Introduction and Overview

The TRIO Quest is operated by the University of Washington’s TRIO Training Program.

Three major student-based activities are included in TRIO Quest: TRIO ThinkQuest, the PhotoEssay and Media Quest.

TRIO ThinkQuest Overview

The TRIO ThinkQuest provides a highly motivating opportunity for students to work collaboratively in teams to learn as they create materials and teach others. TRIO ThinkQuest challenges learners to create high quality, innovative and content-rich educational web sites that meet high standards of intellectual honesty.

The purpose of the activity is to:

• promote learning 21st century research skills and techniques
• encourage original writing, multimedia content creation, and presentation of educational material,
• create the occasion for students to learn collaboration skills, and
• promote the Internet Style of Learning - an interactive, participatory approach that encourages students to take advantage of the Internet as a source of information and a powerful collaborative tool.

Students work in teams of three to six to build web sites that could be used as learning tools by other students. 

The backbone of the experience is teamwork, as members bring to their team their talents and desire to learn to their team.  A major objective is to introduce students to the challenges of conducting and expressing solid academic research through the exciting tools offered through the web.  In this endeavor, students will learn the value of intellectual honesty and the care that needs to be taken to properly cite their sources and apply the Fair Use Rules to education-based projects. Students and TRIO programs learn to apply the Fair Use standards of using images, audio, text, and other media in an educational project. There should be no advertising on any material that students create.

TRIO ThinkQuest is an activity open to pre-college students ages 12-19 who are active participants in an Upward Bound, Talent Search Program, or EOC Program. There are no fees to participate in the TRIO ThinkQuest activity. Significant resources are available from TRIO Quest to help get students, staff and programs started, provide guidance throughout the process, host students’ sites, and acknowledge the top sites of the year.

PhotoEssay Overview

The PhotoEssay activity provides a short, simple, creative activity for all TRIO students.  It is an effective way to:

1. introduce students to the compelling interaction possible between text and image,
2. introduce students to image manipulation,
3. provide students a chance to be published on the Web,
4. promote a better understanding of intellectual honesty and citation, and
5. encourage research, reflection, and creative work by TRIO students.

The Photo Essay is open to all TRIO students in all TRIO programs.  It is an activity in which students create their own individual PhotoEssay, with appropriate support and direction by staff and other advisors.

Media Quest Overview

The Media Quest activity provides multimedia activities for all TRIO students.  It is an activity in which students create and post their own individual audio or video projects. 

Media Quest, with appropriate support and direction by staff and other advisors, is an effective way for students to:

• develop the skills and knowledge to effectively use media for educational purposes
• learn how to find and use cost-effective multimedia tools
• learn to understand issues of intellectual honesty and how to properly cite and ask for permission to use the work of others
• learn how to use multimedia for artistic purposes, to make persuasive  arguments, or to support the presentation of research
• learn to understand their audience and responsibly produce material that allows effective communication with diverse groups

 

Program Responsibility

Plagiarism is not tolerated.  All text, lyrics, photographs, graphics, sound, music, animations, or video taken from another source must be cited.  In TRIO ThinkQuest the source must be quoted and/or parenthetically cited on the page in which it appears AND linked to a full citation on a reference page.  In PhotoEssay the quotation and reference must be provided as close as possible to the material and must be cited properly at the end of the writing.  Each program needs to carefully review the Terms and Conditions and pay special attention to assuring that the work of the students is intellectually honest and that sources are properly cited.  Programs should review the guidelines posted on this web site for Fair Use of text, images, sound, and other media.

To underscore the importance of Intellectual Honesty, as part of the judging process, all entries will be submitted to turnitin.com for an originality report.

Programs need to assure that the topic and content are appropriate for a diverse group of students in this age group and that personal information about the students does not appear on the site.

Programs need to assure that the Team Captain or Program Contact has clicked the Submit Button before the deadline.

It is the program’s responsibility to copy any student work before the final submission if the program wishes to have a record of the site or to post it on a server of their own.  Only the finalist teams may be hosted on the TRIO Quest site.

For secondary level programs working with students under the age of 18, programs must have on file a parental permission form for each student who participates in TRIO Quest.  (This may be a part of the general permission given to participate in the TRIO program’s activities if TRIO Quest is specifically referenced.)