Brain Chase is a 5-week online program designed as a treasure hunt for 2nd to 8th grade students. Students follow a fictitious character, by watching online videos and completing specific lessons and challenges to discover a buried hidden prize buried for a single $10,000 college scholarship. Brain Chase requires payment to enroll.

Approach

Brain Chase is designed for students to learn reading, writing, language, and math for about 5 hours per week for 5-weeks under their parent’s supervision. Every week will follow a similar schedule. The student begins by watching an online video on their dashboard regarding their “journey.” The videos contain various hidden clues and messages that are important when finding the real location of the treasure. After watching the video, the student can begin his or her challenges by selecting from the reading, writing, math or bonus challenges categories. Each category will have different instructions and links to the online assignment. After completing these assignments, the student will unlock the next video on his or her journey. The student can guess on the real location of the treasure every 24 hours. If a student guesses within 2 miles of the real location, he or she will win the prize.

Here is a link to the student dashboard.

The reading program utilizes myON (summer only), Google Books, or personal inputs of the minutes read offline. Students can choose their desired books and will have to complete a certain amount of reading per week. The writing program requires students to write a weekly journal based on a given prompt. This journal will have a minimum word count and will be reviewed by a certified teacher. Students can also select from 30 languages in the foreign language program, which uses Rosetta Stone. The math program teams up with Khan Academy, which will track effort as students work on selected math skills. Finally, the bonus program assigns a project to the student. Previous bonus programs included the Smithsonian Virtual Tour, Google Art Project, a Decoder ring and coded message, etc.

Implementation

Brain Chase is browser-based and mobile optimized. In order to run the program, users must have Adobe Flash installed.

Pricing

Pricing for a Brain Chase challenge depends on the season and program. Brain Chase offers three challenges in 2016:

The Spring Challenge (The Globe of Magellan): $149 per student for the basic package with a $100 charge for additional siblings. The premium package costs $219 per student with a $170 charge on additional siblings.

The Summer Challenge (All New Adventure): $129 per student for the basic package with a $100 charge for additional siblings. The premium package costs $199 per student with a $170 charge on additional siblings.

The Fall Challenge (The Sunstone of Cortes): $149 per student for the basic package with a $100 charge for additional siblings. The premium package costs $219 per student with a $170 charge on additional siblings.

Specific pricing and package information can be found here. 

Who is Using it

Brain Chase is used by over 500 students as of Summer 2015..