Hello, my name is Monica Cataldo, and I am the Primary Coach for Coral Crisis: Reefs in Peril. I teach in an elementary school in New Hampshire ; I manage the Program for Acceleration and Curriculum Enhancement (PACE) in Math and English at my elementary school. Dylan is a student of mine and he asked me to be the coach of this team. He was so excited about this project and the idea of working with students from other countries. Having coached his ThinkQuest team in the past, I truly appreciated the opportunity to coach a new group of young students again, this time from different parts of the world.

During the project, my role was primarily to provide editorial support and ensure that everyone remained on task. I provided guidance on how to research and obtain legitimate information. The kids worked on the project mainly at home and I was available to them via e-mail. I was thoroughly impressed with the expertise and contributions of all team members, especially given the fact that no two children attend the same school.

The kids were very busy during the long process of developing this project. The kids designed the Website with specific goals and audience in mind. The final product, I believe, has a great deal of educational value and will be very useful to both students and teachers, especially elementary and middle school. One of the kids' major accomplishments with this project is that they took into account user friendliness and navigation to create an easy-to-use site which will make it easier for students and teachers to find information on this topic. They have included numerous interactive games, photographs, interviews, demonstrations, animations, and quizzes in order to encourage student involvement. After all, kids learn best when they have the opportunity to interact! I hope that your visit to this website turns out to be a truly fulfilling and enjoyable experience.

Hello! My name is Ragho Mahalingam and I am the Assistant Coach for Coral Crisis: Reefs in Peril.  I work as a Principal Software Engineer for Motorola.  When Dylan asked me to be the assistant coach for this young team, I was excited at the opportunity. Once I learned about the team, I was very impressed with their motivation and commitment. This is my first time working with ThinkQuest, although I have known of it for a couple of years as my niece, nephew, and brother have participated and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. So I decided to give this a try. It was a challenge at times, but the hard work and dedication of all the children made this experience truly memorable and worthwhile.

My role in this project was to offer advice as needed, proofread and comment on content, monitor progress, and encourage the students to stay on task. This team made my role easy because, plain and simple, they were great! I would like to thank them for their hard work and dedication; I would also like to thank all of the parents, organizations, and websites who were generous in helping this team meet their objectives.  I am amazed at some of the original and innovative solutions that these kids have come up with. Courtney, Dylan, Sheila, Alisha, Benji, Nikhyl, and, last but not the least, Mrs. Cataldo, I would like to thank all of you for the opportunity to work with you on this incredible endeavor. I wish you all the very best! I have personally learned a lot from this experience, and I truly believe that competitions of this nature are what is needed to help bridge the gap among countries. It gives everyone an opportunity to achieve their fullest potential.  It has simply been a rewarding experience! I truly hope that you enjoy this website as much as the kids enjoyed creating it.