[Ohiogift] Davidson Institute eNews-Update: January 2021

Tue Jan 26 17:25:01 EST 2021

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| For those with an interest in reaching and teaching the profoundly gifted student across the United States:
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January 2021
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|  The applications for the Davidson Academy, Davidson Fellows Scholarship and Davidson: Explore are all open with deadlines approaching. See details below for each of these programs and apply today!  |

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In the News
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|  Some of America's brightest students were recently recognized when the Society for Science & the Public (SSP) and Regeneron announced the winners of the 2021 Regeneron Science Talent Search (STS). The Regeneron STS recognizes 40 high school seniors creating new technologies and solutions that can change the world through scientific innovation.

STS is the nation’s oldest science and math competition for high school seniors. The 2021 finalists were selected from 1,760 entrants based on their projects’ scientific rigor and their potential to become world-changing scientists and leaders. Each finalist is awarded at least $25,000, and the top 10 awards range from $40,000 to $250,000.  |

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|  How Do We Best Find And Serve Talented Youths? - What is the best possible approach to the identification and education of gifted and talented children here and now? (Forbes)

New York City Schools To Eliminate Entry Exam For Gifted And Talented Programs - The school district announced that this will be the last year it will administer the Gifted and Talented kindergarten test, and will develop new ways of identifying and serving exceptional students. (CBS New York)

Teaching the gifted, after the test - "Experts in advanced or gifted education generally think this is a good step, but I’m not yet convinced." (New York Daily News)

How a diverse school district is using a strategy usually reserved for ‘gifted’ students to boost everyone - A Seattle-area school district is applying acceleration in an effort to curb potential learning loss due to the coronavirus pandemic. (Seattle Times)

AP Results Mixed: More Students Earn 3 or Higher on Exams, But Fewer Minority Student Enroll - (Evanston, IL Roundtable) 

Zoom and Google Outages: How Schools Should Prepare for Tech Problems - "When we’re in a pandemic, human errors are more likely because we’re all dealing with a lot of stress and a lot of unprecedented stress and a lot of new challenges." (Education Week)

>From IQ tests to The Queen’s Gambit: a history of gifted children - "My research looks into the question of “what next?” for so-called child genuises, and how the “gifted” label affects their lives." (The Conversation)  |

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Blog Posts & Podcasts
A Case for Performance-Based Assessment -  "Would we not be better off to have people take tests that evaluate performance rather than the multiple-choice version? Would this not be a better indicator of the success one might have once they actually get in the field and have to perform in the real world?" (Prufrock Press) 

A Required, Preservice Course on Student Underachievement - "The common characteristic of underachieving students is that they have academic potential that they’ve not been able to realize through no fault of their own." (NAGC)

Cooke-ing Excellence Through Research - "After almost a decade examining challenges faced by high-ability students, I’ve learned a lot. I want to share with you some of the key takeaways. It is important to acknowledge what we know and act immediately on that information." (NAGC)

Disproving Myths About Gifted Students - In this Q&A with Robert A. Schultz, Ph.D., he shares the myths about gifted students that he hears most often. (Davidson Gifted Blog)

Dr. Aliza Pressman on Experiencing Trauma and Building Resilience in COVID-19 - Dr. Pressman shares helpful ways to think about trauma and resilience, especially related to children’s experiences during this pandemic, and offers advice and research on the best inoculations to protect our children from chronic stress responses and to aid the process of developing resiliency. (TiLT Parenting Podcast) 

List of Academic Competitions for Gifted Students - Here are some of our community’s favorite academic competitions, listed in alphabetical order. (Davidson Gifted Blog)

Parenting in 2020: The "cool mom" trap - "But now, amidst so much struggle and disappointment, it is still our job to be the adult in the room." (Gifted Challenges)

Tips for Parents: Trust Your Parent Gut - Trusting one’s “Parent Gut” when raising a gifted child can be difficult. (Davidson Gifted Blog)

Tools for Practicing Joy and Building Your Emotional Vocabulary - This post shares two practices gifted families can do to help navigate big feelings and find emotional balance. (Davidson Gifted Blog)

See more on the Davidson Gifted Blog >  |

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Davidson News
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Davidson Academy - Online and Reno Campuses

One Unique School. Two Groundbreaking Campuses.

