The proud winners of the first-ever USA Biology Olympiad

A. DNA gyrase
B. RNA polymerase
C. Reverse transcriptase
D. DNA helicase

Stumped?

Kay Aull knew the answer right away (of course, it’s reverse transcriptase). That’s why Aull, 17, from Alexandria, VA, was one of four gold-medal winners at the USA Biology Olympiad held at the Fairfax, VA campus of George Mason University in late spring 2003. The other gold medallists were Kelley Harris, 15, from Sacramento, Victor Li, 17, from Cupertino, CA, and Michael Xiang, 18, from Bridgewater, NJ.

While they know a lot about biology, these students are real people, too. Says Xiang, “My friends don’t really consider me a ‘brainiac.’ They regard me as an intelligent person whom they can go to for academic help, personal advice, or just a fun afternoon at the arcade. In fact, a few days ago, some friends and I did just that—we went to a local arcade and played, among other things, Dance Dance Revolution.”

But it can be tough for students of a scientific bent to be challenged academically through regular courses of study. “It’s sometimes difficult for me to go to a school that primarily attracts students interested in humanities, because most of the people I interact with consider science boring and/or too difficult, at least to a certain degree,” says Harris.

Joann DiGennaro, president and co-founder of the Center for Excellence in Education, recognized the desire of students like Harris to test their science skills. Student participants in the Center’s Research Science Institute had long been asking her to look into hosting the event. About 75 students take part in the free six-week math and science Institute each year, working on research projects under the guidance of mentors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge.

The fruit of DiGennaro’s efforts was this year’s first-ever USA Biology Olympiad. It consisted of a national exam, which was given in January 2003 to biology students nominated by their schools. Over 4,000 students from 242 schools participated. 455 students qualified for the semifinals. From this pool, 20 national finalists were selected to attend an “Olympic Boot Camp.” Here, the four USA Biology gold medallists outwitted their peers in a barrage of laboratory and multiple choice testing. They then went on to compete at the International Biology Olympiad in Minsk, Belarus held July 8-16, 2003.

A Challenging Road
Programs that focus exclusively on gifted and talented children are often viewed as elitist—fringe benefits that take the focus away from more needy kids.

“That is simply a misperception,” argues Jane Clarenbach, Director of Public Education with the National Association for Gifted Children. “Children who are gifted are perceived as having no educational need. But a child who cannot read in second grade is similar in certain ways to a child who knows algebra at that age—both have intense educational needs.”

Despite that argument, DiGennaro has found it difficult to garner wide support for the Center in the years since the organization was founded through the efforts of the late Admiral H. G. Rickover.

Rickover, known as the father of the nuclear powered submarine and civilian nuclear power, met DiGennaro in 1982. He had long been dismayed by the state of math and science education in the U.S., once lamenting that students who graduated from college did not know enough math and science “to put in a thimble.” DiGennaro recalls him saying, “Look, I want to do something with students with brains and I don’t want them to have to worry about money.”

Joann DiGennaro, President of the Center for Excellence in Education (:47)

Together, Rickover and DiGennaro founded the Center in 1983: “We felt that the best thing for our country would be to stretch the minds of our best students to enable them to maximize their power,” says DiGennaro. “It was very obvious in the 1980s that there were no programs like ours in the country, particularly free of cost. The fear was that because there were no programs for the brightest students that they were not going to be encouraged. [The United States] had a lot going for the bottom and average students but nothing for the gifted students.”

Soon after their efforts to form a science institute began, detractors labeled their plans elitist. Remembers DiGennaro, “[Someone told me], ‘You know, Joann, it’s not a paraplegic, it’s not someone who can’t shake your hand, these kids don’t need as much help.’”

But exceptional students do need help, she argues. “My experience is that when you’re a little bit different and when you are pushing to lead in the classes, you are lock-stepped—there is not anything to do or anywhere to go.”

While the elitism issue deters some donors, corporate sponsors remain a promising source for funding. Pharmaceutical companies, such as Pfizer and Pharmacia, provided much of the $300,000 necessary to support the USA Biology Olympiad. DiGennaro says that corporations have a bit of self-interest in this area because they might wish to ultimately hire talented science students.

