It's not just "Icing on the Cake" in Student Competitions

Your Name and Title: Katie Leach, Gifted Support Teacher

School, Library, or Organization Name: Weatherly Area School District

Co-Presenter Name(s):

Area of the World from Which You Will Present: Pennsylvania, USA

Language in Which You Will Present: English

Target Audience(s): Classroom Teachers and Gifted Support Teachers

Short Session Description (one line): Winning a competition is "Icing on the Cake", but the learning and connecting with others is the best part of competing!

Full Session Description (as long as you would like): Entering your students in competitions takes on new meaning when you tell your students that you are not entering the competition to win, you are entering to learn, and winning is icing on the cake. There are many ways to make social connections while competing, if you dig to find them. We will be looking at competitions your students can attend and competitions that are held online and how you can encourage your students to connect with others.

1. Competitions that students attend

Matching student interest to professors at host university
Inviting experts in charge of the event for guidance
Connecting to other coaches for advise and ideas - Information you can get from other coaches while the competition is going on! (Some good, some not!)

2. Competitions online

Often online competitions have links and resources, including experts, for students to look or contact before the competition
Competitions will host webinars for students
Templates will be available and timelines for completion of material to be submitted

3. Hints for competing

What students fear - letting you down
Give it your best and make learning the priority
Dealing with intimidation of other team members
Read and re-read the rules
Read and re-read what the judges are looking for
Encourage students to go through the competition's website carefully, there could be past tests, winning projects to give ideas and links to other links for help

Websites / URLs Associated with Your Session: These are links to past and present competitions my students have entered:

History Day

Intel Science Fair

eCybermission

TEAMS Engineering Healthier Lives

Scholastic Scrimmage (our local PBS station)Marywood Math Competition

Gold Math Exam

Science Olympiad

Odyssey of the Mind

Purple Comet Math Competition

Moody's Math Challenge

And in the future, here is another contest we are hoping to enter: