What kid hasn’t dreamed of running wild in an empty museum overnight? Imagine sprinting down the halls, walking through the exhibits, and (of course) staying up well into the early morning hours. In this week’s final Brain Chase Bonus Challenge, Mae Merriweather and her team need some help cracking into the Smithsonian. But not all […]
We all remember the breathless anticipation with which Ralphie awaited the delivery of his secret decoder ring in A Christmas Story. And we’ll never forget his moment of soul-crushing, swear-inducing disappointment when “Annie’s secret message” turned out to be no more than an advertising gimmick. But we haven’t heard much about decoder rings since. Did this […]
Did you elect to receive Adventure Tools? If so, check your mailboxes this week! Mae Merriweather is sending Brain Chase participants some seeds to plant in the hopes of discovering a critical secret message. It’s time for the students to log off and get their hands dirty – literally – to tackle this week’s Bonus Challenge. If your […]
There’s nothing quite like sleeping out under the open sky and searching for constellations, watching shooting stars, and contemplating the vastness of the Universe. The stars don’t seem quite as bright to me and my children now that we live in the city, but thankfully there’s Google Sky – an online tool that lets […]
Should students always wait until sixth, seventh, or eighth grades for an introduction to the Pythagorean Theorem? Maybe. But maybe not. Where does it say that students need to approach every mathematical discipline at a certain age or in a certain chronological order? At Brain Chase, we’re big fans of student-directed learning. For instance, we […]
Whenever I see a compass, my mind does a quick black & white flashback to the orienteering course I completed at Camp Cris Dobbins as a boy scout. Jaren and I were tasked with retrieving several bright yellow flags hidden deep in a Colorado pine forest using only our compass and a list […]
Ready to tackle the Bonus Challenge for Week 2? You’ll need to visit the Google Cultural Institute and dive into the largest virtual art gallery on the web – the Google Art Project. Your task is to track down different paintings, search for their common elements, and find a hidden message. As with […]
Welcome to Week 1 of the Spring 2016 Brain Chase semester! If you’re a team guide this semester, this may be your first time leading your team through a Bonus Challenge. That’s big! And it can be tons of fun too. If you’re not quite sure how to get started or how to get your […]