Gifted Atlanta

Georgia State University has posted its list of classes for the first fall 2012 session of Saturday School.

The 2012 Fall A session begins Sept. 8 and runs five consecutive Saturdays. Classes are offered in the mornings and afternoons on the GSU campus. Classes will be offered in a variety of topics in science, the arts, language and more.

Saturday School is open to children in kindergarten through 8th grade. The program is geared toward students who have been identified as gifted by their school, but kids who haven’t been formally identified can be granted provisional enrollment for one year.

The registration deadline is Aug. 24.

If you read this morning’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution, you may have seen an article announcing that Georgia Tech has joined a program that offers free, online college courses. The program is called Coursera, and it has dozens of classes, taught by professors at such schools as Princeton, Rice, Duke and Stanford, among others. More than just online lectures to view, Coursera classes have students interact with one another, ask questions, and take quizzes.

The Coursera consortium offers more than 100 courses. While most of them cover science and technology topics, there are a handful in the humanities, including classes in history, poetry, rhetoric, design and mythology.

Coursera classes do not earn college credits, but if your child is looking for higher-level teaching on a topic they love, an online course could help fill that need.

Rocketry enthusiasts can build and launch model rockets this Saturday, July 21 at Tellus Museum. The “Build and Blast” event is open to kids 8 and up. Cost is $15 for Tellus members, $30 for non-members. The program runs from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Spaces are limited. Reserve a space by calling (770) 606-5700, ext. 417.

*Note that this event is weather sensitive and will be rescheduled if there is rain or heavy wind.