System and method for providing a puzzle and facilitating solving of the puzzle

Abstract

A multi-stage puzzle that guides a user to develop support for an answer to solve and complete the puzzle that includes conducting a note taking stage, conducting an answer and support presentation stage, conducting an answer and support evaluation stage, and hindering the completion of the puzzle based on the way the user completes each stage. The note taking stage preferably includes providing a plurality of story and reference pieces that may be selected by the user. The answer and support presentation stage preferably includes retrieving an inferred answer and support for the inferred answer based on the selected story and reference pieces from the user. The answer and support evaluation stage preferably includes evaluating the inferred answer. Hindering the completion of the puzzle preferably functions to encourage the user to adequately evaluate the provide story and reference pieces and to provide adequate support for an inferred answer.

1 . A multi-stage puzzle that guides a user to develop support for an answer to solve and complete the puzzle, comprising:
 conducting a note taking stage comprising:
 providing a plurality of story pieces that cooperate to tell a story with an unknown element; 
 providing a plurality of reference pieces that each include information that substantially relates to the story told by the plurality of story pieces; 
 receiving story pieces and reference pieces selected by the user; 
   conducting an answer and support presentation stage comprising:
 retrieving an answer for the unknown element from the user; 
 receiving a selected story piece and a selected reference piece from the user and linking the selected story piece and the selected reference piece received when the selected story piece and the selected reference piece are related to form support for the retrieved answer; 
   hindering the completion of the puzzle based on the received story piece and reference piece selected by the user, the retrieved answer for the unknown element from the user, and received support for the retrieved answer; and   conducting an answer and support evaluation stage comprising:
 evaluating the retrieved answer. 
   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising the step of evaluating the received support for the retrieved answer in the answer and support evaluation stage. 
     
     
         3 . The multistage puzzle of  claim 1 , wherein the step of hindering completion of the puzzle includes preventing completion until a particular score is reached, wherein the score is based on the received story pieces and reference pieces selected by the user, the retrieved answer for the unknown element from the answer, and the received support for the retrieved answer. 
     
     
         4 . The multistage puzzle of  claim 3 , wherein the step of preventing completion of the puzzle includes preventing the user to progress from a first stage to a second stage until a particular score is reached. 
     
     
         5 . The multistage puzzle of  claim 4 , wherein the step of preventing the user to progress from a first stage to a second stage includes preventing the user from progressing from the note taking stage to the answer and support presentation stage until a particular score is reached. 
     
     
         6 . The multistage puzzle of  claim 4 , wherein the step of preventing the user to progress from a first stage to a second stage includes preventing the user from progressing from the answer and support presentation stage to the answer and support evaluation stage until a particular score is reached. 
     
     
         7 . The multistage puzzle of  claim 3 , wherein the step of hindering completion until a particular score is reached includes increasing the score with each additional linkage made to form support for the retrieved answer. 
     
     
         8 . The multistage puzzle of  claim 3 , wherein the step of hindering completion until a particular score is reached includes increasing the score with each additional received selected story piece and reference piece from the user. 
     
     
         9 . The multistage puzzle of  claim 3 , further comprising of assigning a relevance factor to each of the story pieces that is based on the importance of the story told in the story piece relative to the unknown element, and wherein the step of hindering completion until a particular score is reached includes increasing the score with each additional received selected story piece that is assigned a substantially high relevance factor. 
     
     
         10 . The multistage puzzle of  claim 3 , further comprising assigning an importance factor to each of the reference pieces that is based on the importance of the information included in the reference piece relative to the unknown element, and wherein the step of hindering completion until a particular score is reached includes increasing the score with each additional received selected reference piece that is assigned a substantially high importance factor. 
     
     
         11 . The multistage puzzle of  claim 3 , wherein the step of linking the selected story piece and the selected reference piece received includes assigning a linkage correlation factor to the linked story piece and reference piece that is based the relationship between the story told in the selected story piece and the information included in the reference piece, and wherein the step of hindering completion until a particular score is reached includes increasing the score with each additional received linkage that is assigned a substantially high linkage correlation factor. 
     
     
         12 . The multistage puzzle of  claim 1 , wherein the step of providing a plurality of story pieces that cooperate to tell a story with an unknown element includes providing at least a portion of the plurality of story pieces, requesting an input from the user, and providing another portion of the plurality of story pieces when the input is received. 
     
