SeekQuest 2025 Rules

By participating in the SeekQuest Competition (the “Competition”), sponsored by AZRAK Foundation, a Canadian non-profit corporation (the “Foundation” or “Sponsor”), each Team (as defined below) member accepts the conditions stated in these Rules, agrees to be bound by the decisions of the Judges (as defined below) and warrants that he/she is eligible to participate in the Competition.

Schedule

The Competition schedule is as follows:

Team Enrollment opens: August 15, 2025
Entry Submission Deadline: April 15, 2026, (3:00 PM Mecca Time)
Winners Announced: May 29, 2026

SeekQuest may extend any Competition deadline upon three days prior written notice to the Primary Coaches (as defined below) and will post any changes to those deadlines on the SeekQuest website at http://www.seekquest.org

Age Divisions

For students, the minimum age to participate is 9 and the maximum age to participate is 19. Teams will compete in one of three age divisions:

  • Age 12 and under
  • Age 15 and under
  • Age 19 and under

Teams are permitted to include student members of different ages. The age of the oldest student on the Team as of April 16, 2026, will determine the age division in which the Team will compete. All of the students on a Team must be no younger than age 9 and no older than age 19 on April 16, 2026.

Team Requirements

Team Composition:

• A Team must be comprised of three to six student members and one Primary Coach (each, a “Team”).

• A Team may also, at its option, include one Assistant Coach (as defined below). Teams using Think.com as a collaboration environment may be required to have additional teachers participating in the Think.com project workspace. These additional teachers are not considered members of the Team and are not eligible for any prizes unless they are also designated as the Primary Coach or the Assistant Coach for the Team.

• A Team may have no more than two student members who have been on winning SeekQuest teams in the past.

• Teams may include students and coaches from a single classroom or from many different classrooms, communities, or countries.

• If information about any Team member submitted to SeekQuest is found to be an intentional misrepresentation, the entire Team will be disqualified.

Participants from countries other than Syria may participate in the Competition but are not eligible to win a Prize (as defined below).

Coach Requirements: Coaches may provide guidance to their Team(s), help students form Teams, and locate resources (human, technical, and information). Coaches may NOT work directly on any portion of the Website (as defined below).

The “Primary Coach” must:

• be employed by and working in a teaching or resource capacity (e.g., teacher, librarian, technology coordinator, etc.) at an Eligible School. An “Eligible School” is an accredited school that is owned or operated by a government or local school board, or an accredited, non-profit, private school that is tax-exempt under Syrian Educational and NGO Laws 

• be at least age 21, OR the age of legal majority in his/her country/state of citizenship, whichever is older, on the day of the Entry Submission Deadline;

• provide and maintain an active email address during coach enrollment and throughout the Competition, so that he/she may act as the point of contact for the Team; and

• for the Primary Coach of a winning Team, complete the Primary Coach?s Affidavit of School Eligibility attesting that his/her school is an Eligible School, prior to acceptance of any applicable prize.

The “Assistant Coach”, if any, must:

  • be at least age 21, OR the age of legal majority in his/her country/state of citizenship, whichever is older, on the day of the Entry Submission Deadline, OR have won an Age Division Award (as defined below) in a prior SeekQuest competition; and
  • Not be a student member of any current Team.

Student Requirements: Student Team members are responsible for the design and development of their Website, including all of its content.

Each student must:

Student Team members are responsible for the design and development of their Website, including the selection, research, and development of its content. Each student must make significant contributions to the success of the Team and be a full participant in the development of the Website.

  • Be no younger than age 9 and no older than age 19 on the day of the Entry Submission Deadline;
  • Be a member of only one Team; and
  • Must make significant contributions to the success of the Team and be a full participant in the development of the Website

Evaluation Criteria

Teams should review the Evaluation Criteria thoroughly before developing their Entries. The Evaluation Criteria were developed in coordination with the Buck Institute for Education, Stanford Center for Innovations in Learning, and Sara Armstrong Consulting, and will be used to evaluate all Competition Entries.

Topic Categories

Entries must be submitted in one of the following twelve categories, which correspond to the top-level navigation categories in the SeekQuest Library:

  • Arts & Entertainment
  • Books & Literature
  • Business & Industry
  • Computers & the Internet
  • Geography & Travel
  • Health & Safety
  • History & Government
  • Math
  • Philosophy, Religion & Mythology
  • Science & Technology
  • Social Sciences & Culture
  • Sports & Recreation

To view examples of topics in each category, click on the links above. The examples have been included only to spark the imagination. 