The National Outlook
Funding for the Center’s offerings is important because so many students don’t have access to gifted programs in their local school districts. Not only is national funding for talented and gifted programs declining, but state support for programs specifically for gifted children varies from non-existent to modest.

Federal funding, which has traditionally come from the Javits Act, became uncertain when the Bush administration unveiled the “No Child Left Behind” Act in 2001. The original Bush plan eliminated Javits entirely. Congress restored the Act and has maintained a somewhat reduced level of funding since then.

The House and Senate Appropriations Committees both approved $11.177 million for the Javits Act for 2004, which is equal to the 2003 amount. The Javits Act supports a coordinated program of research, demonstration programs, and personnel training to build schools’ abilities to identify and meet the special education needs of gifted children. The grants assist elementary and secondary school students in developing their abilities and reaching high levels of achievement.

The Bush administration would like to replace Javits with block grant funding for gifted education in schools, giving states greater control over how the money is allocated.

Meanwhile, at least one governmental agency that formerly championed gifted and talented programs no longer does so.
Marty Van Pelt, of the National Science Foundation’s Public Affairs office, says that the NSF used to have a program that encouraged young scientists. “At its heyday, the NSF Young Scholars program was funded at $7.5 million annually and supported somewhere in the vicinity of 154 projects involving more than 6,000 students,” says Van Pelt. Despite its popularity, the program ended in the mid-1990s due in part to criticisms of catering to elite students.

State directors of gifted and talented educational programs were recently surveyed on the amount of state funds allocated to school districts specifically for gifted and talented students in the 2001-2002 school year. Their responses indicated vast discrepancies: While Oklahoma allocated $69 million in funds for gifted-focused education, Connecticut and New Jersey did not allocate any funds at all, with the rest of the states falling in between.

The International Biology Olympiad was held in Minsk, Belarus this year

An International Edge
DiGennaro has experienced her share of funding uncertainties for the Center’s programs that, including the Biology Olympiad, now cost $1.8 million annually. But some agencies of the U.S. government see the value of such programs in building international relationships and helping American students become competitive with their peers in other countries.

Explains DiGennaro, “We don’t have any major grants from U.S. government agencies, but we get small ones each year…from the National Security Agency for our math students and the Department of Defense—they send [us funds for] a teacher and some students.”

The Department of State currently supports the Center through nine scholarships for students from predominantly Muslim nations to attend the Center’s Research Science Institute. Says Robert Persiko, the Chief of the State Department’s Division of Youth Programs, “Since 9/11 we have turned our focus to the Islamic world. The U.S. doesn’t have a good understanding of the animosities that exist.”

“We were [approached] because of the power of our board (which includes former President Jimmy Carter, and US Senators Joseph Lieberman and William Frist) and our international network,” says DiGennaro. She believes that the Department of State was skeptical about whether the Center could attract Muslim students, but seven have now attended the Institute.

“It was beautiful because an Israeli student was [also] there, and we thought, ‘Well, now what?’ But they were helping each other with luggage and they shared commonality of food and geographics,” recalls DiGennaro. “And we thought, ‘Oh, if we could only do this and they were twenty years older.’ As youngsters, there is so much more of an acceptance of who you are right now and not getting into this political thing.”

One hundred sixty-four participants representing 41 countries competed at the International Biology Olympiad this year. The USA Biology Olympiad winners enjoyed interacting with their international counterparts -- and proudly brought home some medals. Aull and Xiang each won silver, and Harris and Li achieved bronze status. While the international contest has been around since 1989, this was the first year that the U.S. has sent competitors.

Aull, for one, is ready to take her knowledge to the next level. “I think I’m going to, once I get out of college, go in and do one of these biotech start-ups where I can build something that people will actually use. I want to make the world better.”

Resources:

• Center for Excellence in Education
• National Association for Gifted Children
• Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth
• The Davidson Institute

Rob Capriccioso is a staff writer for Connect for Kids.