Eligibility: All Oregon public schools with an existing official website—or with plans to have a website completed before midnight May 20, 2002—are eligible to compete for these awards. An authorized teacher or administrator must apply on behalf of the school and will be the contact person for contest updates and final awards.

Prizes: All eligible schools will receive a framed Certificate of Achievement for participating in this competition. Cash prizes of $1,000 each will be awarded to the Oregon Grade School, Middle School, and High School judged to have the year’s best website. Second place finishers will receive $500 each, and schools finishing third will receive $100.

Prize Money Allocations (Winners announced June 10, 2002):

Contest Deadlines: Schools are encouraged to apply any time after the contest begins on February 18, 2002. Early registrations are encouraged. Final application deadline is midnight, May 20, 2002. All schools—regardless of the date of application—will have their websites judged as they exist at the time of the final deadline. Winning websites will be announced June 10, 2002.

Award Criteria: Eligible school websites will be judged according to five basic criteria: 1) Homepage Design, 2) Website Function, 3) Community Outreach, 4) Local Sciences Content, and 5) Archive Plan.

Homepage Design- The winning website should be creative, elegant, and be interesting to visit. The site should represent the school in a positive fashion. Links should be organized in an easily understood and practical manner.

Website Function- The winning website’s pages should load quickly and correctly using either Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator. Links should be active and logically arranged. Content should be interesting, accurate, informative, and readily accessable.

Community Outreach- The winning website should feature evidence of student interaction with other members of the local community. Examples may include: ads from local businesses, parent/teacher discussion boards, local news and opinion polls, and community event calendars.

Local Sciences Content- The winning website should include documentation relating to local natural and cultural sciences. Information may be contained in different forms, such as student reports, scientific studies, research links, or local environmental project updates.

Archive Plan- The information contained in the winning website should be protected and preserved in some way. Possible strategies include hard drive back up files, CDs, mirror sites (using more than a single server) and hard copy. Public access to archived files should be addressed. Formal plans and policies will receive high marks.


Panel of Judges: A panel of six to ten experts is being assembled to judge competing school websites. The panel will represent a variety of complementary viewpoints: design aesthetics, technical website functionality, library sciences, and local natural and cultural sciences. Judging methods are being developed to ensure fairness and consistency.


Sponsors: The Oregon School Website Awards for the 2001-2002 school year are sponsored by Oregon Websites and Watersheds Projects, Inc. and by The Friends of Paul Bunyan Foundation. Cash grants for teaching natural sciences are also available through the Friends of Paul Bunyan Foundation. Participating schools are encouraged to apply for these funds as well.

© 2002 Oregon Websites and Watersheds Project, Inc.