Entry Requirements

Content:

  • Websites (or content from websites) previously submitted in SeekQuest competitions are ineligible for submission.
  • Websites may not contain any Objectionable material (as defined in Section IX of the Primary Coach’s Competition Registration Agreement), including but not limited to profanity, vulgar language, or statements that promote hatred towards an individual, race, or community.
  • Websites may not contain any commercial content that promotes the sale of an item directly via the Website, or by hyperlinks to external commercial sites selling products or services.

Use of Copyrighted Materials:

Websites and all content contained on or in the websites (collectively “Website Content”) must be the original creation of the Team and must contain complete and accurate citations and/or permissions for all sources used. By submitting an Entry, Team members represent that they have the unrestricted right to submit the Website Content and that the Website Content does not infringe upon any third party’s proprietary or other rights.

For purposes of these Rules, “plagiarism” means:

(a) copying words or ideas from someone else and attributing those words or ideas as one’s own;
(b) copying words or ideas from someone else without giving credit;
(c) failing to put a direct quote in quotation marks;
(d) giving incorrect information about the source of a quotation;
(e) changing words but copying the sentence structure of a source without giving credit;
(f) any copying of another person’s work that results in the Entry not being substantially the original work of the Team members, regardless of whether the copied work is cited; and/or
(g) use of website templates without giving credit to the original creator/owner of the template.

SeekQuest takes plagiarism very seriously. Any plagiarism or copyright violation will result in an Entry’s disqualification.

While students are encouraged to seek guidance from coaches, parents, friends, published sources and other collaborators via the internet, students must do their own work and must not permit any person (other than student members of the Team) to perform such work and must not copy the materials (words, images, data, audio and video files, and other media) of others, except as permitted below:

  • Websites may include material that was created by another person before January 1, 1918 so long as an accurate citation is provided within the Website.
  • Websites may include material that was created by another person on or after January 1, 1918 so long as written permission to quote or use such material is obtained as required by the creator or owner of such intellectual property AND an accurate citation is provided within the Website. Teams must also be able to provide a copy of such permission to the SeekQuest, if requested.

Student Safety & Privacy:

In order to comply with the SeekQuest’s efforts to prevent the publication of personally identifiable information in the Library, Website, and Site Profile content may NOT contain any of the following:

  • Student last names
  • Student email addresses or personal contact information (generic Team or coach email addresses are acceptable)
  • Guestbooks, discussion boards, forums, chat areas (including links on a SeekQuest website to these types of forums on external websites)

SeekQuest may, in its sole discretion, remove any such items from Entries once all judging has been completed. If this information cannot be removed, SeekQuest may refuse to post an Entry in the SeekQuest Library.

Language:

The Website and Site Profile, as well as other communications submitted to SeekQuest, must be in Arabic or English. Translation of the Website into additional languages is acceptable; however, Judges will evaluate the Arabic and English language versions of the Website.

Although the Website may be translated into multiple languages, file and directory names must be in basic ASCII format (no accents or non-Western characters).

Technical Requirements

Supported Technologies:

Websites must be built to run within a browser:

  • Browser-based technologies such as Flash, Java script, dhtml, style sheets, and applets are supported.
  • Server-based technologies such as Shell, Perl, SSI, Java, CGI  are NOT supported.

Websites should be able to be viewed on different browsers and platforms and at different connection speeds. Teams are encouraged to test their Websites on a variety of machines and browsers.

Server Usage:

All final Website Content must be uploaded to the SeekQuest server. Website Content cannot be hosted on an external server. Each Team will be allotted a maximum of 500 mb of SeekQuest server space for its Website. Teams whose Websites exceed the 500 mb after the Entry Submission deadline will be disqualified. Disqualified Teams will be notified of such disqualification.

Teams will have two methods for uploading files to the SeekQuest server: the SeekQuest web-based file upload tool and WebDAV. Both methods are fully explained in Help. Teams will not be provided SFTP or shell access.

A Team will be disqualified if any member gains unauthorized access to, or misuses, the SeekQuest website or server by gaining access to areas that the Team does not have the explicit right to use or for using the server for purposes not related to the development and deployment of Entries for the Competition.

Program Tools:

SeekQuest may make available certain software tools or other materials (Program Tools) for use by Teams in the Competition. Primary Coaches are responsible for insuring that Program Tools (if any) are used by Teams in accordance with these Rules and any specific terms accompanying the Program Tools, including any applicable Software License Terms for such Program Tools. Primary Coaches are also responsible for insuring removal of Program Tools from computer systems upon completion of the Competition and/or termination of a Team’s participation in the Competition. A Team will be disqualified if any member modifies or reverse-engineers any Software, or uses any Software in a manner inconsistent with the Terms.

