Science for Gifted Students
Saturday, February 11, 2006 - by CFertig - Category:
Science
Early Grades
Science is an often neglected subject, especially in elementary school. In the early grades, the controversy continues surrounding the best method to teach science:
direct instruction or discovery. When attempting to identify young students who may be gifted in science,
educators may find help at this site. By clicking on the menus on the right side of the page, you will also see examples for differentiating the science curriculum for gifted students within the regular classroom.
Since science is not usually emphasized in the classroom, parents should expose their children to the subject outside of school as much as possible through books, museums, nature centers, Internet sites, experiments—anything that exposes them to the subject.
Competitions in science are not readily available in the early grades. Note that ExploraVision listed below is the only competition listed that includes younger students.
Middle and High School
As one approaches middle and high school there are many more opportunities for advanced classes and competitions in the subject. The National Science Teachers Association recognizes that many kinds of learning experiences, including science competitions, can contribute significantly to the education of students of science. With respect to science competitions, such as science fairs, science leagues, symposia, olympiads, scholarship activities and talent searches, the Association takes the position that
participation should be guided by certain principles.
Some competitions that you many want to consider include
This is a multi-tiered competition designed to stimulate and promote achievement in high school chemistry.
This science essay competition is for students in grades 7-12 and provides prizes up to $5000.
ExploraVision is a competition for students of all interest, skill, and ability levels in grades K-12. The purpose of the competition is to encourage students to combine their imaginations with the tools of science to create and explore a vision of a future technology. Prizes include U.S. Savings Bonds and laptop computers.
This is the world's largest pre-college celebration of science. It is held annually in May and brings together over 1,400 students from more than 40 nations to compete for scholarships, tuition grants, internships, scientific field trips and the grand prize: a $50,000 college scholarship.
This competition is intended to increase knowledge of the oceans on the part of high school students, their teachers and parents, as well as to raise the visibility and public understanding of the national investment in ocean-related research.
This is an academic competition among teams of high school students who attend science seminars and compete in a verbal forum to solve technical problems and answer questions in all branches of science and math.
This competition provides middle and high school students an opportunity to hone their skills as science sleuths by learning the scientific method employed by epidemiologists.
This national model rocket competition for U.S. high school and middle school students has a grand prize pool of over $60,000 in cash and savings bonds that is shared by the winning teams.
The American Association of Physics Teachers and the American Institute of Physics sponsor a competition each year for high school students to represent the United States at the International Physics Olympiad Competition.
This is a biology competition for high school students.
The YES Competition offers college scholarship awards to high school juniors and seniors who conduct outstanding research projects that apply epidemiological methods of analysis to a health-related issue.
This is an essay contest for students in grades 7-12. Essays based on studies conducted by a class, a summer institute, summer camp, pre-college student research program, or environmental program and are eligible as long as the student conducted his or her own research and expanded the investigation to include his or her own topic question.