The Davidson Academy offers two educational options specifically designed to meet the needs of profoundly gifted students – an online campus for those living anywhere in the U.S. and Canada and a school on the University of Nevada, Reno campus for local residents. Both options are centered on a rigorous academic environment where students thrive among their intellectual peers. Academy classes are grouped by ability rather than by age, providing profoundly gifted students an educational opportunity matched to their abilities, strengths and interests.  |

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|  "Interpersonal and instructional"
For more than a decade, the Davidson Academy’s free, accredited Reno campus has centered on interpersonal and instructional dynamics creating an atmosphere that is vibrant with intellectual energy and dialogue. The same applies to the Davidson Academy online campus. Beyond the advanced academics offered, Davidson Academy Online provides meaningful interactions with classmates and instructors that happen daily. Online campus students have rich opportunities for socialization through our courses and extracurriculars. Students Meghana and Nate describe how.  |

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|  Apply Today!
The 2021-2022 application deadlines for the Davidson Academy Online campus and Reno campus are fast approaching! Visit the Qualification Criteria and How to Apply pages to read about the application process. The deadline to apply for the online campus is Feb. 15. The deadline to apply for the Reno campus is March 31. 

Questions? Contact us.  |

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|  Reno Campus
Join us for a virtual open house on one of the following dates: (RSVP required):
    Tues., Feb. 2, 2021, 5pm PT 
    Tues., March 2, 2021, 6pm PT

When should my child enroll at the Davidson Academy? Understand the Academic Benefits.

Personalized Learning Plan - Designed to deepen and strengthen the learning experience for all Davidson students. 

Individualized college and career guidance, leading to a diverse variety of outcomes.  |

|  Online Campus
Students might live across the country, but they most definitely go to school together. A typical day in the life >

The benefits of online learning for gifted students - how does the Davidson Academy specifically personalize online education?

Stacy Hawthorne, Director of Online Learning at the Davidson Academy, offers her perspectives on the growing trend of online learning.

Full-time and single course enrollments available!  |

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2021 Davidson Fellows Scholarship Application 
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|  The 2021 Davidson Fellows Scholarship application is now available online. Young people 18 and younger have the opportunity to earn a $50,000, $25,000 or $10,000 scholarship in recognition of a significant piece of work in the categories of science, technology, engineering, mathematics, music, literature and philosophy, or a project that represents outside the box thinking. The application deadline is March 10.  |

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Davidson: Explore
Designed to be different than other online courses, Davidson: Explore offers rigorous, advanced, full-year middle school courses that are modeled off of expectations at middle school courses at the Davidson Academy. Students will be expected to work on asynchronous learning activities, such as reading, drafting essays, completing practice problems, assignments, etc. in addition to the hour spent in live-sessions each week. Apply today - the application deadline is Feb. 28.  |

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Davidson Young Scholars
The Davidson Young Scholars program provides FREE services designed to nurture and support profoundly gifted young people and their families, including talent development, educational advocacy, an online community and the Ambassadors program. Young Scholars can also access annual get-togethers, two residential summer camps for 8 to 13 year olds and challenging online middle school courses. Applications are due the first of each month. See the Application Process and Testing Requirements pages.  |

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On the Web
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NCRGE Free Virtual Conference
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|  The National Center for Research on Gifted Education (NCRGE) will hold a free virtual conference on Friday, March 26, 2021 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. ET. The conference (NCRGE's First Five Years: Results, Reflections, and Recommendations) will include three short presentations by NCRGE researchers followed by reflections and recommendation for practice and future research from panelists.  |

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Gifted Summer Programs Shifting Online
Due to the pandemic, many summer program are moving online in 2021. Some are currently moving forward with in-person plans, while others are shifting gears toward 2022. See these Davidson Gifted Database articles for some gifted summer program options:    
   - Residential summer programs
   - Day camp summer programs
   - Summer programs listed by topics of interest
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|  Browse the Davidson Gifted Database's entire list of summer programs. Please note that 2021 application deadlines for certain summer programs may be approaching soon, and some may not be occuring at all this year. Also see the Davidson lists of scholarships for high school students and younger students.

