It is essential to engage in scientific education of talented students as early as possible to develop the critical minds or scientific method judgments. There are multitudes of initiatives all around the world; and the number of these programs are steadily increasing. However, most of these initiatives are local programs connected to one or two motivated teachers or professors. They work in isolation, often struggling with the lack of resources and stay unrecognized to the general public. This situation was a trigger to establish an international network, called the Network of Youth Excellence (NYEX) in 2004. The members of this network are organizations with a proven devotion to promoting scientific research among young students (i.e. under the age of 21). All member organizations delegate a representative to the Board, which is the main decision making body in important issues. The Board selects the Executive Board by entrusting a chairperson and two vice-chairs among themselves. The Executive Board is responsible for implementing causes, making everyday decisions and coordinating network activities.

Through the analysis of forty ethical dilemmas drawn from real-life situations, Ethics in Action guides the reader through a process of moral deliberation that leads to the resolution of a variety of moral dilemmas. Fosters critical thinking by evaluating the reasons people give to support their choices and actions Challenges the paradigm of moral relativism that often impedes efforts to resolve moral dilemmas Incorporates international perspectives often lacking in texts published for a U.S. audience

This book breaks through in the field of mathematical creativity and giftedness. It suggests directions for closing the gap between research in the field of mathematics education and research in the field of creativity and giftedness. It also outlines a research agenda for further research and development in the field.

Specialized Schools for High-Ability Learners focuses on educational programming offered in nontraditional, publicly approved, and private settings, with important details about how to serve high-ability learners in specialized schools and deliver schoolwide educational change. Each chapter offers a differentiated resource for educators who are interested in designing and implementing programs in specialized school settings by providing a discussion of the critical components for inclusion in a carefully planned, coherent, and quality-minded K-12 curricular sequence. This book delivers a comprehensive discussion with recommendations for the learning experiences of high-talent students in specialized schools and alternatively approved educational programs. Through relevant research and practical applications, this compendium will help in developing high levels of talent among the next generation of competent critical thinkers.

The book presents practical strategies to identify and nurture exceptionally high ability in children. These authors promote the "mastery" (rather than the "mystery") model of gifted education and challenge several common practices and assumptions.

STEM Education for High-Ability Learners: Designing and Implementing Programming focuses on the rigorous articulation of quality STEM education programming to develop STEM talent among high-ability and gifted learners. The intent of this book is to provide a comprehensive resource for educators designing and implementing each of the supports within STEM education by providing a discussion of each critical component for inclusion in a planned, coherent, and high-quality sequenced system. This edited volume provides a cutting-edge discussion of best practices for delivering STEM education by experts in the field. The contributing authors provide a differentiated discussion and recommendations for the learning experiences of gifted students in STEM education programs.

All papers have been peer-reviewed. This conference is focused on research activities on all areas of Optics, mainly in Latin-American and Iberic countries, but also in other countries all over the world as well. A specific session for Education in Optics is also included. The main interest of this conference is offering a general view of the present research activities and trends on Optics in the Latin-America area because all countries in the region with a significant activity in Optics were well represented, including senior and young researchers as well as graduated students talking about their PhD and MSc thesis work. Topics discussed included: atmospheric optics; color, vision and radiometry; diffractive optics; education for optics; guided optics; holography and interferometry; lasers and quantum optics; metamaterials; nonlinear optics; optical instruments; optical materials and applications; optical metrology; optical processing; optical spectroscopy; thin films.

An emerging body of research suggests that a set of broad "21st century skills"-such as adaptability, complex communication skills, and the ability to solve non-routine problems-are valuable across a wide range of jobs in the national economy. However, the role of K-12 education in helping students learn these skills is a subject of current debate. Some business and education groups have advocated infusing 21st century skills into the school curriculum, and several states have launched such efforts. Other observers argue that focusing on skills detracts attention from learning of important content knowledge. To explore these issues, the National Research Council conducted a workshop, summarized in this volume, on science education as a context for development of 21st century skills. Science is seen as a promising context because it is not only a body of accepted knowledge, but also involves processes that lead to this knowledge. Engaging students in scientific processes-including talk and argument, modeling and representation, and learning from investigations-builds science proficiency. At the same time, this engagement may develop 21st century skills. Exploring the Intersection of Science Education and 21st Century Skills addresses key questions about the overlap between 21st century skills and scientific content and knowledge; explores promising models or approaches for teaching these abilities; and reviews the evidence about the transferability of these skills to real workplace applications.