AiS (Adventures in Supercomputing) Challenge
Grades: 9-12
Ongoing? Yes
This particular project is only available to students and teachers in New Mexico, but the concept and ideas are worth a perusal of the Web site by those outside the state. In the AiS Challenge, high school students in teams of 1-5 and their sponsoring teachers design and implement science projects using supercomputers. The project is sponsored by laboratories, businesses, universities, and New Mexico Technet who provide the equipment for the challenge as well as offer support as project advisors. The AiS Challenge encompasses a full academic year and is divided into 8 phases, beginning with the Kickoff Conference in the fall and culminating with the Final Judging and Awarding of Prizes in the spring. The Web site also contains resource pages for both students and teachers to provide guidance throughout their supercomputing challenge.

Beans Around the World
Grades: K-12
Ongoing? Yes
What started as a joke between two friends in 1993 has become a worldwide bean craze! Although this site is not designed specifically for students, it can definitely engage them in parallel problem solving. The “Where Have They Been?” link breaks down the beans activity by state and city. Each link has a short write-up about the city and most have pictures of the beans in the particular city. Details are provided on the site about to join in the fun. Basically, you get a can of S&W Black Beans (if you can’t find them in your hometown the site also provides a label to download and print); take a picture of the beans in your hometown; and send it the email address provided along with the story of your bean picture. What a laugh!

Canadian National Marsville Mission
Grades:K-8
Ongoing? Yes
Want to take your elementary science curriculum all the way to Mars? You can in this Canadian project, developed in conjunction with the Challenger Center for Space Science Education. Students work in teams communicating online with their peers from across the country--and with scientists and engineers, too--to design a livable settlement on Mars. The site includes a gallery of photos that show students at work on the project and a helpful link to NASA’s Mars site.

GeoGame 
Grades: 3-6
Ongoing? Yes
Project participants learn geography terms, learn how to interpret maps, and develop their awareness of geographic and cultural diversity by playing on- and off-line geography "games," the most popular of which is a competition among school groups to correctly identify places based upon geographic information submitted by each participating group.

The Great Stain Remover Hunt
Grades: 2-6
Ongoing? Not sure
Students around the globe test different stain removers (limited only by students' creativity!) to remove grape juice, mustard, and other gooey substances from white cloth. An online form facilitates the data-recording process.

International Schools CyberFair
Grades: K-12
Ongoing? Yes
Don't miss this exciting opportunity to showcase your students' talent and creativity! International Schools CyberFair is a huge competition (2001's competition involved more than 1,500 schools!) in which students conduct research about their local communities and publish the findings on the Internet. In addition to the Web project, teams create project narratives describing the creation process, and also participate in a peer review process to help rank other teams' work. Prizes are awarded in each of the following categories: local leaders, businesses, community organizations, historical landmarks, environment, music, art, and local specialties.

Kids ‘N Fitness: Co-nexercise
Grades: K-12
Ongoing? Not sure
Looking for a way to get your students up and moving? Join the Co-nexercise fitness program! During one week, students tracked how long they exercised and competed with other classes from all over the US. The site includes a student record sheet and a class record sheet for students to track and tally their data. Results for the top ten classes were posted online; the results statewide and by the six most popular sports were also posted. Teachers’ resources include ideas for additional activities, a collection of fitness-related projects and a link to a fitness WebQuest project. Prizes were awarded to winners in several categories. Student resources include responses by professional atheletes to student questions.

Landmark Game 
Grades: K-12
Ongoing? Yes
Part of KIDLINK, this site requires students to join KIDLINK by answering a four-question survey and subscribing to the Kid Project listserv. Links to both are provided on the site. Once students have gained access, they use writing, critical thinking, map reading, and organizational skills to participate in the game. Students first choose a landmark, research it, and write nine clues. Three clues per week are posted for a total of three weeks. While posting their own clues, students are also going to read the clues from other students around the world. Each participating group may ask one question per week of other groups and at the end of three weeks students try to guess the landmarks for which clues are posted. There are deadlines for each year’s game; however, clues and landmarks from previous games are posted for use within your classroom alone.

Lego Robotics
Grades: 5-9
Ongoing? No
Looking for creative science and technology projects for your elementary or middle school curriculum? This Canadian site combines language arts, science, math, and technology studies in a unique set of robot building assignments using Legos. The site includes examples of each student project and links to all of the curriculum objectives. Each student team showcases their component of the project in an excellent example of the use of published student work online.

MacDougall MacDougall in Time
Grades: 6-8
Ongoing? Not sure
“Happy hunting haggis lovers!” From the outset, you know that searching for MacDougall MacDougall in time is going to be different from your average manhunt. In this multinational project, students are paired with a classmate or another “Mac Tracker” from another country. For five weeks, teams receive information about MacDougall’s trail in two locations each week, but to go on to the next site, they must work through a series of exercises and answer a question from the man himself. Points are awarded to teams for answering questions correctly and consistently (extra points go to teams who collaborate well). The teams with the most points at the end of the five weeks win prizes.

Nonprofit Prophets
Grades: 7-12
Ongoing? No
Nonprofit Prophets is an interactive project that challenges groups of students to investigate a problem that they see in the world, and then create a World Wide Web Resource page on the Internet that teaches the world about the problem. Typically, students collaborate with local non-profit agencies that need a Web site.

Sink or Float?
Grade: 2
Ongoing? No
This site challenges younger students to design rafts that can float with the maximum number of pennies on board. Examples of student designs are posted. A good example of using technology to publish student work, this site is best for elementary science teachers looking for project ideas.

Teen Court
Grades: 6-12
Ongoing? Not sure
Teen Court is a process in which juvenile offenders are sentenced to perform community service by a jury of their peers. It was establishedin Illinois, and now exists in over 400 communities. This website provides information that will help other communities establish teen courts, as well as provide resources and networking opportunities for existing teen courts.This website was created by teens as part of ThinkQuest.

ThinkQuest
Grades: 4-12
Ongoing? Yes
Teams comprised of diverse (and often geographically distant) elementary students, secondary students, or future teachers created educational Web sites, which were then judged by a team of reviewers. Scholarship and equipmentprizes were awarded to winning sites. Sites that made it to the finals have titles such as The Contemporary Art Experience, The Asian Century: Paths to Power, and ScienceNet: Project-based Physical Science.

Wind Tunnel Online Design
Grades: 8-12
Ongoing? No
This project will blow your students away! The Wind Tunnel Online Design project is sponsored by the aerospace team at NASAQuest. In it, students worked collaboratively to design a wind tunnel in the same way the Wright Brothers did in creating and testing the first airplane. Teams used an online forum to discuss what they thought comprised a good wind tunnel design (they eventually came up with a single BEST design). They then worked together within their group to design their own version. At the end of the process, four teams were selected (and partially funded) to build the wind tunnels. The NASAQuest site has excellent lesson plans and other background and instructional resources for teachers.