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Panelists:
An illustrious scientist and explorer of sea and space, Kathy Sullivan has made history with her pioneering journeys to the world’s frontiers. Today, as Director of the Battelle Center for Mathematics Science Education Policy, she guides research, service and public outreach efforts aimed at catalyzing changes in science education that will equip young Americans for 21stcentury life. One of six women to join the first class of space-shuttle astronauts in 1978,Sullivan is a veteran of three shuttle missions.During a Challenger flight in 1984, she became the first American woman to walk in space. She helped launch the Hubble Space Telescope aboard Discovery in 1990 and served as; Payload Commander aboard Atlantis in 1992.
Also on the panel: Niescja E. Turner, Associate Professor, Department of Physics and Space Sciences, Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Florida. In addition to her research in energy coupling in magnetic storms, storm dynamics, and ring current evolution, Turner is committed to developing the next wave of STEM talent. She is a graduate of the Louisiana School for Math Science and the Arts and has hopes of parleying a two-week summer academy at the Florida Governor's School program into a full blown STEM school on the Space Coast. Run jointly with astronaut Sam Durrance, the school’s focus is on space exploration, covering history, observational astronomy, orbital mechanics, rocket propulsion technology, the search for extra-solar planets, and astrobiology. While at Fiske Planetarium in Boulder, CO, she wrote a full-length, interactive planetarium show "Kids In Space: Exploring Our Solar System." The show opened in 2000 and is currently shown to ~ 7000 audience members annually.
Joining us from the University of Georgia, where he is a Biochemistry and Science Communications Major is Joseph Stunzi. At age 12, Joseph became the youngest person to research at Emory Hospital and University in a medical study analyzing the effects of cell phones on pacemaker patients’ hearts. Since then, Joseph has competed in more than seven international and national level science competitions; his pinnacle achievement being named “America’s Top Young Scientist of the Year” by the Discovery Channel. His research has spanned enzymatic hydrogen production, disease prevention in poultry, and electromagnetism’s relationship with brain cancer. Currently, Joseph’s focus has shifted towards science education and inspiration in middle and high school students through the nonprofit organization he founded, IENCE. IENCE aims to ignite a passion for science, technology, and engineering through inspiration, innovation, and integration-based multimedia content. While the majority of this content will be distributed on the Internet and in the classroom, IENCE’s newest venture is a documentary being filming in Switzerland this spring.
The panel will be moderated by Camilla Benbow, Patricia and Rodes Hart Dean of Education and Human Development at Vanderbilt University's Peabody College, a position she has held since 1998. An educational psychologist, Benbow has focused her scholarly work on gifted education and the development of mathematical talent. She co-directs, with David Lubinski, the Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth (SMPY), a longitudinal study examining the developmental trajectories of over 5,000 individuals throughout the life-span. The study has been continuously funded since 1981. She is particularly interested in identifying the educational experiences and interventions most conducive to developing intellectual talent and excellence in careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
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Kathryn D. Sullivan
Niescja E. Turner
Joseph Stunzi
Camilla Benbow
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Saturday, November 13
Mindsets, Praise, and Gifted Education: How Our Messages Can Help or Hinder the Development of Talent
Carol S. Dweck
Lewis and Virginia Eaton Professor, Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA
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 Carol Dweck is one of the world’s leading researchers in the field of motivation and author of the bestselling book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success.
Dweck's research about intelligence and motivation, and how they are variously influenced by fixed and growth mindsets, has attracted attention from teachers trying to help underperforming students, parents concerned with why their daughters get turned off of math and science, and even sports coaches and human-resources managers intent on helping clients reach higher levels of achievement.
Before joining Stanford's faculty in 2004, Dweck taught at Columbia for 15 years as well as at Harvard and the University of Illinois. Her work has been featured in such publications as The New Yorker, Time, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Boston Globe; she has appeared on The Today Show and 20/20.
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 No wonder this energetic and charismatic powerhouse is known as “America's Educator.” Ron Clark is the 2000 Disney American Teacher of the Year, a New York Times Bestselling author, the subject of a television movie, and the founder of the Ron Clark Academy. A guest on numerous network and cable television shows, Clark wrote The Essential 55 which includes his 55 expectations of students - as well as all individuals - young and old.
The Ron Clark Academy, an inner-city school serving students from across metro Atlanta, is a privately funded institution is unique for its innovative teaching methods and curriculum based on worldwide travel. Teachers from around the world visit the Academy to observe the innovative and "out-of-the-box" methods for achieving student success.
At the NAGC Convention, Clark will share the uncanny adventures he has had in the classroom and deliver a heart-felt message relevant to each of us. It is a message of hope, dedication and the never-say-never attitude required to achieve goals and dreams.
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Saturday, November 13
E. Paul Torrance Creativity LectureThe Gifted Empire Strikes Back: What Role Does Gifted Education Play in the 21st Century?
Almost daily, news sources report declines in programs for gifted and talented students; and new developments in theory and research in both gifted and general education and the field of creativity have caused me to reexamine the purposes and role of gifted education. Historically, many of the innovations first developed or adopted in gifted education have been “appropriated” by general education – indeed, general education has stolen our thunder! I view as favorable the adoption of things like thinking skills, creative problem solving, and problem-based learning into the highly publicized 21st Century Thinking Skills movement, but we now need to reexamine what makes our field necessary and unique. Infusing some of our favorable practices into general education testifies to the leadership our field has taken in the past, but it is now time to ask once again:
- What do we stand for?
- What is unique about gifted education?
- What are our ideas and responsibilities for remaining true to our mission to targeted students and the preparation of highly specialized teachers of the gifted?
- Do some of our “sacred cows” and misguided national policies need to be reexamined?
- What are our responsibilities for improving general education? And are there policies, programs, and practices of gifted education that can be infused into general education?
Following a keynote by Joe Renzulli, director of the National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented at the University of Connecticut, a panel of responders will react to the ideas and issues presented.
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 Joe Renzulli,
National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented, Storrs, CT
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 Robert Root-Bernstein,
Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI
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