Site Info Section
Team Dissimilarities

The "Golf Course Team" is composed of 3 students and 3 coaches all of which have their own story to tell. We each have different backgrounds and different experiences that we bring to the table. Each new experience adds to the power of the team and each new idea increases the strength of our entry.

The team leader in our group is James Bishop. He is 18 years old and is currently attending Scotch Plains Fanwood High School in New Jersey. His experience with the internet is fairly strong. He has worked diligently on the internet developing web pages for Thinkquest 96 (where he successfully led a team to a second place win in the math and science category). He has designed web sites for some local businesses and organization like the Scotch Plains Fanwood High School. He was chosen as the team leader because of his organization and his ability to lead. He has been involved with many “leadership” groups throughout his high school career and has lead groups like SLAM (a group working for equality in the US) to state and national recognition and has achieved the rank of Eagle Scout for his service to his community. James is also the only student member of the team who plays golf. He is currently enrolled in Bucknell University for the spring of 1997 and will continue his education in the field of Engineering.

This summer, Jamie is all over the place. He goes on vacations all summer long (most of the time in Massachusetts), so he works off a laptop while on vacations. This posed a large problem because Jamie would be on vacation, Eugene would be in Singapore and Anthony would either be in Italy of New Jersey.

The school that James attends, has a population around 2000 and is mainly a white collar community. The school is not on the fore front of technology although with some recent the school system has been striving to both maintain and expand their resources. There is currently 1 internet connection in the high school that students can use. The computer systems in the school are mainly mac, but through some recent pushing by students and faculty, we gotten two IBM computers. The school board’s goal is to eventually have the computer labs connected to a server via ethernet connections and eventually have the server running T1 connections (although this will not occur for another 2-3 years.)

Although there is a lack of use of the internet in our school system, we do use computers in our classes. For instance, the english and history departments actively strive to give students a chance to use the computers to write papers and do research. (Although, they have not realized that the internet is a valuable resource in itself.) This year, with the help of Jamie, the school put up it's first web site. Jamie taught the teachers how to design and maintain their site. So as he leaves, Scotch Plains Fanwood High School, they will continue to push to maintain their ties to the internet.

The coach for James Bishop is Ms. Kling. Ms. Kling was chosen as coach for a variety of reasons. She has an MA in Educational Psychology with specialization in Human Sexuality and a BS in Health and Physical Education, but his has never coached in Thinkquest and has brought many new and exciting ideas to our weekly meetings. She has been a valuable resource in the sections of our site that relate to “the psychology of golf,” “health of golf,” “history of golf,” and “current events in golf.” Not only does Ms. Kling know of golf, but she has played golf before. She understands the rules, and understands the difficulty in playing the sport. She also is one of the most technology advanced teachers in our school. She actively pursues learning about the internet and about her computer, but the most important aspect that Ms. Kling brings to the table is the ability to understand people. She has and will continue to work with James to understand the team and how it is functioning. So as to keep us on the right path.

The second team member is Anthony. He is also a student from Scotch Plains Fanwood High School, but is completely different from any other person in the high school. He brings with him things that most of us would never dream of doing by his age, which is 17. He is of Italian descent and lived most of his early life in Edison, NJ.

Every year, his grandmother (from Venezuela) and his cousin come out to visit for a month. His grandmother and his cousin speak some English, but mostly Spanish. This doesn’t bother Anthony because he is fluent in 3 languages ... English, Spanish, and Italian. He has traveled to Italy, Cancun, and Venezuela. He knows a lot about foreign cultures and was in Italy for the a month and ten days on scholarship to study Italian culture. Although this is a nice "vacation" for him, he still manages to spend countless hours developing the Golf Course Web Site.

He also knows a considerable amount about computers. He led his team last year in Thinkquest 96 to an “honorable mention” award in the social sciences. He can program in C++, Perl, HTML, and is currently learning Java. But he won’t just sit and let technology pass him by ... he is currently setting up his father’s Windows NT Server Intranet and has successfully set up Windows NT Server to run on the internet (which we use to view the material that is currently under construction on his machine during our weekly meetings.)

His coach is Mr. Wurster. Mr. Wurster is a physics teacher at Anthony’s school. He was Anthony’s coach last year and has many great things to add to the team. He a mac user who will help us in making sure that our site works on all platforms, but even more than that he has the physics background necessary more most the development of the site. We will need to understand the concepts of physics for not only “the physics of golf” section, but also for the interactive C++ labs. This is his second year coaching a Thinkquest team and understands the how the team must function to place as a finalist. He is our “time keeper” by making sure we are keeping up with our outlined goals and help us to check the accuracy of our information.

Our final member is not from the US, but is from Singapore. We have found that Singapore is actually quite different from the US. One of the earliest things we learned was that college in Singapore is high school in the US and college in the US is a university in Singapore.He has shown us that there is more to the world beyond the US boundaries, but Eugene also brings experiences that many of us couldn’t ever have. He brings with his 17 year old body, experience with IRC, dedication, a different perspective on life ... and fresh ideas. He is currently finished designing the history section of our site and is working on the profiles section. He, like Anthony, understands many languages. Eugene is fluent in English, Chinese, and German. His schooling does not happen in a 5 hour day (like in the US) but is actually longer allowing more time to absorb and learn than in the US. His school system is on the 10 weeks on / 3 weeks off system and our vacations do not overlap! He enjoys some sports ... mainly soccer and has large amounts of computer experience and expertise. He can program in C++ and HTML.

Eugene attends Junior College in Singapore which is a school that is the equivalent to ours. Singapore is one large city with different districts, making his town urban. Eugene's school is running a wide array of technology. Everything for a centralized server to personal accounts to e-mail pop accounts which he can check at home. His school as scanners, multiple internet connects, and pursues a high level of technology interwoven into the education of the students. Junior College enrolls many more students than does Scotch Plains Fanwood High and the racial mixture is great.

Eugene’s father (Yeo Chye Koh) is his coach. Eugene had a lot of trouble finding a coach (he tried teachers in his school and even went looking in the universities) and eventually settled on his father because he couldn’t find a coach. But his father adds a new twist to “The Golf Course.” He is also fluent in many languages ... English, German, and Chinese. Eugene’s father brings with him the ability to make “the Golf Course” a truly international site. He has agreed to translate the site into German making a mirrored version for those who don’t understand English or would prefer to learn in German.

So this is the Golf Course team. We have the making to be an outstanding team, not because everyone knows everything, but because everyone knows something. With each talent and experience brought to the table, we grow as both a group and as individuals.

Hey wait! Did you think that we were done? Well, there is more. Last year in Thinkquest, at Jamie's table during the Awards Ceremony, Willie Jolley was the distinguished guest! As a matter of fact, Jamie and he have been working diligently on creating a "jingle" for the golf course. Also, the powers of two other people have been enlisted to put the site in Spanish and Italian, too! The reason why we write this is that these people deserve mention as being part of our "team" because they they have given time to help us!