We are seeking a mentor with educational and/or practical experience in web-based search engines and web design. Mentors may have had experience either owning a business or in a field that assists business owners with such websites.

Caleb's ultimate goal is to create a for-profit website, offering a user-friendly college-match system, with a comprehensive website search engine as its backbone. Rationale: All the easy- to-find (and maybe not-so-easy- to-find) on-line college search programs are quite limited in the criteria potential students are able to enter to help them in their search. College handbooks, admissions pages, ranking reports, etc., identify many other factors, but it is a cumbersome project for students to weed through the varying information and multiple sources, and to actually compare schools.

Caleb will demonstrate increased competency in the 21st century skills of Learning (critical thinking, creative thinking, communicating, and collaborating), Literacy (information, media, technology), and Life (flexibility, initiative, social skills, productivity, leadership).

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Engineering, Software Development, Social Studies, English, Business

Caleb will research, with the help of a mentor, examples of excellence in the component areas he has identified for his project [data gathering, website-based search engine design, website design and user interface, marketing (students, parents, colleges), income- generation, maintenance and sustainability]. Caleb and his mentor will collaborate to create and carry out a realistic plan for a high-quality product, which will be presented to an audience at the conclusion of this school year. It is expected that Caleb will have learned the skills needed to continue to develop this project independently.

Caleb’s teacher for this project will evaluate his work throughout the year, and an audience evaluation will also be conducted at his year-end presentation.

Work closely with Caleb, ITP staff, mentor and others as needed, to ensure communication about the project is occurring weekly, identifying success and challenges, and adapting project if appropriate. The teacher will also add additional specific steps to the project schedule after the completion of Step 3.

Mentor will aid Caleb in executing all aspects of this project, including: 1. Research: 2. Planning and Development: 3. Web-based Search Engine and Website Design 4. Funding 5. Maintenance and Sustainability Planning 6.Evaluation