Do We Really Know Dewey?
Walter Minkel -- School Library Journal, 12/1/1999
The ThinkQuest and ThinkQuest Junior Internet and technology competitions (www.thinkquest.org) have for several years been opportunities for students and their educator mentors to create content-rich sites on a wide variety of topics. Nettleton's media specialist, Suby Wallace (swallace@nic.crsc.k12.
ar.us), hadn't given ThinkQuest a second thought until an Arkansas State University elementary education professor asked her whether she had considered entering. Wallace looked at the ThinkQuest site and thought, "Wow!"
"Hah!" she continues. "Little did I know!"
The site's 900: Wallace had considered creating a Web site for fifth and sixth graders on the Dewey Decimal System (DDS), and she asked the six girls who ended up working with her whether they wanted to tackle that theme. At first the girls wanted to do a "spooky topic," but with some parental encouragement (two of the students' mothers are fourth-grade teachers), the group decided on Dewey.
Doing a Dewey design: The group, which Wallace admits knew "nothing!" about building a Web site, met every Tuesday after school. They researched the mechanics of the Dewey Decimal System and then decided what they wanted to add to the site. They thought they should explain the difference between fiction and nonfiction for the younger students, include a biography of Melvil Dewey, and add a story illustrating how the DDS is organized. To express the girls' original urge for something spooky, the story involves Dewey meeting an alien in New York City's Central Park.
Puzzling it out: The site also offers puzzle sheets, including a cryptogram and word search created by the girls. The site won third place in last year's ThinkQuest Junior competition. Since then, Wallace says, "We've heard from library school professors and students, kids, librarians, and teachers. Everyone is so thankful to finally have something about the Dewey Decimal System that isn't dry and boring." Wallace and the students' next project is to develop a site for Bette Greene, author of Summer of My German Soldier (Dial, 1973).
