Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge

 

 

 

When I was teaching, I always had a bulletin board full of opportunities for my students to win contests, write essays, submit poems, and receive accolades outside the classroom.

It’s so important for kids–and parents!–to realize that there are hundreds of cool contests running all the time.

Hundreds of dollars waiting to be won. Fab prizes and cool travel opportunities if kids just take some time to share their smarts with the world around them.

And so many of our kids are crazy smart, devising solutions to age-old problems that burden many and even working hard now to design answers to issues that may arise down the road.

Do you have a young tinker–belle or beau–on your hands?

A smartypants middle-schooler who may need a little something to get him through spring break?

A creative, outside-the-box thinker who may have found the solution to an environmental issue in your neighborhood?

A kid who may find a good way to put $25,000 to use if he or she wins?

I’ve got just the thing:  Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge.

Here’s the skinny. . .

• Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge:

Here’s what you need to know. . .

Who:  Contest is open to middle school students

What:The Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge is the nation’s premier science competition for middle school students.

Why: It targets students in the years when research indicates their interest in science begins to fade and encourages them to explore scientific concepts and creatively communicate their findings.

Where:Young Scientist Challenge site

When:  Deadline for applications is April 22, 2014.

How:  Middle school students are create a 1-2 min video communicating the science behind a possible solution for an everyday problem. Based on the video entry, 10 finalists are chosen to work with a 3M scientist during a summer mentorship to create an innovation that will be presented to a panel of judges at the final competition at the 3M Innovation Center in St. Paul, Minnesota in October. WOW, right?

 

 

Check out the video for a bit more about the contest, and do pass this post on to friends, family, and schools. I know that so many kids would enter–if they only knew about it.

And how cool is this: past challenge winners have gone on to speak in front of members of Congress! Winners have also worked with the nation’s top scientists, participated in the White House Science Fair, met the President and pursued academic careers in the sciences. I love it.

Read through the complete rules and details on the competition website.

Chat with the competition folks over on their Facebook page or tweet with them on twitter:

• @DE3MYSC
• Young Scientist Challenge facebook page

And if your super-smart, totally cool middle schooler enters?  Let me know!! 

 

fyi: This is a sponsored post. Many thanks to my friends at Discovery Education for asking me to share news of this important and totally cool contest; as always, my opinions are my own, influenced only by my experience as an educator and a parent.