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Students from West
Blocton, Alabama and Ubatuba, Brazil met
for the very first time on Saturday,
September 20, 2008. They worked together
from a distance using the ThinkQuest
project environment to create a website
that they entered in the 2008 ThinkQuest
International competition. The students
collaborated to create the award winning
website, “Color Our World with Kindness”
which placed 2nd in the
worldwide competition. It didn’t take long
for the team members to connect as they
spent the week together and continued
the friendship that began in November of
2008.
Their hard work paid
off. The prize? Laptop computers for the
team members and an all-expense paid trip
to San Francisco. The students were
treated to fun, food, excursions, and
various learning activities. The Kindness
Kids participated in the Team Challenge
Workshop which included three days of
exploring and discovering effective team
building principles. They participated in
many team activities and worked together
to overcome difficult challenges. Each
student in the Kindness Kids group took on
leadership roles during the workshop. In
one activity, the fifteen group members
had to get their teammates through a giant
spider web without touching the web. They
crawled; lifted, climbed, and even swapped
clothing to get the entire team to
the other side in the time limit they were
given. Then, “Team Awesome” shared the
activity with other ThinkQuest winners on
Wednesday. Students in other workshops
built models of sustainable buildings and
created a movie in just two days.
The Award’s Ceremony
was the highlight of the week when the
teams walked the red carpet into a
fabulous banquet hall. As a string quarter
played, the guests enjoyed h'douvres and
visited the winning teams’ website kiosks.
Students explained their topics and
answered questions about their projects.
The featured speaker was Amy Lowe ,
daughter of Brian and Joanna Lowe, who
stirred the crowd with her emotional and
encouraging speech about kindness. The
Kindness Kids, Bekah, Tia, Jesslyn,
Danielle, and Viviane joined Amy in the
Kindness Kids’ Rap. The global audience,
Oracle Executives, and VIP’s from San
Francisco were all smiles as they listened
to the modern day rap about kindness.
Amy’s poignant speech concluded as the
entire audience joined in saying the
Kindness Kids’ Creed.
The students from the
United States and Brazil said an emotional
“Goodbye”, but promised to stay in touch
with each other. The language barrier
disappeared as the students learned words
during the week in both English and
Portuguese. The experience will leave a
lasting impression on the students from
both countries. They represented Bibb
County and Ubatuba well as they took on
leadership roles during the ThinkQuest
Live Event. The Oracle Education
Foundation and staff were hospitable and
caring, putting on an event that will
leave a lasting impression on Amy , Bekah,
Tia, Jesslyn, Danielle, and Viviane. At
the end of the week, Bekah stated, “I want
to work for Oracle one day.” The Kindness
Kids would like to thank Dr. Elam, Dr.
Judd, and the Bibb County Board of
Education for their support of the team.
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