SeekQuest Banner:

When a Team’s Website is published in the SeekQuest Library, the SeekQuest banner will display on each page of the Website. See Help for more information.

Awards & Prizes

Age Division Awards and School Awards:

For each age division, the Judges will select 1st Place, 2nd Place, and 3rd Place winners, and seven Honorable Mentions from among all eligible Entries received for such category (collectively, the “Age Division Awards”). For each team that wins an Age Division Award, the Eligible School at which that Team’s Primary Coach is employed will receive a School Award (“School Award”).

Global Perspectives Award:

Judges will select one Entry that demonstrates excellence in Global Perspectives (as defined in the Evaluation Criteria).

Prizes:

Each Team member (students, Primary Coach, and Assistant Coach if any) whose Entry is selected for an Age Division Award, or Global Perspectives Award, and each Eligible School that is selected for a School Award, will receive a prize (“Prize”). The Prizes are as follows, as applicable:

  • Age Division 1st Place: Laptop computer with approximate retail value of $1,500 USD
  • Age Division 2nd Place: Laptop computer with approximate retail value of $1,250 USD
  • Age Division 3rd Place: Laptop computer with approximate retail value of $1,000 USD
  • Age Division Honorable Mention: Laptop computer with approximate retail value of $750 USD
  • Global Perspectives Award: Digital camera with approximate retail value of $750 USD
  • TRIO Special Recognition Award: Laptop computer with approximate retail value of $750 USD
  • School Award: $1,000 USD

Notification and Verification of Winners:

Coaches of winning Teams will be notified via email. In order to accept the Prize, ALL members of a winning Team (students, Primary Coach, and Assistant Coach if any) will be required to sign a Winner’s Affidavit of Eligibility and Release and, where permitted, a publicity release. The ENTIRE Team may be disqualified if ANY member of the Team does not submit a valid affidavit and release to SeekQuest by the stated deadline. Winners and Chaperones, if applicable.

General Conditions

SeekQuest and Judges are not responsible for late, lost, damaged, incorrect or misdirected Entries, and for errors, omissions, interruptions, deletions, defects, or delays in operations or transmission of information, in each case whether arising by way of technical or other failures or malfunctions of computer hardware, software, communications devices, or transmission lines or data corruption, theft, destruction, unauthorized access to or alteration of Entry materials, loss or otherwise.

SeekQuest and Judges are not responsible for electronic communications or emails which are undeliverable as a result of any form of active or passive filtering of any kind, or insufficient space in any email account to receive email messages.

SeekQuest reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to disqualify any Team member from this Competition or any other promotion conducted now or in the future by SeekQuest or any of its affiliates if his or her fraud or misconduct affects the integrity of the Competition. A Team may be disqualified if there is a violation of any portion of the Rules, Primary Coach’s Competition Registration Agreement, or School Entry Submission Agreement; if any member of the Team is found to be acting in an inappropriate, disruptive, or unsportsmanlike manner or with the intent to abuse, threaten, or harass any other person; and/or if there is any attempt by any member of the Team to deliberately damage any Website or undermine the legitimate operation of the Competition.

SeekQuest disclaims any liability for damage to any computer system resulting from participation in, or accessing or downloading information in connection with, the Competition, including but not limited to the installation or use of any third party software. SeekQuest reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to modify, cancel, terminate or suspend this Competition should any virus, bug, technical failures, unauthorized human intervention or other causes beyond SeekQuest’s control, corrupt or affect the administration, security, fairness or proper conduct of the Competition. In the event of any such cancellation, termination or suspension, a notice will be posted and the winners will be selected from among all eligible Entries received before such time.

By accepting Prize, winner agrees to release SeekQuest, its directors, employees, officers, and agents, including without limitation, its advertising and promotion agencies, from any and all liability, loss, or damages arising from or in connection with the awarding, receipt, and/or use or misuse of Prize or participation in any Prize-related activities.

Each decision of SeekQuest and each decision of any of the Judges, shall, in all respects, be final, binding, and not be subject to review.

These Rules, and the Primary Coach’s Competition Registration Agreement, School Entry Submission Agreement, and Evaluation Criteria, incorporated herein, constitute the entire agreement and understanding between the parties regarding the subject matter hereof, and supersede and merge all prior discussions and agreements between them relating thereto.

Last Update: February 21, 2025