Thinkquest Jr. 2000 - Farming in Illinois


Hi! My name is Whitney. I go to Malta Grade School. I'm in 6th grade. I enjoy playing many sports like basketball, volleyball, softball, and football. I have two sisters. I love pets, especially puppies. When I did this website, I learned many things. I learned how to use graphics and how to make websites. I think my partner (cousin Katie) and I worked very hard on this project. Hi! I'm Katie. I'm in the 6th grade at Plano Middle School. There are a lot of farmers in my family and that is what got me interested in a farming website. Also, I'm in 4-H and my dad works at an agricultural cooperative serving three counties in Illinois. In doing the website, I learned about different areas of farming in Northern Illinois. Also, I learned about graphics on a computer and how you can change and work with them. On an extra note, Whitney (my partner) is my cousin. Sue Mullins is one of the coaches for our team. Sue is presently a teacher at Malta Grade School where she has taught 4th grade for 10 years. She taught Whitney when Whitney was in 4th grade. This year Sue has Whitney's sister, Kourtney, in her 4th grade class. Sue is also coaching Kourtney's team, who is working on another Thinkquest project. Be sure to check out that site. Cooky Ikeler is one of the coaches of this Thinkquest team. Cooky has been the Junior High Volleyball coach at Malta School for the last five years. Cooky has coached two girls' summer softball teams for the last eight years. Cooky and husband, Gary, have three daughters: Kourtney, Whitney, and Kelly. Cooky is coaching Kourtney's ThinkQuest team, also. Cooky is employed as an Information Technology Coordinator in the Career Planning and Placement Center at Northern Illinois University. Everyone was very excited to start the project. We had a great deal of information to present. As we brainstormed, we came up with so many areas that we hoped to cover. As the project progressed, we realized that with only two student team members who were leading very busy lives with basketball games, chorus competitions, schoolwork, family events, 4-H, church-related commitments, and "kid things," we would have to carefully decide what was realistic to present. One of the challenges that needed to be overcome was that Whitney and Katie lived 45 minutes away from each other. Luckily, Whitney and Katie are cousins so getting together was easier because we could work around each family's schedule. With the help of carefully planned work sessions and very cooperative families, the girls were able to get together to make decisions, learn new things, and split the work. There was even one overnight session that proved to be a very successful work session, as well as an enjoyable time for the girls after their work was completed. Surprisingly, they were feeling good about accomplishing so much work on Friday night, they wished to put in some more time early Saturday morning after their morning jog. Another challenge was that one of the girls didn't have e-mail capabilities. But again with carefully planned work sessions, that challenge was met. They worked hard and deserve lots of credit. They worked independently and as a group. We think that they have learned a great deal and they should be very proud of their efforts. Their favorite part of the project was working with graphics. They enjoyed working with Adobe ImageStyler to create their graphics. They thoroughly enjoyed making the animal graphics that are used in the responses to the questions posed to our interviewees. They decided together how their buttons would look. Whitney made the decision on the home page elements as we were running out of time available for meeting together. They enjoyed taking photos either with a regular camera and scanning in the photo or the digital camera. Katie was more diligent about getting her material typed on time. Whitney had a flare for the graphics end of the project.

Hi! My name is Whitney. I go to Malta Grade School. I'm in 6th grade. I enjoy playing many sports like basketball, volleyball, softball, and football. I have two sisters. I love pets, especially puppies. When I did this website, I learned many things. I learned how to use graphics and how to make websites. I think my partner (cousin Katie) and I worked very hard on this project.

Hi! I'm Katie. I'm in the 6th grade at Plano Middle School. There are a lot of farmers in my family and that is what got me interested in a farming website. Also, I'm in 4-H and my dad works at an agricultural cooperative serving three counties in Illinois. In doing the website, I learned about different areas of farming in Northern Illinois. Also, I learned about graphics on a computer and how you can change and work with them. On an extra note, Whitney (my partner) is my cousin.

Sue Mullins is one of the coaches for our team. Sue is presently a teacher at Malta Grade School where she has taught 4th grade for 10 years. She taught Whitney when Whitney was in 4th grade. This year Sue has Whitney's sister, Kourtney, in her 4th grade class. Sue is also coaching Kourtney's team, who is working on another Thinkquest project. Be sure to check out that site.

Cooky Ikeler is one of the coaches of this Thinkquest team. Cooky has been the Junior High Volleyball coach at Malta School for the last five years. Cooky has coached two girls' summer softball teams for the last eight years. Cooky and husband, Gary, have three daughters: Kourtney, Whitney, and Kelly. Cooky is coaching Kourtney's ThinkQuest team, also. Cooky is employed as an Information Technology Coordinator in the Career Planning and Placement Center at Northern Illinois University.

Everyone was very excited to start the project. We had a great deal of information to present. As we brainstormed, we came up with so many areas that we hoped to cover. As the project progressed, we realized that with only two student team members who were leading very busy lives with basketball games, chorus competitions, schoolwork, family events, 4-H, church-related commitments, and "kid things," we would have to carefully decide what was realistic to present.

One of the challenges that needed to be overcome was that Whitney and Katie lived 45 minutes away from each other. Luckily, Whitney and Katie are cousins so getting together was easier because we could work around each family's schedule. With the help of carefully planned work sessions and very cooperative families, the girls were able to get together to make decisions, learn new things, and split the work. There was even one overnight session that proved to be a very successful work session, as well as an enjoyable time for the girls after their work was completed. Surprisingly, they were feeling good about accomplishing so much work on Friday night, they wished to put in some more time early Saturday morning after their morning jog.

Another challenge was that one of the girls didn't have e-mail capabilities. But again with carefully planned work sessions, that challenge was met. They worked hard and deserve lots of credit. They worked independently and as a group. We think that they have learned a great deal and they should be very proud of their efforts.

Their favorite part of the project was working with graphics. They enjoyed working with Adobe ImageStyler to create their graphics. They thoroughly enjoyed making the animal graphics that are used in the responses to the questions posed to our interviewees. They decided together how their buttons would look. Whitney made the decision on the home page elements as we were running out of time available for meeting together. They enjoyed taking photos either with a regular camera and scanning in the photo or the digital camera. Katie was more diligent about getting her material typed on time. Whitney had a flare for the graphics end of the project.