Simon McFarlane, then 8, builds a circuit board with his mentor John DeLacy.

When a child shows a keen interest in science, it may take a little more work for parents to meet his or her educational needs. But as Lorie McFarlane of southeast Portland has discovered, supporting that interest early can help kids pursue their passions on their own as they get older.

McFarlane’s son, Simon, has been crazy about science since he was 3 years old. On an early trip to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI), a pacifier still in his mouth, Simon blurted out, “Mom, I want to go to the Physics Lab,” McFarlane recalls.

“That’s where I had my first epiphany that I had a guy who was really interested in science,” McFarlane says. Since then, her job has been to find teachers who can challenge her son, now 13, and keep his passion for science burning strong.

When Simon was 5, he started playing around with circuit boards. By the time he turned 8, his parents realized they didn’t have the expertise to guide him any longer – let alone teach him anything! – so McFarlane contacted a retired Tektronix engineer, John DeLacy, who agreed to become Simon’s electronics mentor. They still meet once a week to work on programming and robotics.

When he was 10, Simon wanted to learn a specific programming language but could find courses only in college catalogs. He took two online community college classes and, according to his mom, “it was a great success.”

Throughout the years, Simon has taken classes at OMSI, Education Soaring and Saturday Academy. One of his favorites – Physics of the Impossible, offered through Saturday Academy – focused on cosmology, the study of the universe and humanity’s place in it.

Simon is excited to begin Stanford University’s Education Program for Gifted Youth Online High School, an accredited online school for gifted students in grades 7 through 12. He thinks the program will be challenging while still flexible enough to allow time to work on his own projects.

August 31st, 2010 | Category: Education, Past Articles