User:MeganDzw/Kids' Science Challenge

Kids' Science Challenge Kids' Science Challenge, created by award-winning producer Jim Metzner, is a free nationwide science competition for students in grades 3 to 6. Funded by the National Science Foundation, the competition began in the 2008-2009 school year. The Kids’ Science Challenge is about inspiration and fun, using new media and hands-on activities to excite and engage kids in science [.

The KSC encourages kids to discover ways that science is meaningful to their lives. Each year the KSC selects 3 science topics and a group of expert scientists and engineers. Kids, parents and educators are given the opportunity to learn more about these topics while visiting http://www.kidsciencechallenge.com. There are a wide variety of online tools for writing a winning entry, including activities, games, curricula and videos. The NAEP sites that only 34% of 4th graders are proficient in science skills. The percentage decreases as kids move forward in education. KSC engages kids during this crucial stage of their intellectual development.

Kids submit their own ideas, and these submissions are then judged by a panel of educators, scientists and engineers.

A grand prize is given to a winning student (or team) in each of the science topics. The grand prize winner for each topic wins a trip to visit and collaborate with a scientist or engineer to see their idea come alive.

Kids Science Challenge winners have been featured on NBC's Today Show (http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/32689394#32689394), the Washington Post, National Public Radio (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104750990), Time Magazine for Kids, Scholastic Magazine and numerous other media outlets.

With a grant from the American Honda Foundation, The Kids' Science Challenge launched a series of after-school workshops in 2009 targeting local underserved populations. The workshops are made up of hands-on activities, followed by mentored brainstorming sessions in which kids were encouraged to take the intellectual leap to come up with their own science ideas.

Both online and in after-school workshops, the KSC encourages improvisational thinking, engaging kids who hadn’t necessarily thought of themselves as scientists, demonstrating that science is for everyone.

YEAR ONE TOPICS Flavor Science Skateboard Engineering Communicating with Intelligent Life on Other Planets Water Quality

YEAR TWO TOPICS Nature-Inspired Design Imagining Sports on Mars Forensic Science

YEAR THREE TOPICS Materials Science and Sports Design Your Own Musical Instrument How Microbes Help Us

KSC ONLINE PARTNERS Whyville Woogi World Everloop