High School Contests open to homeschoolers

[merylvdm]

I run the contests for our homeschool group and I thought some of you might like to know what is available. I will make a separate list for middle school. Obviously this is not exhaustive but I will include all the ones my own children have done individually and the ones we have done as a homeschool group. Some contests are done individually but you have to sign up as a group and usually it is too expensive unless you have at least 10 interested students. 

 

I will put a * next to ones that you can easily do as an individual homeschooler. The rest you really need a co op or homeschool group or something like that so you have enough students.

 

I am not going to hyperlink at present as it will take too long but I  might come back later and do that. You will find these contests easily by googling.

 

Science Olympiad - team of up to 15

 

*National History Day - research based. Can be done as an individual or groups. Present research as documentary, website, play, paper or display board

 

Science Bowl - team of 4 / 5

 

* Voice of Democracy - essay that you record yourself reading

 

Medusa Mythology Contest - different theme each year; multiple choice test; scholarship possibilities

 

* AMC 10 / 12 - Multiple choice HARD math contest - see post below on how to do it as an individual

 

Poetry out Loud - learn poetry by heart and recite

 

Stock Market Game - this one you do in teams of 2-5 so will be easier to  do even if you aren't part of a group

 

Optimist Club Speech Contest - speech contest with a nice scholarship for the state winner (my co op students won our state the past 2 years)

 

Quiz Bowls - check to see what your area offers. We have a History Bowl and a Scholar's Bowl. I also know of an Ocean Bowl in WA

 

* NACLO - linguistic contest - involves figuring out what words etc mean. My kids didn't do well but it is a cool contest

 

* DuPont Challenge - Science Writing contest

 

* Science Fair - try for a local one otherwise there is also the Google Online Science Fair  

 

 

[Luckymama]

Stick an asterisk next to the AMC 10/12 exams. You don't necessarily need a group for those exams if you can find a location nearby. Some high schools will let nonstudents sit the exams. There are a large number of colleges and universities that offer the exam.

 

Locations can be found here http://www.maa.org/math-competitions/amc-1012/locations (this is updated often).

[JanetC]

Rather than the Google science fair, you should look for a local or regional science fair to recommend. Students are likely to have a better learning experience, with contact with the judges and written crit sheets, at a local fair than at a national one.

[merylvdm]

Thanks Luckymama and JanetC - we do have a local science fair and I should have thought of that - I didn't know you could do AMC at another location. Always something to learn! NACLO is also one that you can take at a test center - we just didn't have one near us and so they did allow us to do it at home. I just got a friend to proctor.

[Shelly in VA]

Stick an asterisk next to the AMC 10/12 exams. You don't necessarily need a group for those exams if you can find a location nearby. Some high schools will let nonstudents sit the exams. There are a large number of colleges and universities that offer the exam.

 

Locations can be found here http://www.maa.org/math-competitions/amc-1012/locations (this is updated often).

 

Good point. We had a few students from our small homeschool math club take the AMC 10/12 last year, and when we called around to find a location, we had several schools who were willing to let our students sit for the test during their sessions. There was one day when just 2 of our group went to the local ps for the test, and another day when 6 of the kids took the test at a private school in the area. One of the schools even offered to let our students return for a review session with a math teacher after the test results were received. It was nice to be able to participate!