Seeking information about string telephones, one team turned to the Internet and the Hotbot search engine. Team members experimented with using used keywords with and without quotes (“string telephone” vs. string telephone). They found that the search with the words in quotes yielded 200 responses, while the search without quotes gave 175,000! Each student bookmarked several good sites he or she found, to use later as links in the team website.

Later, the team took over the hallway of the computer center, testing five types of string in their phones. They measured the materials and documented the effectiveness of each one in a table.

Team member testing a string telephone

A team interested in neon visited a small local business that creates neon signs. Team members interviewed the workers while taking a tour of the factory.

One team created a collage about water and water-dependent life by cutting out pictures from magazines.

One team did original research for a project to identify bacteria levels in various water sources.

Team member holding a petri dish

By the time that the team calling itself “Planetary Youth” was ready to start assembling their website, they had gathered a pile of print-outs about Jupiter, its moons, and Galileo.