesting working with a ThinkQuest team again, this time as a coach and not a member.