Calling All Students: It's Not Too Late to Combat Brain Drain with SOPHIA Summer Challenge

MINNEAPOLIS, July 18, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- With more than half of the summer break behind us, students only have two weeks left to participate in the SOPHIA Summer Challenge – a free online contest where kids watch tutorials and complete quizzes on Sophia.org for a chance to win an iPad® and fight summer brain drain.

The SOPHIA Summer Challenge was developed by Sophia.org in partnership with Bill Nye "The Science Guy" to keep students' minds active during the summer months, when they can lose up to 40 percent of what they learned the previous year. So far, more than 3,000 individuals have completed over 17,000 quizzes for a chance to win an iPad®. Weekly winners have been chosen including Sue from Maryland who is using SOPHIA with her son to review online math tutorials.

"With more than 25,000 free tutorials, many of them sequenced to school standards, SOPHIA is a great free tool available for teachers and students throughout the year," said Steve Anastasi, president and Chief Technology Officer for SOPHIA. "And we've partnered with Bill Nye to bring even more science content and fun science activities that students can do alone, with friends, or with their parents. The Summer Challenge is a great way for students to have fun while staying fresh on what they've learned or work ahead on the subjects they'll be studying in the coming school year."

Students are invited to visit www.Sophia.org to participate in the SOPHIA Summer Challenge, learn about science through a variety of Bill Nye experiments they can do at home and even learn about one of Nye's favorite topics, the Mars Science Laboratory Mission that will be landing the Curiosity rover on Mars in August.

SOPHIA is an innovative online social education platform that offers more than 25,000 free tutorials on a variety of subjects including math, science, English and more taught by hundreds of teachers and education enthusiasts using a mixture of text, audio, video and slideshows. It also offers learning pathways in a variety of subjects that lead students on a learning journey from one concept to the next, where they are quizzed to determine mastery before progressing to the next topic.

To participate in the SOPHIA Summer Challenge, students 13 and older simply register online, review a tutorial and complete a quiz for the chance to win an iPad®. Prizes are awarded weekly during the challenge, which runs until July 29, 2012. (Complete sweepstakes rules can be found at www.sophia.org/summer-challenge.)

Students also can experiment with science by visiting the Bill Nye library on Sophia.org that features 40 science experiments they can do at home. From making a Twistin' Tornado and growing mold, to making marbled paper and learning why things float differently in lakes than in oceans, the interactive home demos provide visual representations of how science is all around us.

Nye also is the CEO of the Planetary Society and is raising awareness for the latest Mars Mission, which has the Curiosity rover landing on the planet on August 5. Nye and SOPHIA have developed content about the mission that will be updated and expanded throughout the summer months so students can learn about the mission and space exploration.

About SOPHIA
SOPHIA is a first-of-its-kind social education platform that offers students many ways to learn by making free, credible academic content available to anyone, anywhere, at anytime. The site offers more than 25,000 tutorials created by hundreds of teachers and experts taught in a variety of ways. The platform further enhances the learning process by offering quizzes, assessing learning preferences and providing learning paths that lead students from one topic to the next so students of all ages can learn the way they learn best. SOPHIA is owned by Capella Education Company. For more information, visit www.sophia.org.

*NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. A PURCHASE WILL NOT INCREASE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING. LEGAL RESIDENTS OF THE 50 UNITED STATES (D.C.) 13 YEARS AND OLDER. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED. Sweepstakes ends 7/29/12. For Official Rules, prize descriptions and odds disclosure, visit www.sophia.org/summer-challenge. Sponsor: Sophia Learning LLC, 110 N. 5th Street, Suite 520, Minneapolis, MN 55403.

SOURCE SOPHIA