Date: Wed, 29 Mar 2000 10:34:42 -1000 (HST)
From: Lynne Sueoka 
To: ThinkQuest Junior--Cookies Team 
Subject: ATTN:  Cookie Parents

Hi all :)

Just wanted to check in with a progress report for you guys on the home
front :)

and...wanted to say how very proud and happy we are to be working with
this awesome group of kids that is our Cookie team...

we started yesterday with a "taking stock" session to see what each member
had done and to begin to put the pieces together....they've all come such
a long long way :)

they started with taking a full session to summon up the courage to call
for interviews and "grew" to the point of Melissa's calling a local auto
recycling company immediately when she got Kauai's email for help and
conducting an extensive phone interview and then writing it up for
Michelle on Kauai....

they started with sitting uncomfortably in front of huge blank pieces of
chart paper...wrestling with the idea of problem solving and interactivity
online and emerged with fully developed storyboards by Noah and Michelle
on their complex "city-sim," one with "real" alternatives, supported by
extensive research....

they started with mostly two dimensional graphics and, tutored by Ron and
Ruby and Miriam and Richard, progressed to the use of perspective,
softlight, ImageReady, et al...until each Cookie could design and execute
the impressive UniverCITY classrooms that form the resource base for the
site...

they started with some background in research techniques (especially with
that "blue book with the red line"--the encyclopedia, huh Noah? ;) and
concluded with multi-source research that was truly inquiry
based...exemplified in Michelle's ability to combine book research,
interviews, online and periodical research and come up with an article on
H-power that, not only shows a firm grasp of the concept but even more
important (and more difficult)...teaches (*chuckle* if she could teach
Aiwohi n me about H-power, she can teach anyone ;)

they started with strong web construction skills and took those skills
much further...to the extent of Noah (and Miriam's) opening animations on
Flash...Sean's use of panoramic graphics, virtual reality, and streaming
video...and, of course, the cookie Sean-O building sim, with the help of
Darrel, honorary coach JoAnn Fu, and tons of perseverance...

from Taylor's online wit to Sean and Noah's hyper-bouncing hilarity, to
Michelle and Melissa's semi-exasperated attempts to keep everyone in line
:) it's been a grand and marvelous journey...

we have miles to go before we put this site "to bed" cookie parents...
but we have, in the truest sense of the words, already arrived...

no matter the outcome...Cookies are pure platinum...

we thank you for believing in them
and us
and this thing called ThinkQuest...

Lynne and Leah