Description of YSA and Science Olympiad
YSA
Young Scientists of America® is unique to the College of Engineering at UW-Madison and was created as an outreach program to young people ages 8-18.
A major activity sponsored by YSA is the engineering outreach program involving Science Olympiad.
This is accomplished as undergraduate engineering students travel to area schools to serve as mentors and/or advisors to area middle and high school students as they prepare for a Science Olympiad competition.
Many of the overlapping goals of YSA and Science Olympiad make them good complementary activities for outreach.
Goals of YSA:
- Nurturing students’ interest, enthusiasm, and motivation for science and technology.
- Getting all students interested in pursuing science while especially encouraging minorities and women to consider science and engineering-related careers.
- Developing a report between engineering students and area middle and high school students
- Increasing the number of United States students obtaining degrees in engineering.
Science Olympiad
The Wisconsin Science Olympiad is a nonprofit organization with the mission to improve the quality of science and technology education in all schools.
This is accomplished as many teachers attend professional development workshops and summer institutes, while their students prepare for competitions at regional, state, and potential national tournaments where individual members of school teams compete to earn points in a series of individual and team events that are well-balanced between the various science disciplines of biology, earth science, chemistry, physics, and technology.
Goals of Science Olympiad:
- Ensuring all students have equal opportunities to high quality science and technology education regardless of their ethnicity and socioeconomic background.
- Providing a tool to help teachers address the National Science Standards in their classrooms.
- Nurturing students’ interest, enthusiasm, and motivation for science and technology.
- Getting students interested in pursuing science and science-related careers.
- Increasing parent, business, and community involvement in schools.
- Providing recognition for outstanding achievement for both students and teachers.