Developing and Assessing Creative Scientific Talent that is Transformational through Real Engagement in Active Problem Solving (REAPS)

Real Engagement in Active Problem Solving (REAPS) cultivates exceptional talent across disciplines through students solving problems that are real in their lives. In this study, the focus was on scientific talent: to determine students’ growth in creative problem solving in science in classrooms in which REAPS was implemented. Using a repeated measures t-test, we found statistically significant changes in total creative problem solving in science across two tasks: ‘Problems and Solutions’ and ‘Grouping Flowers’ (M = 3.82, SD = 20.72, p = .01). Using multivariate regression, the level of fidelity of implementation of REAPS explained 9.8% of the variance in total creative problem solving in science across both tasks (p = .04). Differences were found in sub-scores in both analyses. We recommend use of REAPS to develop transformational scientific talent by engaging students in solving problems that are real and important in their world.