Getting our first page published on the web was particularly challenging, in light of the 15 year old Tandy computers, we were using in our Bronx High School classroom at the time.

When I attended the ThinkQuest meeting at City College in December 1996 I had little knowledge of web design. My students were eager to take the plunge into the ThinkQuest Internet Challenge with their provocative research prompted by the compelling centuries old question - Why is the Mona Lisa Smiling?

With their peer partners in Borlange Sweden, John F. Kennedy Bronx High School students, under my coaching, put together an interactive, engaging web site in three short months! This web site includes not only a unique theory about the Mona Lisa smile and original da Vinci music, but also an interactive guestbook, quiz and site survey.

The interactive components of this international Internet collaboration are integral to its growth and success.

Furthermore, our multilingual musical postcard options provide our visitors with a vehicle to communicate with their community of Internet friends.

The intent of our project was to provide content that is unavailable anywhere else on the web: Listen to Leonardo's original music, learn about Leonardo's Bronze Horse, and see the Mona Lisa Bridge. Read about the Miho Museum in the dialogue between John F. Kennedy High School students with Japanese peers.

As an outcome of an email we received, from an Internet novice, Leonardo's Portrait of an unknown Musician has now been identified.

We were receptive to feedback and entertained new theories about the Mona Lisa model. As a result, a scientific inquiry component was added to compare the differing perspectives.

Our popular Mona Lisa guestbook has been signed each day for over 3 years.

Another important issue we address is disability accessibility. Click on the signing hands to view the Special Needs Resources.

Lesson Plans and many curricula resources were contributed by teachers to help us build our Study Help resources.

I can recommend the ThinkQuest experience without reservation, to any students or teachers who want to learn the Internet in record time.

We were able to apply these new Internet skills in the latest extension to our project, ArtiFAQ 2100 which was created in our new State of the Art computer lab in only 45 days. In response to the Microsoft Challenge, my student probe past art history motivations and inspirations to predict art trends 2100. Take the new challeging quiz to gain access to the future art Gallery.

As we continue to evolve, my students are using technology to begin dissolving digital divides of geography and language. There are several pages of our site translated into Spanish and Russian.

The Mona Lisa web site serves an award winning model of Excellence and can be found at the Getty Museum Digital Experience, the Boston Science Museum, the Vatican, Britannica, the Encarta Lesson Plan Collection and the Smithsonian Institution.

If you want to tell your story and have it posted here email it to me.

Read Other First Web Page Building Adventures