     
         13 . The multistage puzzle of  claim 12 , wherein the step of requesting an input from the user includes requesting the user to submit a question, and wherein the step of providing another portion of the plurality of story pieces includes providing another portion of the plurality of story pieces when the question is received. 
     
     
         14 . The multistage puzzle of  claim 13 , wherein the step of requesting the user to submit a question includes providing a plurality of possible questions and requesting the user to select a particular question and the step of providing another portion of the plurality of story pieces when the question is received includes providing a particular portion of the plurality of story pieces when a particular question is selected by the user. 
     
     
         15 . The multistage puzzle of  claim 12 , wherein the step of requesting an input from the user includes providing a graphic to the user and requesting the user to select a portion of the graphic, and wherein the step of providing another portion of the plurality of story pieces includes providing another portion of the plurality of story pieces when a particular portion of the graphic is selected by the user. 
     
     
         16 . The multistage puzzle of  claim 12 , wherein the step of requesting an input from the user includes providing a laboratory experiment to the user and requesting the user to conduct the experiment, and wherein the step of providing another portion of the plurality of story pieces includes providing another portion of the plurality of story pieces when the laboratory experiment is conducted in a correct manner. 
     
     
         17 . The multistage puzzle of  claim 16 , wherein the step of providing a laboratory experiment to the user includes explaining the correct manner to conduct the laboratory experiment. 
     
     
         18 . A method for providing a puzzle and facilitating solving of the puzzle, comprising:
 providing a user platform that includes an input device to receive input from the user and an output device to output to the user;   providing a story with an unknown element to the user through the output device;   providing a reference that includes facts that are substantially relevant to the story through the output device;   capturing and transferring observations selected from the user from the story through the user platform that substantially relate to the unknown element;   capturing and transferring facts selected from the user from the reference through the user platform that substantially relate to the unknown element;   linking observations from the story and facts from the reference selected by the user through the user platform; and   facilitating the inference of a solution to the unknown element through the linking of observations from the story and facts from the reference through the user platform.   
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 18 , further comprising hindering the completion of the puzzle based on the captured observations and facts, the solution, and the linking of observations and facts. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 19 , wherein the step of hindering the completion of the puzzle includes preventing completion until a particular score is reached, wherein the score is based on the number of captured observations and facts, the solution, and the number of linked of observations and facts. 
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 18 , further comprising providing clues to the user through the user platform that further facilitate the inference of a solution to the unknown element. 
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 21 , further comprising capturing and transferring observations selected by the user from the clues. 
     
     
         23 . The method of  claim 18 , further comprising evaluating the solution to the unknown element inferred by the user and the linking of observations from the story and facts from the reference and revealing the evaluation to the user. 
     
     
         24 . The method of  claim 18 , further comprising providing assistance to the user in completing the puzzle. 
     
     
         25 . The method of  claim 24 , wherein the step of providing assistance to the user includes providing instructions to the user to complete the puzzle. 
     
     
         26 . The method of  claim 18 , further comprising connecting the user platform to a network and communicating with the network. 
     
     
         27 . The method of  claim 18 , further comprising connecting a plurality of user platforms to a network and receiving a communication from a first user at a first user platform and outputting the communication to a second user at a second user platform. 
     
     
         28 . The method of  claim 27 , wherein the network provides the story and the story with an unknown element and the reference that includes facts to the user platform to present to the user. 
     
     
         29 . The method of  claim 27 , further comprising communicating from the user platform to the network at least one of the captured observations from the story, captured facts from the reference, linkages, and inference of a solution to the unknown element and evaluating the communicated information in the network. 
     
     
         30 . The method of  claim 29 , wherein the step of evaluating the communicated information in the network includes evaluating the relevance of the at least one of the captured observations from the story, captured facts from the reference, linkages, and inference of a solution to the unknown element relative to the unknown element of the story. 
     
     
         31 . The method of  claim 30 , wherein the step of evaluating the relevance of the at least one of the captured observations from the story, captured facts from the reference, linkages, and inference of a solution to the unknown element includes allowing an administrator to view the at least one of the captured observations from the story, captured facts from the reference, linkages, and inference of a solution to the unknown element and evaluating the relevance. 
     
     
         32 . The method of  claim 30 , wherein the step of evaluating the relevance of the at least one of the captured observations from the story, captured facts from the reference, linkages, and inference of a solution to the unknown element includes providing a clue to the user to facilitate the inference of a solution to the unknown element based on the evaluation.