Open Source High expands peer-to-peer video contests beyond physics

NORTHAMPTON, Mass. - Aug. 14, 2015 - PRLog -- Open Source High announced on August 6, 2015, the winning students of its June peer-to-peer teaching contests. Cash prizes of $150 were awarded to Tryphena Sithu from J. Graham Brown School in Louisville, KY, Jacob Godinez from Point Loma High School in San Diego, CA, and Cory Lynch and Sam Zimmerman from Guilford High School in Guilford, CT.  Unlike the previous contests held by Open Source High, which only covered physics topics, the June video contests included History and Algebra as well.

“This is a game-changing step toward curating a complete high school curriculum of student-generate videos.  With the guidance of the members of the Valley Venture Mentors community in Springfield, MA, I’ve been able to accelerate the growth of our peer-to-peer learning community much faster than I expected,” Jim Flannery, founder of Open Source High, said. “You can expect big things to come this fall.”

Open Source High, which launched in fall 2014, has been building its curriculum by running monthly competitions in which high school students win cash prizes by creating video lessons.  Prize money for the June competition came from Flannery’s company, FlantaScience.  The topics were announced June 1 and student entries were due June 30^th.  A team of current and retired high school physics teachers critiqued the videos and the voting process was open to students across the country. The prize-winning videos are viewable at http://www.OpenSourceHigh.com.