Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Science testing?

Do children get tested for science abilities? When? What test?

My DS9 may be ahead in science. We live in Ohio. He has taken IOWA and woodcock Johnson Achievment during his 2nd grade year.

He reads lots of science books and watches lots of education science shows. He learns and retains quickly.

I have not heard of a specific science aptitude test, especially for younger kids...our district does make a nod to identifying kids with special subject aptitudes such as in science or even social studies, but the one teacher I talked to about it said it's pretty unusual. Since they don't test for it, there's only the word of a teacher or parent to describe a passion or drive to learn in an area not usually tested for.

Has anybody had some experience with acceloration or giving a child more indepth science work in school. Last year in second grade, my DS knew everything before it was taught. This was very dissappointing. Imagine how it felt to do all the reviewing when he already knew it all. It feels like school can take away a child's excitement about learning when they should be inspiring instead. He is very interested in science and excells in math. Any ideas for school?

Not that this is a standardized testing method, but my son tested out of eight grade earth science for this next school year by taking a written test with a follow-up oral test/interview with the eighth grade science teacher and science dept head at his 6th-12th grade school. It was explained to me after the fact that they weren�t looking for exact facts, but rather the reasoning (drawn from concept knowledge) used to give best guess responses. I was told they could glean more insight by how he connected the dots than whether his answer was exactly right or nearly right.

I agree that math acceleration is a prerequisite for science acceleration!

In fact, in our case, the science dept chair believed that our son�s true passion was math, but seemed pleased when we explained that he considered it primarily a means to prepare for his favorite interest.

For now, it may be easier for your son to pursue math subject acceleration in school while studying science elsewhere. When the school science becomes interesting, he should be ready for subject acceleration there too (hopefully the school while allow it).

Re: 3rd grader DS9, Any body get the science circiulum ahead and then if your child knows it just supply something else to do in school. Last year they did about 4 units in science.
Would a teacher let a child pretest usally? I can figure out lots of things he might be interesting in doing. But I would rather give him something they won't be doing the next years and I'm not sure what's going to be covered or not.

If your child has enjoyed science "outside school", no doubt he is very ahead. when we were in Austin, there was a science curriculum and a very difficult TAKS (state standard) exam in 5th and 8th. I complained that there was not enough science until 5th grade.

Then, we moved to Colorado where science is only covered during "literacy time" - that means that they read about it occasionally.

Other countries have better science curriculums and it is not shocking that they excel in this. Young children love science and this is a good time to introduce them.

My DS9 is just going into 3rd grade

For those of you who have older science buffs, maybe you can give me some guidance. My ds5 is obsessed with science topics. He wants to know everything about the human body currently - first it was the digestive system and now he wants to know everything about the immune system and blood cells. He is in Kindergarten all day so we try to cram conversations in at night about all the things that really interest him because he has so many questions. He can't read yet to the point that he could actually read about these topics himself although he will study diagrams on anatomy. He also loves mechanical physics concepts. At school they will be studying trees, wood and paper for the science curriculum during the year (my heart sank when I read the curriculum - as if somehow anatomy and physics would somehow be listed there??).

Any suggestions on what I should do? I have a call into the gifted coordinator just to touch base with her so she will probably call back tomorrow. My plan was just to ask her how I can best help him and if there is anything the school can do. He has not been identified in any way however I had visited with her last spring with some concerns. In the back of mind, I keep thinking that I will pull him out of school in the afternoons and homeschool math and science which are the last subjects of the day. That is not my first choice however I was a math teacher so it's not that big of a stretch. I absolutely do not want to be pushy but I don't want to ignore his strengths and interests since they probably won't be nurtured at school in the standard curriculum. I will say that we are in an outstanding school system with a good gifted program from what I have gathered so far. I just question how much they would do in Kindergarten. Socially and behaviorally ds5 definitely belongs in Kindergarten and is not ready for a higher grade level.

And here is a sidenote about the math... they use Everyday Math curriculum and I ask him what he does in math and he gives me blank stares like he doesn't do anything math-related at school. I asked him if he does anything with numbers or maybe shapes. His response: "Math is when you do stuff but not with numbers" Yikes! What have they undone in my child's brain in the past month??

My DS5 has been into The Magic School Bus for a long time and I recommend the series, we've read the books and he has picked up a lot.

I'm also envious that your DS gets any science in kindergarten.