"Contest Helps Boost Math, Science Skills" -- Very cool!

[GreenPartyVoter]

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) - Chris Fitzhugh spent spring break building a copper and PVC-pipe model to show how temperature differences in the ocean can be used to generate electricity. It's not just a personal quest.

The 17-year-old junior from Peacham and his teammates - two in Mexico, one at St. Johnsbury Academy - were competing in the Global Challenge, a Vermont-based contest aimed at improving American high school students' math and science skills.

During the school year, 58 teams of American students coupled with students from China, India and Japan tackled technological solutions to global warming. They chatted online, divided jobs based on skill, consulted with advisers, and in the final grueling weeks, wrote a professional business plan.

"The most important goal is to engage U.S. students in international collaboration using science and technology," said David Gibson, executive director of the Global Challenge and a research assistant professor in computer sciences at the University of Vermont.

http://apnews1.iwon.com/article/20070521/D8P8FFR80.html

[BlooInBloo]

1. There's no royal road to math & science. Read the damn book & do the damn exercises.

[GreenPartyVoter]

2. Yes, but you have to admit their attempt to get kids to apply what they learned in this way

is neat. Their projects all have merit and some of them are tackling what ** keeps avoiding.