We made a 'trial' site and we could pick any subject we wanted to do. With the competition site, we had to find a subject that we could do well, would be a valuable addition to the ThinkQuest library, and fill a void in Internet sites.  This was NOT easy and it took us weeks to decide on the subject raptors.

The one thing we noticed about birding sites was that they didn't have information that we needed for assignments. If the information was there, we didn't understand it because it was written for adults.  We decided to make ours for children since birds of prey are really interesting to kids and anything that makes assignments easier has to be good.

We ran into problems with ThinkQuest rules lots of times. We developed a partnership with a company that makes website talking characters.  They were going to donate 'Chester', a talking rodent, to us. This fell through because of the 'no logo' ruling. At first we were very disappointed, but we soon realized that Chester would not have been 'ours' no matter how cool he was.  Then we collected sites where there were lots of bird sounds and videos to use as links.  Unfortunately that didn't work out so well either, because they were selling stuff and that's against the rules. Even non-profit organizations sell stuff so that they can keep operating.  This challenged us to develop a more creative approach to building the site.

We must have sent a hundred emails to birding experts all over the world including a small list of questions.  We got about 30 completed.  Some didn't answer and some came back undeliverable.  If you figured out the time that Gerhardt put into emailing and then divided it by how many responses we got, it would be about 2 hours each!  We got a better view of raptors worldwide but at a great cost in time.

We needed a more global view of raptors and what is going on around the world.  The global interviews were good but we needed team members that could find out what was happening in their countries.  We were lucky enough to find a team member in Bulgaria and one in England.  Not only did they help us with that, but they brought other strengths to the project as well.

Time was our enemy here because we worked way too slowly in the beginning.  We didn't use our time well and ended up in a rush at the end.  The deadline was 3 days after spring break so we had to be done about a week and a half earlier than that.  That was hard!

Gerhardt: We found out that he is a very good writer, researcher, and citation maker.  He also has unfailing enthusiasm even when he's doing something he doesn't like so much.  He was our emailer, note taker for trips, and site editor.

Minnie: She was a good researcher in spite of the fact that she didn't enjoy it very much. She took pictures on our team field trips, wrote trip reports, and became our owl pellet expert. Graphic creation was another skill she developed while making the site.

Max:  Along with Gerhardt, Isabella, and Issie, Max was responsible for the trivia game. He developed and typed questions for it.  Gerhardt and he drew the original game board that Issie later drew.  Max also did research, citations, and trip reports.  He worked on quizzes and puzzles.

Jerry:  Living far away in Bulgaria, Jerry still made his presence known.  He would give us his opinions on the site and did many fantastically written reports.  His reports always came with great pictures as illustration.  He unfailingly met deadlines and supplied the team with more than they expected with each assignment.  He has a great sense of humor, too! 

Issie:  What can you say about our great artist except "She's terrific!!"  She draws so well that people at our school think her pictures are photographs.  Even though she had lots of drawings to make and they took a whole lot of time, she also went to a raptor center for this project, took pictures, and wrote a report.  Her ideas for site titles and character names were very helpful to the team. The characters she created molded the site into what it is today.

Isabella:  While everyone has been working on the site, making corrections, creating pdf files, and transferring information from MS Word to the webpage, Isabella has done this and some special assignments.  She added the pictures to the site that open on the same page, added text identification to all links, pictures, and drawings, and did the hyperlinks.  She is responsible for making the printable pages for the site. 

Our Coach: She taught us everything about how to make a website and was the person who helped us understand what a good site needed to have. She also set up our trips and found our information sources. 

Our Assistant Coach: She gave ideas for our trips, and was the one who knew the most about raptors.  She advised us and gave us many terrific ideas!