Three Queens Schools Take Top Slots in ThinkQuest Challenge

By Marie Elena Giossi

St. Andrew Avellino, Flushing, St. Francis de Sales, Belle Harbor, and St. Leo’s, Corona, were the only three Catholic elementary schools in New York City to be named among the top eight junior high school teams in the final round of the ThinkQuest N.Y.C. Internet Challenge late last month. Their Web sites were selected from over 180 local entries in the seventh- and eighth-grade division.

Computer teacher Antoinette DiStasi and social studies teacher Kristine Finn coached eighth-graders Kerry McEnerney and Judy Li, and seventh-grader Kimberly Mederos from St. Andrew Avellino School, Flushing, to a first place finish with their Web site, The World Behind the Screen (www.tqnyc.org/NYC074605/), about Internet safety and addiction among young people.

Their practical page has the causes and effects of Internet addiction, ways to protect oneself online, a safety resolution, message board, games, glossary, guestbook and bibliography.

These girls spent 15 consecutive Mondays after school working on their site, which was constructed on school computers using Macromedia Dreamweaver and Flash software – technology made available through a $2,800 ThinkQuest grant and matching technology grant for $2,500 from the diocesan Alive in Hope Foundation.

This win is “unbelievable,” said DiStasi, who coached four teams to the semifinals last year but never had a team achieve the finals, much less the top slot in the city.

ThinkQuest presented each team member with an Acer laptop, while each coach received a $500 Best Buy gift card, and the school won a $1,000 Best Buy gift card.

St. Leo’s eighth-graders Kristofer Diaz, Christopher Hernandez, Rafael Dilones, Allison Ruiz, Nelson Difo and Michelle Palio secured fifth place with their Web site on Ancient Rome (www.tqnyc.org/NYC074536/). Each student and each coach, language arts teacher Vivian Filardo and literature teacher KellyAnn O’Brien, received a $50 Best Buy gift card.

THEY’RE NUMBER ONE: Eighth-graders Kerry McEnerney and Judy Li, and seventh-grader Kimberly Mederos from St. Andrew Avellino School, Flushing, earned the top slot in the junior high division of the ThinkQuest N.Y.C. Internet Challenge for the Web site they designed about Internet safety and addiction. They’re joined by teachers/coaches Antoinette DiStasi and Kristine Finn, and their classmates.

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