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Organizations: Competitions

National Academic League

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.

National Peace Essay Contest

"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."

Organizations: International

Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program (Washington, DC)

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.

Organizations: National

American Legion National High School Oratorical Contest

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.

Congressional Youth Leadership Council (CYLC)

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.

National Council for the Social Studies

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.

National Service-Learning Partnership

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

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.

Printed Materials: Books

A Trip Around the World

This book contains lesson plans, maps, facts, words and phrases, and activities are provided for 15 countries on six different continents helping students learn about countries and cultures around the world. Other curriculum areas are incorporated in the activities provided along with teaching notes, blackline maps, extension activities, a list of foreign words and phrases, and a bibliography of fiction and non-fiction books for each country to help to organize the study.

Allosaurus Publishers

Allosaurus connects the past to the present through history, science & reading comprehension. Allosaurus provides books in science, history, writing and social science.

Five in a Row

The three volumes of the Five in a Row curriculum provide 55 lesson plans covering social studies, language, art, applied math and science. Designed for a homeschool setting, these lessons would also be appropriate in a conventional school. Although the original Five in a Row was designed for children ages 4 to 8, families of profoundly gifted children will find these guides more appropriate for the preschool years. The accompanying Five in a Row website offers sample lessons, an online newsletter, and curriculum user discussion boards.

Order in the Court - A Mock Trial Simulation

Order in the Court: A Mock Trial Simulation gives students the opportunity to conduct a trial based on a classic fairytale in order to develop their courtroom skills. After developing the necessary vocabulary, students participate in the trial of Ms. Petunia Pig v. Mr. B. B. Wolf. Students not only learn the concepts, but they also learn valuable teamwork and time management skills. Designed for students grades 6-8, the unit culminates in a full mock-trial enactment.

Passport to Learn: Projects to Challenge High-Potential Learners

Designed for gifted students in grades 4-8 as an around-the-world adventure, the activities in this book by Jacqueline Melin emphasize creativity, problem solving, inquiry, and critical thinking in the fields of math, language arts, leadership skills, social studies, and science. Projects include writing a fairy tale using jargon and cliches, studying and composing wartime songs, designing a Martian space colony, and inventing secret codes using binary, octal, and hexadecimal systems. Bonus miles are logged as each project is completed, encouraging self-directed students to focus and develop their independent study skills.

The Illustrated Encyclopedia of World Religions

This illustrated color encyclopedia provides the reader with insight into the rich and varied traditions of the world’s religions. Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism are covered in detail, and there is extensive information regarding less widely understood faiths such as Sikhism, Taoism and Rastafarianism.

The Macmillan Visual Desk Reference

Contains 4,000 illustrations, diagrams & charts, timelines, maps and graphics. Covers 1,100 key topics, 52 subject areas. Provides "quick access" to a "wealth of facts". Text is comprehensive, information precise, understandable and enjoyable. "Researchers, writers, students and information lovers of every kind will find [it]...with its innovative approach and encyclopedic scope, as essential as a dictionary and as absorbing as a favorite novel."

The World's Religions: Our Great Wisdom Traditions

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.

Schools & Programs: College Affiliated

Gifted & Talented Education (GATE), The Honors College at Michigan State University (East Lansing, MI)

The various Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) programs offered through Michigan State University (MSU) are dedicated to promoting differentiated educational programs for students in grades 7-12. Mathematics Science and Technology (MST) is a two-week residential program for academically talented students. CHAMP is a regional program for students highly gifted in mathematics. ISHALL is an accelerated, intensive two-year course in literature and language designed to meet the curricular goals and merit standards of high school English, grades 7-10, in two years. Plus, there is also a dual enrollment program, a Michigan-Shiga Exchange program, a CSI Forensic Science program and several others listed on the website.

Summer Programs: NorthEastern Region

Vermont Governor's Institute on Current Issues & Youth Activism (Brattleboro, VT)

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. 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.

Websites & Other Media: For Fun

My First Amazing World Explorer

My First Amazing World Explorer is a fascinating introduction to maps, atlases, and our world. All the traditional features of a children's atlas are brought to life, while the magic of multimedia adds interactive adventures and learning activities.

Websites & Other Media: Informational

California State University Northridge (CSUN) - Social Studies Resources

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."

Congress for Kids

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.

EconEdLink

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.

EDSITEment

This free curriculum website provides educators with lesson plans and web links for the humanities, including: arts and culture; literature and language arts; foreign languages; and, history and social studies. This site is a valuable resource for educators looking for creative ways to better teach the humanities. This educational partnership brings online humanities resources from some of the world's great museums, libraries, cultural institutions, and universities directly to the classroom.

GiftedSources.com

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.

History-Social Science Course Models

This online curriculum is provided for California teachers by the California Department of Education. It contains model lesson plans for History-Social Science grades K-12 with 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.

Lesson Plans and Resources for Social Studies Teachers

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.

National Service Learning Clearinghouse

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.

United Nations Cyberschoolbus

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.

Websites & Other Media: Learning Tools

Anatomy of a Murder: A Trip Through Our Nation's Legal Justice System

This website provides a lesson on the United States justice system through a fictional murder case. The lesson covers topics such as grand juries, indictments, and plea bargains. The website also provides information on several notable Supreme Court cases, as well as a glossary of legal terms.

The Khan Academy

The Khan Academy is a not-for-profit organization with the mission of providing a high quality education to anyone, anywhere. the Khan Academy has 1000+ videos on YouTube covering everything from basic arithmetic and algebra to differential equations, physics, chemistry, biology and finance which have been recorded by Salman Khan.