Udacity High School Challenge

Let me go ahead and re-assert my opinion of Udacity: it is the best college-level online learning experience on the internet. They only have a handful of courses online right now, but I'm confident that most Udacity students share this sentiment. Now, this incredibly innovative group of educators (who have previously focused their instruction on college-level computer science courses) is hosting a contest for high school students. The play? Form a team of your friends and complete as many free online classes at Udacity as possible. Teams with the most completed courses will win a free trip to Stanford. Did I mention that all of this is free?

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE HIGH SCHOOL CHALLENGE

Here's a blurb from Udacity folk:

" Recently, there has been a wave of amazing new online college classes offered for free. The frenzy started with Stanford's Artificial Intelligence Class in October 2011. Tens of thousands of school students - some as young as 13 years old - have already successfully passed college level computer science classes. And now there are courses available in fields such as physics, business, humanities, and statistics.

So, we decided to run a worldwide competition. At stake is an all-expenses paid visit to Stanford University and a tour of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence lab, including the famed self-driving car. (And there might be a chance to ride in a self-driving car!). Professor Sebastian Thrun will be welcoming the winners personally and showing them around.

If you are a high school student, you should go ahead and check out their new introduction courses in statistics, physics, and computer science. Heck if you are ANYONE you should check out these classes. Now is always a good time to learn new things, and learning something new, regardless of the topic, is what stimulates us as humans.