The paper explores the needs of gifted students with exceptional interests and talents in science. General characteristics of gifted students are listed, as are characteristics of the gifted in science (including questing, personal drive, and an enjoyment of numbers). A multidimensional gifted identification process is reviewed, and the lack of instruments for identifying the gifted in science is noted. Three principles of differentiating the science curriculum for the gifted are described: higher cognitive thinking skills, processes of learning/thinking, and formal operational schemes. Criteria for evaluating science lessons according to these three principles are listed. The paper concludes with three examples of model science lessons for the gifted: determining density and evaluating density investigations; investigating starch location in plants and implication for nutrition; and understanding phosphorus and its effect on water quality. (CL)