Effects of challenge based learning on student motivation and achievement

Abstract

High school freshmen Physical Science students participated in a challenge based learning (CBL) project to assess the effect of this teaching style on student motivation and achievement. The students were tasked with design and completion of an environmental project that would benefit our community. Three units were taught during the treatment, and in addition, students spent 50% of of each class working on their projects. My results indicated CBL did increase the motivation of students and maintained achievement even though the students spent half as much time on the normal curriculum for the freshmen Physical Sciences class.