Ebook: Science Education: Best Practices of Research Training for Students under 21

The World Academy of Young Scientists (WAYS) was officially launched at the World Science Forum, Budapest, in November 2003, and is being established under the aegis of UNESCO. WAYS is dedicated to providing an environment for young researchers ‐ principally between 15 and 40 years of age ‐ to carry out quality scientific research and actively participate in science policy and decision‐making. The organization nourishes a global community of new scientists by fostering trans‐, inter‐ and multidisciplinary intergenerational partnership and networking. These collaborations increase the exchange of up‐to‐date information, prepare youth for scientific careers, and promote dialogue between the scientific community and society. Interested researchers and organizations are invited to visit the organization's website (http://www.waysnet.org) or contact the WAYS Secretariat in Budapest (ways@waysnet.org).

The activities of the Federation of the European of Biochemical Societies (FEBS) are described giving a particular emphasis to the program for the young students at the level of their post‐graduation.

The Stockholm International Youth Science Seminar was started as an initiative to increase attention and appreciation for the accomplishments scientists worldwide. Nearing its 30^th anniversary in 2005, SIYSS has established itself as one of the foremost international youth scientific activity weeks, open to students of ages 18‐26 years who have excelled within the realm of natural sciences. The participants, influenced intellectually and socially by this potent experience paralleling the Nobel Week, are readily inspired to serve as role models for younger talents they may come in contact with. Locally, Swedish students are encouraged by the seminar and its participants, to explore the vast opportunities available to them in science and technology while supporting organizations (governmental, academic, non‐profit etc.) are made aware of the tremendous talents of young people across the globe. The SIYSS continuously strives toward enabling an even greater dissemination of inspiring influence on youth research training, talent recruitment, public awareness as well as cultural and multinational exchange.

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute supports precollege science education programs that create dynamic partnerships involving scientists, educators, students, their families, and their communities. These partnerships engage and excite children by presenting them with challenging inquiry‐based learning experiences in science. Within many of these programs, mentorship provides an excellent means to provide equity in access to effective educational products and practices and inspires young people traditionally underrepresented in scientific professions to pursue scientific activities and careers.

Both inner and outer environments are crucial in the development of talented students. Since many elements of the outer environment are given, we should take a very good care for the development of the inner environment of the student. In this contribution brief guidelines are given to achieve this goal with the additional aim to draw students' attention towards the application of their basic or applied science ideas.

The Department of Gifted Students in the Ministry of Education in Israel aims to enable gifted students in different regions of the county to engage in high quality studies in the sciences. One of the most notable efforts of the department to achieve this goal is promoting distance learning of science. In this paper, we will explore the nature of distance learning, its advantages and limitations and whether it is appropriate for gifted students. We will describe four distance learning courses in the sciences that were piloted in the virtual school established by the Department of Gifted Students in the years 2002‐2004 and present results of evaluation of these courses. Finally, we will discuss the implications of distance learning for the education of gifted students in the future.

This paper will first explain the history and philosophy of the American Junior Academy of Sciences (Am JAS). We wil give the results of a national teacher survey that discusses how student projects are chosen, why doing a project gives a student an advantage, and finally give a brief comparison between American students and students from other countries.

The Network of Youth Excellence (NYEX) was established to develop scientific talent by promoting and improving international research collaboration among young scientists. With the help of its research partners, the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy (IMSA) offered opportunities to student members of the Network to work with scientists in the United States. This was a small initiative, but a big success that leveraged existing resources to develop opportunities for international research collaborations.

The Student and Teacher Internship Program, called STP, is a partnership between the HHMI, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and MCPS. High school students apply to, spend a full year doing an internship at NIH. Middle and high school teachers are encouraged by their principals and resource teachers to participate in this program to enhance their teaching content knowledge and professional development. Recruitment to this program is done in many stages and is ongoing. Each school year, presentations are made to science teachers, guidance counselors, resource teachers, and high school principals informing them of the program. Previous student presentations are aired on the local MCPS television station to inform the community. Current student and teacher interns are the best source of recruitment for this successful, highly competitive program. Each generation passes on their excitement and sense of privilege to their peers.

Six categories of out of school science programs for talented students are described in relation to six criteria: method of selection, goals, structure, benefits, drawbacks, and predictions about participants' future in science. The context for development of this analysis is described as well as suggested directions for the future.

Science mentorship programs in Korea were initiated by the Science Gifted Education Center of university from 2000 and the Busan Science Academy from 2002 and Science highschool from 2003 which was sponsored by the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation(KOSEF). Science mentorship programs of university was started from 1998 and science mentorship programs of the Busan Science Academy was established in 2002. KOSEF gave support to 72 science mentorship programs for science highschool students in 2003 and 79 science mentorship programs in 2004.

The MOST and KOSEF initiated and have supported science education for the gifted and talented in Korea. Nineteen local institutes for the gifted education had been established at the universities since 1998. The institute identifies the giftedness of elementary and middle school children and provides them with extra curricula in science, mathematics and informatics. Such programs have been accelerated by legislation of the Gifted and Talented Education Promotion Law in 2001. The KOSEF had financed ca. 8.2 million Euro and 13,021 students had completed the gifted education program.

The Austrian society dialog<>gentechnik fosters the dialogue between science and the public. For schools, it has developed several modules and has organized a numer of projects.

Education in Europe rema internationally, and often nationally fragmented activity. In science research, especially, this contrasts with a profession that is highly internationally mobile and that relies heavily on international interchange. Molecular biology, a discipline that is of recognised key importance for our future, is barely covered, even rudimentarily, at the level of practical experiments. Political will and new infrastructures are needed to ensure greater translation of science in the lab to science in the classroom, and to facilitate exchange of diverse educational materials and experience across Europe and the world. Without such international platforms it is hard to see how Europe can improve as a whole.

The “Deutsche SchülerAkademie” (German Pupils Academy) is the most significant outside‐of‐school residential programme for gifted senior secondary school pupils in Germany. Following its description at the first NATO / UNESCO research workshop an extension of the concept to 7^th to 9^th graders is presented here. Results from two regional academies during a three year pilot phase have shown that the concept for the “seniors” with minor adaptations can successfully be applied to the “juniors”. In cooperation with other organizers of similar programmes the label “Deutsche JuniorAkademien” (German Junior Academies) has been created to promote the idea of high quality residential summer academies all over Germany.

XLAB is an educational institution, which wants to bridge the gap between high school and university. XLAB organizes experimental courses in Biology, Chemistry, Informatics, and Physics for classes and individual students from EU‐countries and from all over the world. The students do intensive experimental work with state‐of‐the‐art‐equipment. Theoretical teaching by experienced scientists runs parallel with the experiments.

In this report I want to point out some special cognitive abilities which are found in gifted persons, especially in inventors and some scientists. How does an inventor come to new ideas? How does a scientist find the solution for a complicated problem? Can gifted children learn specific techniques for inventions? Samples [1] suggested ways to help people form metaphors to train creativity. He noted that almost all theory‐making in science is metaphoric. In addition to studies in the relevant research papers we have interviewed a number of successful inventors (chemists, technician, managers) in order to find out, how they are thinking when they handle matters which grow into inventions. Their answers and comments confirm the theories and findings of Rothenberg [2,3], Mittring [4], Sternberg [5,6]. In the following I will describe and comment these three postulated cognitive abilities and ways of thinking.