Gifted Atlanta

I’ve just added a new page to GiftedAtlanta.com: Enrichment from home

It’s a list of free, online resources, from museum tours and symphony concerts to zoo webcams and jigsaw puzzles.

Use the list. Share the list. And please help me grow the list. If you know of a good online resource for gifted kids, please go to my Contact page and send me the link so I can add it to the page.

Let’s get through this together.

The annual Atlanta Science Festival starts this Friday, March 6, and continues through March 21 with a wide variety of events for kids, teens and adults, including many hands-on activities.

Whether your child is into trees or bees, astronomy or arithmetic, there’s probably something they’d enjoy.

Most activities will be held in the city of Atlanta, but a few are scattered in other locations. The festival web site’s events page allows you to search for events by geographic area, so you can find something close to you if that’s a priority.

Many events have limited space and require you to register ahead, so don’t wait until the last minute to take a look and sign up.

As it does each year, the festival culminates in the Exploration Expo, a free event with more than 100 informative and interactive booths, Saturday, March 21 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Piedmont Park.

The University of Georgia will host a UGA-Duke TIP Scholar Weekend March 28-29, 2020.

The Scholar Weekend program gives students the chance to study a topic that’s outside the typical school curriculum, and to do so in a college environment with like-minded peers.

Scholar Weekends are open to any students in grades 8 to 11 who either took part in the Duke TIP 7th Grade Talent Search, or have been confirmed through the Duke TIP office as meeting the gifted identification standards of their school.

Topics this spring include marine biology, aircraft design, 3-D animation, veterinary medicine, psychology, sports medicine and more.

Students arrive on the UGA campus on Saturday morning, spend the day learning, stay overnight on the UGA campus, and continue their studies on Sunday. Courses are taught by UGA professors, graduate students, professionals, and gifted educators.

Registration deadline is February 21. Popular courses typically fill before the registration deadline. Cost is $450. Limited financial aid may be available.

Tellus Museum will host Sky Watch on Friday, Dec. 6, from 7 to 9 p.m. Using a 20-inch telescope, visitors will look for the Orion nebula, a double star, the Andromeda galaxy and more.

Cost is $5. (This gets you into the observatory only; the museum will be closed.)

If the weather is rainy or cloudy, check the museum web site after noon on Friday to see if the event is canceled.

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology invites anyone interested in birds or citizen science to take part in its October Big Day on Saturday, October 19.

By participating, you’ll be joining thousands of other birders around the world who are making note of birds they see. As with other citizen-science birding events, October Big Day helps scientists see patterns in bird populations and migrations.

You can be part of Global Big Day by watching for birds for as little as 10 minutes, anytime during the day, at any location — although if you’re looking for a birding hot spot, the Cornell Lab can make suggestions.

Registration is open for both fall sessions of the UGA-Duke TIP Academic Adventures program for students in grades 5 and 6.

This one-day program, held on the UGA campus, gives talented kids a chance to study a topic of interest with other high-achieving peers.

Fall sessions will be held on Oct. 5 and Nov. 16, 2019. Classes will include microbiology, comedy, law, video game design, and more.

To participate in Academic Adventures, your child must be registered with the Duke TIP 4th-6th Grade Talent Search. Not registered with Duke TIP? Learn more about how to get started so you can take advantage of opportunities like this one.

Popular classes will fill up quickly. Limited financial aid is available.

The University of Georgia will host two UGA-Duke TIP Scholar Weekend sessions this fall: Nov. 2-3 and Dec. 7-8, 2019.

The Scholar Weekend program gives students the chance to study a topic that’s outside the typical school curriculum, and to do so in a college environment with like-minded peers.

Scholar Weekends are open to any students in grades 8 to 11 who have been gifted identified by their school. This includes anyone enrolled in honors, International Baccalaureate, Advanced Placement or accelerated classes.

Topics this spring include animation, microbiology, marine biology, veterinary medicine, psychology, sports medicine and more.

Students arrive on the UGA campus on Saturday morning, spend the day learning, stay overnight on the UGA campus, and continue their studies on Sunday. Courses are taught by UGA professors, graduate students, professionals, and gifted educators.

Registration deadline for the November weekend is October 11. Deadline for the December session is November 15. Popular courses typically fill before the registration deadline. Cost is $450. Financial aid may be available.

Tellus Museum will hold a lunar astronomy workshop this Friday, Sept. 6. It’s a chance to learn about the Moon and our travels there, and observe the Moon through a telescope.

Advance registration is required, and space is limited. The event is open to children ages 8 or older. All kids must be accompanied by a paid adult.

Registration closes Wednesday, Sept. 4 at noon.

Art of Problem Solving (AoPS) Academy offers math and language arts classes to motivated students. Its new campus in Johns Creek is now enrolling.

Math classes start at the second-grade level and continue through calculus. Special class sections that prepare kids for math competitions also are available. AoPS math is ideal for students who are bored in their school math class, who want to challenge themselves with more math, or who want to excel in math competition.

Language arts classes begin at the second-grade level and reach a high-school level seminar in academic writing. This reading and writing program is relatively new to AoPS and is designed to help students communicate and collaborate.

AoPS began as a textbook company in 1993 and established its interactive online math classes in 2003. The Johns Creek location is the 10th AoPS center in the United States where students can take classes in person.

Classes for this academic year started this week, but students can join at any time.

Emory Math Circle is a place for kids who want to take their math to a different level.

Students in grades 6 to 12 use games, puzzles and problems to look more deeply at how math works and discover fundamental advanced math concepts.

Math Circle meets on weekends — about twice a month — on the Emory campus. Groups are taught by Ph.D. students from Emory and Georgia Tech.

The next session of Math Circle will begin in mid-September. Registration ends August 31.

Another math enrichment opportunity at Emory is a Julia Robinson Math Festival on Sept. 7, in the atrium of the Math and Science Center. At this afternoon drop-in event, students can visit multiple stations where they’ll explore math problems and concepts, with guidance from mathematicians. It’s free and open to the whole family.