ThinkQuest is an international website building competition sponsored by the Oracle Education Foundation. Student teams, consisting of 3 to 6 students and a Coach, who must be a teacher at an accredited educational institution, and an Assistant Coach (optional), are challenged to build websites on various educational topics. These websites, when completed, are published in the ThinkQuest Library, a public presentation of competing websites. The competition is split into three age groups (19 & under, 15 & under and 12 & under) and twelve website categories. The competition formerly had two cycles per year, the April-December competition and the October-May competition. However, after the October 2004 cycle, ThinkQuest switched to a single-cycle format. At the end of each competition, winning teams are chosen from each of the three age groups and each member of the winning team is presented with a prize. Prizes vary between 1st Place, 2nd Place, 3rd Place, and Honorable Mention. Other awards include the "Best of Category" award, awarded to the best website in a specific category, and the "Global Perspectives" award, awarded to the website that best shows a sense of global community. Prizes for ThinkQuest International 2006 include laptop computers, MP3 Players, and Digital Cameras. Winning teams are also invited to ThinkQuest Live, an annual event honoring the winners of ThinkQuest International, and is traditionally held in San Francisco and the date coinciding with Oracle OpenWorld. Allan H. Weis founded ThinkQuest in 1996 using his company Advanced Network and Services, Inc.. ThinkQuest International is now organized by Oracle Corporation through its Oracle Education Foundation and Think.com initiatives. Some countries also organise their own individual ThinkQuest programs with different sets of rules.
