The competition challenges students to use the Internet

By DEBI CLEWWORTH

Tribune Correspondent

School's out, but for three Lincoln High School seniors, the homework continues. It's not that they failed any courses, in fact all three graduated with honors. It's just that they have one more "assignment" due Aug. 31, and the final grade could be worth a lot of money.

Jason Dostal, Jeremy Walloch, and Ben Dekarske started a computer Web page project this year that could get them up to $25,000, as well as $5,000 each for their coaches and Lincoln High School if they take top prize. At the very least, a commendable finish could get them job recommendations in the computer world.

The contest is sponsored by ThinkQuest, and is open to students ages 12-19. It is an annual competition to challenge students to use the Internet "as a collaborative, interactive teaching and learning tool."

Computer related companies such as Adobe, Microsoft, Netscape, and Promixa also sponsor various awards within the contest. As one of the 18-year olds said, "even the people who don't win, might as well have," considering the job oportunities available for contest winners and participants.

Many past participants have been offered jobs and internships as a result of the quality of their work with the contest.

The idea was planted by a fellow student in an Advanced Placement European History Class. When the three seniors started the project, the pages of past winners overwhelmed them.

Now they feel they have comparable, if not better work.

One of the first steps was to decide on a topic to develop the site on. According to some of the contest rules, the site had to be educational. After some serious net surfing, they found there was little organized information on chemistry, and decided that was the direction to go in.

In the beginning, Dostal and Walloch were the dynamic duo devoted to the project. They designed and developed the initial layout for the page.

Enter dekarske, who enhanced the graphics and developed a periodic table for the site. The team was now a trio, and "The Chemistry Research Center" page had its beginning.

Web site contest One of the judging criteria for the contest is to see how many people have visited the web page. So far, more than 1,600 people have visited the web page. The contestants hope to see many more before the contest deadline. The Chemistry Research Center can be reached on the Internet at: http://www.wctc.net/zeppelin. For information regarding the competition, the ThinkQuest web site can be reached at http://www.thinkquest.org/thinkquest/

The Web page is geared for student use, and the team's motto is "Do it for the sake of knowledge." A post-it note with the motto is stuck to one of the two computers in Dostal's room.

The team, who do not consider themselves chemistry experts, are becoming experts on finding links to help students find answers to their chemistry problems.

"The majority of what we are is an indexing and archiving site," said Dostal. They have looked at more than 80,000 chemistry related sites, and sorted through them to determine which ones they wanted to link to their Web page. The sites chosen to be linked to their site are rated on a star scale.

The Web page includes links for homework help, references, research papers, and college sites, among other information.

Without any formal courses in web page design, the students basically taught themselves. The three young men have put numerous hours into the project and said the money probably wouldn't pay for the time they have put in if they had been paid an hourly wage.

Nonetheless, they are enthusiastic about cyberspace venture. "The competition encourages Internet use, because of the educational value," said Walloch.

Usually working at Dostal's home in a corner of his bedroom, the guys put in a team effort of about 10-12 hours on Sundays. They would get together around 10 A.M. and, fueled by pizza, Jolt colas, and Mountain Dews, would settle down to work.

The Web page is in its "third and final version-I think," said Dostal. Dekarske adds, "I hope so." The next months before the contest deadline will be spent in fine-tuning.

The graduates are planning to put the page in different languages. Dostal, who spent time in Germany as a Rotary exchange student, will work on the German, Walloch, a four year Spanish student veteran, will supply the Spanish translation, and others have been recruited for translating other languages.

With a winning entry, the team would be flown to Los Angeles. There they would face interviews regarding the theme of their site, and computer programming. In other words, they need to know their work inside and out.

Winnings are awarded in the form of sholarships and cash. All three gentlemen are headed onward in education.

Dostal plans to major in computer science and minoring in German at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.

Walloch will major in computer science with a minor in the Internet Web at UW-Eau Claire.

Dekarske will major in computer science and minor in computer engineering or business at Michigan Tech in Houghton, Mich.

With their high school careers completed, the young men have outside jobs in the computer field. Dostal is employed by Office Solutions; Dekarske is working with Engine Power Internet Developers in Oconomowoc; and Walloch is looking for employment in the computer field.

Even with the long hours, "getting there is somewhat tedious," said Dekarske, the guys said "it is still fun, or we would have quit a long time ago."

They sport team T-shirts with their team logo printed on them, and hand out business cards printed with their e-mail and Web page adresses. Regarding getting along on what could be a high pressure project, the see it this way - "With all three of us arguing, we get an overall cross section" of what they should add to the page.

Coaches for the team are Steve Stevenowski and Kevin Hodgson.

This article originally appeared in the Daily Tribune, of Wisconsin Rapids, and is reprinted with permission.