Fermilab has summer paid internship opportunities for high school students! Their TARGET and QuarkNet programs are open for application. TARGET opportunities are open to 10th- and 11th-graders in Illinois, and are due March 31. QuarkNet is open to all high school students; applications are due April 1. Visit Fermilab's internship website to learn more information about each program and find application materials.

A huge thank you to everyone who came out to meet the authors at our Author Fair on February 8. We are proud to say that the event was a success and everyone had a great time!

Events coming up in the next month or two:

• Educating the Gifted Child seminar, Feb. 22, given by Northwestern's Center for Talent Development (CTD)

• Also via CTD, the next NUMATS testing deadline is March 4. Many CANDO parents have found NUMATS testing to be a very valuable tool in understanding their children's educational needs.

• There is a Summer Resource Fair sponsored by STAGE, our Naperville Dist 203 equivalent organization, on March 4.

• Coming up on March 24 is CANDO's seminar for any parents and educators interested in gifted education, "How Well Do You Know Your Gifted Child?" presented by Elizabeth Selander Hutchins, 7-8:30 p.m. at Rotolo Middle School. Spread the word!

Have you seen ... ?

• Newsweek published an interesting opinion piece on gifted education entitled "America Hates Its Gifted Kids." Find the article here. 

• If you have daughters, this UK Blog post about gifted girls may be of particular interest:  "Gifted or Pretty:  What Do Parents Want?"
• Handouts from a number of presentations at the annual IAGC conference are available here.
• The blog for Northwestern's Center for Talent Development  can be a good source for information about gifted education and evaluation as well as a place to find discussion of related issues.

In addition to our own event hosting authors' visits at the Batavia Public Library on Saturday, February 8 there are a number of other interesting things happening in and around Batavia in the coming month.

• IAGC is holding its annual convention in Naperville from February 9-11. See the December entry below for the link to more information.

• On Monday, February 10 at 7 p.m., a Naperville parent group is hosting guest speaker Dr. Jim DeLisle presenting his talk "Parenting Precocious Kids." Get details here.

• On Thursday, February 13 at 7:00 p.m. there are two local events! Close to home and for families with students in or entering high school in fall 2014, Batavia High School is holding its AP/Honors Information Night in the Batavia High School Cafeteria. Both students and parents are welcome to attend this meeting. The presentation will provide a general overview of the AP and honors program. This is a great time to learn about the offerings and have your questions answered about AP and Honors courses.

• Also on Thursday, February 13 at 7:00 p.m. is a free presentation entitled “What's a Fractal?” at Waubonsee Community College on its Sugar Grove campus. Amy Del Medico, associate professor of mathematics at Waubonsee Community College, will discuss fractals and a number of their real-world occurrences and applications. For details, please visit the event page here. 

• This winter and spring there are still 5 remaining NIU STEM Saturday events in Dekalb or Naperville. See their page for more information about topics and registration.

Have you seen ... ?

• A recently-published study by researchers at Vanderbilt University followed 300 students identified as gifted over 30 years, from the age of 13 to 38. See their study here, a summary of the findings in their press release here, and a call to action by one of the study's authors here.

• If you are interested in innovations in all sorts of education, you may want to have a look at the blog Mind/Shift, in which the editor shares stories about new developments in education theory, practice, and policy.

• You may find the Eide Neurolearning blog of interest also. Run by two physicians (Doctors Eide and Eide), its mission is to communicate about learning-centered research done in neurobiology and the cognitive sciences. To use their own words, their interests are in “[b]rain-based learning and learning styles, problem-solving and creativity, kids, families, and parenting, gifted and visual learners, dyslexia, attention deficit disorders, autism, and more.” Its content often is of particular value to those interested in twice-exceptional (2e) research and issues.