Science contests and competitions present wonderful opportunities for your children to apply their skills and to learn more. While many science competitions are held in schools (sometimes through a selective or nominating process), there are also contests that students can enter independently, whether as individual competitors or as part of a team.

Some of these contests offer prizes and awards for the students and the schools, as well as the chance to travel for national or international competitions.

Interested in more? Check out these additional resources!

• Craftsman/NSTA Young Inventors Program
  http://www.nsta.org/programs/craftsman/
  Sponsored by Sears and the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), the Craftsman/NSTA Young Inventors Awards Program challenges students to use creativity and imagination along with science, technology, and mechanical ability to invent or modify a tool that performs a practical function. Held each year, the program is open to all students in grades 2-8 in the United States and the U.S. territories, and winners receive savings bonds; teachers and schools also receive prizes.
• ExploraVision Awards
  http://www.exploravision.org
  Sponsored by Toshiba and NSTA, ExploraVision is a competition for students of all interest, skill, and ability levels in grades K-12. Entrants must be United States or Canadian citizens or legal residents, living within the United States, U.S. Territories, or Canada. The purpose of the competition is to encourage students to combine their imaginations with the tools of science to create and explore a vision of a future technology. Winning students receive savings bonds.
• National Engineers Week Future City Competition
  http://www.futurecity.org
  The National Engineers Week Future City Competition is a fun and exciting educational engineering program for 7th and 8th grade students that combines a stimulating engineering challenge with a "hands-on" application to present their vision of a city of the future. Groups of students use team work, problem-solving approaches, and skills in mathematics and science, computers, and research and presentations to design cities using SimCity software. Regional contests lead to the national competition.
• Odyssey of the Mind
  http://www.odysseyofthemind.com/learn_more.php
  Odyssey of the Mind is an international educational program that provides creative problem-solving opportunities for students from kindergarten through college. Kids apply their creativity to solve problems that range from building mechanical devices to presenting their own interpretation of literary classics. Thousands of teams from throughout the United States and from about 25 other countries participate in the program.
• Intel Science Talent Search
  http://www.intel.com/education/sts/
  The Intel Science Talent Search is America's oldest and most highly regarded pre-college science competition. For more than 60 years, this competition—often referred to as the "junior Nobel Prize"—has provided an incentive and an arena for U.S. high school seniors to complete an original research project and have it recognized by a national jury of highly regarded professional scientists.
• eCYBERMISSION
  http://www.ecybermission.com/index.cfm
  eCYBERMISSION is a Web-based science, mathematics, and technology competition for 6th through 9th grade teams. Students compete for regional and national awards while working to solve problems in their communities. This competition is sponsored by the U.S. Army and awards savings bonds to the winners.
• Siemens Westinghouse Competition
  http://www.siemens-foundation.org/competition/
  The Siemens Westinghouse Competition in Math, Science & Technology recognizes remarkable talent early on, fostering individual growth for high school students who are willing to challenge themselves through science research. The competition, which is administered by The College Board and administered by the Siemens Foundation, awards tens of thousands of dollars in scholarships to finalists and winners.