Book excerpt: "The book makes an excellent case for competitions as a means to meet the educational needs of gifted students at a time when funding has significantly decreased." —Joan Smutny, Gifted Specialist, National-Louis University Author of Acceleration for Gifted Learners, K–5 "The authors are knowledgeable and respected experts in the field of gifted education. I believe there is no other book that provides this valuable information to teachers, parents, and coordinators of gifted programs." —Barbara Polnick, Assistant Professor Sam Houston State University Everything you need to know about academic competitions! This handy reference serves as a guide for using academic competitions as part of K–12 students′ total educational experience. Covering 170 competitions in several content areas, this handbook offers a brief description of each event plus contact and participation information. The authors list criteria for selecting events that match students′ strengths and weaknesses and also discuss: The impact of competitions on the lives of students Ways to anticipate and avoid potential problems Strategies for maximizing the benefits of competitions Access to international and national academic competitions This second edition offers twice as many competitions as the first, provides indexes by title and by subject area and level, and lists Web sites for finding additional competitions.