Code from Zero
Code From Zero, a data analytics education company launched by a Davidson Young Scholar alumnus, is offering a weekend course in coding and data analysis. The workshop is designed for upper-level high school students and teaches a modern approach to data analytics using tools that are free, easy to learn, and can handle large datasets. Code From Zero prepares students for general work with Python and specific work in finance, economics, and related fields. Students learn how to clean a dataset for analysis, create the equivalent of Excel pivot tables, visualize data, and quickly provide data-driven insights.

For interested members of the Davidson community, co-founder Lucien Charland created a discount code for 30% off: DAVIDSON30

Epsilon Camp
Epsilon Camp, a math camp for young PG children, will be held online in 2021.  |

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Student to Student
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Annie Ostojic, Davidson Fellow Laureate

Advancing Understanding Gene Functions in Breast Cancer Research

Annie Ostojic of Munster, Ind. received $50,000 for her Davidson Fellows project, "Targeting Cancer via Signaling Pathways: A Novel Approach to the Discovery of Gene CCDC191's Double-Agent Function using Differential Gene Expression, Heat Map Analyses through AI Deep Learning, and Mathematical Modeling."   |

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|  What kind of impact can your Davidson Fellows project have on society?
I had read that early computational biology processes are unable to produce results quickly enough, so many gene functions remain unknown to date. A need exists to analyze gene functions in pathways to meet a changing medical industry of personalized medicine and cancer treatments relative to gene expression patterns. This type of project became my focus after seeing many people in my family live with or pass away from cancer. My research discovered the function of a gene named CCDC191 whose function had not been fully studied nor defined. Using The Cancer Genome Atlas database (TCGA), I developed a novel bioinformatics approach to determine the function of gene CCDC191 and linked it to a specific abnormal part of the Pi3K pathway in breast cancer. I created a more efficient and replicable methodology which incorporates artificial intelligence deep learning image classification of heat maps and mathematical modeling to determine gene functions in pathways and cancer connectedness.

The applications of my methodology are expansive as now a process exists to determine functions of unknown genes and analyze heat maps in a faster way. I plan to continue automating this process as much as possible so it can become more of a routine mechanism in the field of computational biology and bioinformatics.

What are some of your short-term and long-term plans?
Currently at Stanford, I am studying electrical engineering and exploring its applications in biomedical and artificial intelligence fields. Also, I have entrepreneurial aspirations as a few friends and I are in the earlier stages of a startup. I will be completing a BS/MS in electrical engineering by 2024, but beyond that, I have looked into obtaining a PhD in an engineering field in the future. In the long term, I will continue innovating to develop solutions to everyday problems individuals face in our world.

Please describe your academic setting and some positive experiences with mentors.
I was fortunate that my K-12 district was openminded and supportive in allowing me to pioneer a new STEM pathway within the system. As such, for many years, I’ve attended 2 or more academic institutions at one time to challenge myself with higher level STEM coursework. During middle school, I attended honors high school STEM classes for part of my day, and during high school, I attended university courses in addition to my high school curriculum. 

Over the years, I have had many career professionals who have provided academic insights and encouragement for my STEM journey. This includes individuals from corporate, academic, and government sectors. Those experiences include internships at the Pentagon for Operational Test and Evaluation, Arrow Electronics’ Engineering Solutions Center (Fortune 109/500), and Purdue’s Center for Implantable Devices.  |

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|  “All students should be tested and compared to one another within their own school buildings. Students could be screened for giftedness early, but not too early – perhaps in third grade — on math, verbal, and spatial reasoning measures. This would improve the talent development of disadvantaged students in the long run.”

-- Jonathan Wai  |

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|  If you have information to include in a future newsletter, please contact us at administrator at davidsongifted.org.

Davidson Institute for Talent Development
 Supporting our nation's brightest young minds
 Reno, Nevada
 DavidsonGifted.org
 administrator at davidsongifted.org

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