Keng Hian Chia
Role: Team Coach
I am Keng Hian, Principal Consultant of Infocomm Studies in Hwa Chong Institution, Singapore. I am really pleased of this ThinkQuest team. ThinkQuest serves as a platform for students to apply what they have learnt into real life applications. Team work is important for their collaboration. As a coach for ThinkQuest, I will see what is going on, give them feedback and motivation and help if asked to. I see how the group develops and support them in their development in order to find their own ways, goals and dynamics to complete their tasks. With the increased proliferation of online information and the emerging trend of the social web, the topic on building a web design guide for students aspiring to participate in ThinkQuest is a timely one. Our aim is that this will serve as a starting framework to enhance the quality of educational sites in the ThinkQuest library which is accessed by a growing global population. I hope you will learn from this site as much as we have enjoyed learning to create it.
Gi Soong Chee
Role: Team Assistant Coach
Good morning! I am a happy ordinary Computing teacher in Victoria Junior College, Singapore. :) This is another exciting ThinkQuest year for me. Considering that a short few months ago when Jun Ru, Darryl and Jim first joined the school and were 'motivated' to participate in this competition, without any previous knowledge and experience in website development and still having that innocent 'blurrish' look in their faces, I am really impressed with what the team has managed to come up with in an unbelievably short span of time. When I approached Qing Sheng, a participant last year to help guide the team, he readily agreed and has done a great job as both facilitator and worker with his experience as a past winner. There were seemingly insurmountable obstacles the students encountered along the way: a short-lived partnership with 2 other students from another school which did not work out as they were too occupied with other commitments, 2 members in the team getting transferred to other schools midway into the project, competing academic and co-curricular demands which make communication and collaboration all the more difficult, and various mental, physical and emotional toils faced by each individual which you could only sense though these are not explicitly expressed. The team has taken all these challenges in their stride. It is due to each members good upbringing, strong character, undying spirit, utmost diligence and a shared sense of social purpose which have contributed to the amicable and conducive atmosphere in which successful collaboration and learning take place. The team has really matured much from this ThinkQuest venture, though the naive looks remain. :) I am extremely proud of their achievements today, and am certain that these desirable traits will bring them far in their future pursuits. It is an enriching experience for myself as I have again learnt much from interacting with this amazing group of self-driven young people. I wish them all the best in their undertakings and in life. May the FORCE be with you.
Jun Ru
Role: Team Leader
Hi everyone, I am Jun Ru, a computing student from Victoria Junior College. I have embarked on a thrilling journey of ThinkQuest ever since I joined the college and I truly gained an enriching experience out of it. To me, ThinkQuest was never a competition. It was more of a chance to learn about web development, as well as coordinating with other team members.
Due to my limited knowledge on web development, I was not very efficient in assigning tasks for my team members. All thanks to Qing Sheng, who has much more experience than I do, the team was able to progress as days passed. He shared his experience with us, guided us along and taught us all that we never knew.
Other than writing for the toolkit on Site Content, I also came up with a web skin. Designing was never my forte, but I decided to venture out. It took me a while to get use to designing and all, but I definitely had an enjoyable time doing it.
Also, I would like to convey my heartfelt thanks to Mr Gi, our assistant coach, for giving me the opportunity to work on ThinkQuest, and for his guidance throughout the process of creating TQ Toolkit.
Qing Sheng
Role: Site Architect, JavaScripter, Flash producer, video and podcast producer, content writer, content editor, graphics creator and editor
It's good to be back on a ThinkQuest adventure again! I must say that I enjoyed TQ Live 2006 at San Francisco very much! Thank you to all from the ThinkQuest team who have organised such a great event!
This time round, Mr Gi introduced me to a nice team. They are my grand juniors! I enjoyed working with them though I hoped they would be more prompt at meeting deadlines (haha). They were the ones who proposed the idea of creating a website for other ThinkQuesters (what a brilliant idea!). I enjoyed working on this topic!
Compared to my previous TQ entry (DRM: Two Sides of the Story), this one was tougher because our deadlines were tight and I had to go into the army soon. But nevertheless, I managed to create a wonderful site using the lastest technologies. My favourite role is actually designing the skins! I felt good being able to overcome nearly all the scripting obstacles this time (in using DOM), pushing boundaries of client-side scripting.
I hope to see the TQ library in great shape in time to come!
Darryl
Role: Main Designer, graphics creator, content writer
Greetings! I'm Darryl. I'm a year one student at Temasek Junior College.
Several years back, when CSS and XHTML were non-existent, I had stumbled upon a web competition Thinkquest. Looking back, I regret not taking up the challenge. This year, I got a second shot at participating in Thinkquest, and I knew I simply could not waste this opportunity.
I was tasked to come up with the content: design and CSS portion of the website, as well as the graphics. As unbelievable as it sounds, I thoroughly enjoyed my job. Perhaps, it is due to the fact that I have all along been interested in graphic design.
For me, the Thinkquest experience has truly been a memorable one. Long hours spent both on and off the computer, numerous challenges and setbacks we have encountered, and eventually, the sense of accomplishment.
I am very fortunate to work with a group of highly committed individuals, as well as very experienced mentor, Mr Gi. We were able to work together as a team despite being separated in different junior colleges. From my Thinkquest experience, I have gained an insight into web development as well as improved on my interpersonal skills. The Thinkquest experience for me, is truly invaluable.
Jim
Role: Content writer, translator
I am Jim or you can call me Wei Chen. Currently I am a Year 1 student in Meridian Junior College. I am a Taiwanese. I love to play basketball and piano in my free time and sometimes go out with few friends to catch a movie.
Being equipped with the only basic knowledge on web design, I have actually met quite a number of difficulties when building our website. However, with the help of my teammates and the coaches, I managed to explore deeper into this field. I have also gained much knowledge on the creation and the design of a website.
As a member of the team, I have done the content part on HTML, XHTML, web accessibility and translated the website into Chinese langauge. I really appreciate the guidance that other team members had given me. I am glad that I am able to work with them and overcome all the limitations and obstacles we faced. I had a great time working with them!
Since meeting face to face was difficult to arrange because of our individual hectic schedule at school, we had to devise alternative methods to keep in contact. Most of our discussions were conducted online. We also utilized an online database to consolidate our project and keep each other updated of our progress.