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: Media Quest, the PhotoEssay, and ThinkQuest TRIO.

Media Quest Overview

The Media Quest activity provides multimedia activities for all TRIO students in all TRIO programs and other federally funded TRIO type students.  It is an activity in which students create and post their own individual or team 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

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.

ThinkQuest TRIO Overview

ThinkQuest TRIO provides a highly motivating opportunity for students under 19 years of age to work collaboratively in teams, to learn as they create materials, and to teach others. ThinkQuest TRIO 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.  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. Please see Plagiarism and Fair Use Best Practices in Part E.

ThinkQuest TRIO is an activity open to pre-college students ages 12-19 who are active participants in an Upward Bound, Talent Search, or EOC program, or under special conditions, another federally funded project serving TRIO type students. There are no fees to participate in the ThinkQuest TRIO 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.