Awarding achievement should not be limited to athletic abilities. Students of all academic and athletic levels should have the benefit of excelling in their own unique talents and passions. Academic sports motivate participants to compete for honors and awards while teaching them the skills of team work and discipline skills that sustain them to be productive and successful adults.
"The United States depends on knowledgeable and thoughtful students--the next generation of leaders--to build peace with freedom and justice among nations and peoples. In the belief that questions about peace, justice, freedom, and security are vital to civic education, the United States Institute of Peace established the National Peace Essay Contest to expand educational opportunities for young Americans."
The Panasonic Academic Challenge is a highly academic national high school competition modeled after Florida's statewide tournament. Each team consists of six students (four players and two alternates) and one coach. As many as six teams may compete against each other in one competition. This is not a quick response, trivial pursuit contest. Instead, it is a slower-paced tournament in which players are asked questions from the areas of mathematics, science, language arts, social studies, the fine arts, foreign language (French and Spanish) and technology. The questions are written by educators from high schools and colleges throughout the nation.
Since 1997, the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program (APAP) has provided vision, leadership and support for all Asian Pacific American (APA) activities at the Smithsonian, while also serving as the Smithsonian's liaison to APA communities.
The purpose of The American Legion's National High School Oratorical Contest is to develop a deeper knowledge and appreciation of the Constitution of the United States on the part of high school students. Other objectives of the contest include the development of leadership qualities, the ability to think and speak clearly and intelligently, and the preparation for acceptance of the duties and responsibilities, the rights and privileges of American citizenship.
The Congressional Youth Leadership Council (CYLC) offers educational leadership conferences for an elite group of outstanding young people from across the country and around the world, whose nomination provides them with unmatched enrichment opportunities in a distinguished academic environment.
This website contains useful resource for social studies educator and full of information about curriculum and teacher standards, legislative updates, discussion boards and journals, just to name a few.
This partnership, funded through grants from W.K. Kellogg Foundation and State Farm Companies Foundation and founded in 2001, is a national network of members dedicated to advancing service-learning as a core part of every young person’s education. Service-learning is a teaching method that engages young people in solving problems within their schools and communities as part of their academic studies or other type of intentional learning activity.
Project ACHIEVE's goal is to develop a model precollege program with a focus on mathematics for gifted minority students and to create a cadre of highly motivated minority students who are well prepared for college and university education, especially in engineering, business, and liberal arts.
This collection of books represents a large portion of the Western canon: Homer, the Athenian playwrights, the early Greek philosophers, Rome, early Christianity, Renaissance, Reformation, Enlightenment, early American political philosophy, and Victorian literature up until the end of the 20th century. This series provides extensive original documents on science, mathematics, government, philosophy, literature, and much more.
The authors- a rabbi and a priest collaborate to present the predominant world religions in an easy to read format. They are able to compare and contrast Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism. Filled with interesting stories, the book works to answer all the big questions about religion that the kids might have. This book addresses, "How should we live, What happens to us after we die, Why does bad stuff happen to good folks and How can we talk to God?" among other questions.
This book talks about common philosophical issues that kids think about: What is God? What is life? Should I eat meat? Do I see things differently than other people? It does not talk down to kids and discusses the ideas rather than the history of philosophy.
This is an introductory book to philosophy, which is divided by topics (ethics, metaphysics, etc.). Each section also contains a list of suggestions for further reading.
One day Sophie comes home from school to find two questions in her mail: Who are you? and Where does the world come from? Before she knows it, she is enrolled in a correspondence course, covering Socrates to Sartre and beyond, with a mysterious philosopher. But Sophie is receiving a separate batch of equally unusual letters. Who is Hilde? And why does her mail keep turning up in Sophie’s world? To unravel this riddle, Sophie must make use of the philosophy she is learning. But the truth is more complicated than she could have imagined. This unique book combines a comprehensive history of western philosophy intertwined with compelling mystery, experienced through the life and learning of a 14-year-old Norwegian schoolgirl.
"This Beautifully illustrated color encyclopedia provides the general reader with insight into the rich and varied traditions of the world’s religions. Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism are covered in detail, but there is also extensive information regarding less widely understood faiths such as Sikhism, Taoism and Rastafarianism. 350 color illustrations."
This book covers 2,500 years of Western philosophy, from the ancient Greeks to the present day. This book is appropriate as either an introduction or for more advanced students.
This book offers a view of the predominant religions of the world including: Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Confucianism, Christianity, and Judaism, among others. The book conveys the important components and teachings found within each religion. This book would be a useful tool for exploring world religions. "This book instills a respect for diverse religious beliefs."
