All-University Outreach Science Challenge Project for High School Students: Using a Computer-Assisted Personalized Approach with the Networked CAPA System

The All-University Outreach Science Challenge for High School Students is a collaborative program with high school science teachers that is intended to motivate and challenge students to improve and then demonstrate their understanding of science, as they simultaneously become more familiar with the Internet. This project uses the MSU-developed networked software system CAPA, which provides a Computer-Assisted Personalized Approach to problem solving. Included in the program is a search and discovery project in which students uncover the mysteries of intriguing physical puzzles. The goal is to provide students with challenging qualitative and semiquantitative material. The selection of problems and puzzles was made in collaboration with high school teachers.

In 1995 the pilot program included 7 teachers and 331 students from across the Midwest, and the problem set included both chemistry and physics. Students and teachers were very enthusiastic about this project; teachers provided the following comments: "My students are loving this project. Many of them are totally obsessed with finding the answers," "The students enjoyed the puzzles and the problem sets, and recommended doing it every year hereafter," and "I would definitely do this again." Participation is expected to expand in 1996 and will include other sciences and mathematics.