Central Honors Instittue (CHI) at Central Community College in Columbus, Nebraska, is a one-week residential academic camp for Nebraska students who have completed the sixth or seventh grades and have demonstrated academic accomplishments, leadership and maturity among their peers.
During the week, students choose to follow a particular academic track, either math or media/communications, led by CHI faculty. All the faculty members have solid teaching credentials and prior experience working at academic youth camps. The faculty members stress unique learning approaches and real-life applications of concepts. While the typical CHI camper excels at academics, students find they are challenged by the innovative teaching methods during the week.
CHI campers attend classes during the day, socialize with peers in the evenings and experience life on a community college campus, complete with dorm food and residence halls.
"Ahead of the Curve is an intensive two-week leadership seminar by Americans for Informed Democracy for high-achieving high school students who have an interest in international affairs. The seminar features a series of lectures, workshops, and discussions aimed at educating young leaders about globalization and preparing them to be leaders in our increasingly interdependent world."
The Vermont Governor's Institute on Current Issues & Youth Activism is a rigorous and empowering weeklong program that examines the critical current issues, policy, and political questions that directly concern and impact young people today. Each participant will select one of four-core issue groups -- Politics, Social Justice, Ecology and Global Children. In seminars and workshops, students will cover many current issues, including youth violence, gun control, terrorism, media bias, HIV/AIDS, drugs, school quality, body image, technology, and gender issues. Practical, hands-on leadership skill sessions will provide training in public speaking, facilitation, project design, Internet activism, and conflict transformation, to name but a few. Students may participate in political simulations, student-run workshops, and they will create projects and performance pieces that will be presented on the final day. Throughout the week, students will be asked to articulate and analyze the connections between issues, policies and the choices they make as informed young citizens. This is a unique and powerful experience with the long-term goal of helping students to become politically active in their communities.
My Amazing World Explorer takes you on a world tour in pursuit of your best friend Joe who is traveling with his family on vacation. As you are exploring, you will learn about the part of the world you are in, and you can collect snapshots and stickers of what you are seeing for your logbook as you travel. When you eventually catch up to Joe, you will have travelled to seven or eight parts of the world. There are five completely different tours within the program.
This website lists an extensive collection of resources covering such subjects as Government, Museums and Exhibits, Latino and Board of Education. Search everything from "Civil War History" to "U.S. Supreme Court Decisions."
"Learning about the federal government doesn't have to be boring. Congress for Kids gives you access to interactive, fun-filled experiences designed to help you learn about the foundation of our federal government and how its actions affect you. Although designed for students in grades fourth through high school, other students, teachers, parents, and interested citizens will find helpful, engaging activities, too."
This website, a division of MarcoPolo, is a great resource for K-12 economics teachers and their students. It's features include: Internet-based lesson materials; Cyberteach, a guide to teaching economics using the Internet; an updated current events page; and up-to-date macroecomics information. There are also links to other economics pages and access to the EconEd newletter.
This website provides links to a number of gifted websites, including a listing of professional associations and news publications. There is also a listing of specific subject matter links on such topics as math, science and social studies.
This online curriculum is provided for California teachers by the California Department of Education. The information provided would be helpful for other teachers as well as homeschoolers. The website contains model lesson plans for History-Social Science for grades 2-5, with the other grades to be added later. The models include six sections: Focus Questions, Beginning the Topic Activities, Developing the Topic Activities, Culminating the Topic Activities, Assessment of the Topic Activities and Extended and Correlated Activities. They also provide a a list of general resources for teachers and students.
This online curriculum resource includes links to standards in all 50 states as well as lots of other helpful information. Dr. Marty Levine, Professor Emeritus of Secondary Education, California State University, Northridge (CSUN), has gathered lesson plans and resources from the Internet which social studies teachers will find useful.
Service-learning is a teaching and learning strategy that integrates meaningful community service with instruction and reflection to enrich the learning experience, teach civic responsibility, and strengthen communities. This clearinghouse maintains a website with timely information and relevant resources to support service-learning programs, practitioners, and researchers. Additionally, the organization operates national listservs for K-12 service-learning and higher education service-learning to encourage discussion and exchange of ideas.
Start with this web page when looking to find information for teaching philosophy: how to aquire training, how to get philosophy offered in your school, planning your course and access to resources and tools.
The United Nations Cyberschoolbus is an education site created as the online education component of the Global Teaching and Learning Project, whose mission is to promote education about international issues and the United Nations. The Global Teaching and Learning Project produces high quality teaching materials and activities designed for educational use and for training teachers. The vision of this Project is to provide exceptional educational resources (both online and in print) to students growing up in a world undergoing increased globalization.