Gifted Atlanta

Looking for something to do over the long break from school? Spend a day outdoors as part of the National Audubon Society’s 116th annual Christmas Bird Count.

Volunteer bird watchers — experts and amateurs — will try to identify and count every bird they see. It’s a fun ornithological scavenger hunt that provides data to help scientists measure the health of our ecosystem.

The Georgia Ornithological Society is organizing more than two dozen Christmas Bird Count events in Georgia, including four around metro Atlanta, between now and January 5, 2016.

If you’re traveling over the holidays, there’s probably an event going on wherever you’ll be. You can check by visiting the Christmas Bird Count page of the National Audubon Society.

Young scientists may also enjoy seeing the data that’s been gathered in the past 115 years, available on Audubon’s Christmas Bird Count page.

Duke University’s Talent Identification Program (TIP) is now enrolling students in its 7th Grade Talent Search.

To enroll, your child must have a qualifying score on an accepted test, such as the CogAT, CRCT or ITBS. The deadline to register is Dec. 9, 2015.

Students accepted by the Talent Search may choose to take the SAT or ACT as seventh graders. For kids who typically score in the 99th percentile of the standardized tests they’re given in school, taking these tests designed for high-school upperclassmen can provide a better gauge of where they stand academically.

When you become part of the TIP program, you’ll also receive information about meeting your child’s academic needs, and get access to TIP-sponsored programs, including summer programs on the Duke campus.

The University of West Georgia will offer two science workshops for kids ages 8 to 12 this fall.

• Oct. 9, 2015: Spooky science workshop. (Yes, this is a Friday. Carroll and Coweta county schools are closed that day.)
• Nov. 7, 2015: Crime lab chemistry workshop.

Each workshop will be held from 9 a.m. to noon on UWG’s Carrollton campus and costs $35.

Kids can play in an interactive STEAM playground while teachers learn about new classroom tools and techniques at the STEAM3 conference, Sept. 11-12, 2015 at Georgia State University.

The educational portion of the conference will feature speakers from Georgia State, Georgia Tech, and the private sector. Displays and demonstrations will be broken down into four areas: the living classroom, interactive storytelling, make magic, and the game of learning. Installations will include robots, multi-layered projection, virtual reality, and music composition via computing.

Ticket prices range from $10 for a one-day student pass to the interactive playground to $49 for access to the entire conference.

Atlanta Gifted Academy in Marietta is offering a series of free Saturday classes, starting next weekend.

Sessions planned for 2015-16 are:

• Sept. 12, 2015: Kitchen chemistry (ages 4-6)
• Oct. 10, 2015: Spanish (grades 2-5)
• Nov. 14, 2015: Engineering in motion (grades 2-5)
• Dec. 5, 2015: Mind bending art class (grades 2-5)
• Feb. 27, 2016: History mystery (grades 2-5)
• March 15, 2016: Kitchen chemistry (grades K-2)

To register, contact the school at (770) 726-0123.

Registration will begin today at 5 p.m. for the fall session of the Duke TIP programs at UGA.

Current fifth and sixth graders who have participated in the Duke TIP 4th-6th Grade Talent Search can sign up for the Academic Adventures program, one-day classes on the UGA campus. The fall 2015 dates will be Nov. 14 and Dec. 5.

For students in grades 8 to 11, UGA will offer a Duke TIP Scholar Weekend, Oct. 10-11. This program is open to students who have participated in a Duke TIP talent search or who have been identified as gifted by their local school criteria.

Popular courses will fill quickly.

East Cobb Robotics is looking for teens ages 14 to 18 who would like to join a FIRST Robotics Competition team for the 2015-16 season.

The FIRST Robotics Competition is an international program that gives high-school age kids the experience of being on a team of engineers. FIRST teams not only learn to use sophisticated hardware and software to design and create their competition robot, but also raise funds, build community partnerships and create a team brand, all while learning leadership and teamwork skills.

For this reason, East Cobb Robotics is recruiting teens interested in not only robotics and programming, but also community outreach, marketing and video production.

East Cobb Robotics will hold an informational meeting for prospective team members and their parents on July 25, 2015. Applications will be due August 1. See the web site for details.

Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA) is offering a variety of hands-on workshops for kids on Saturdays and Sundays this summer.

Now through early August, weekend workshops will let kids ages 8 to 15 try their hands at 3-D printing, aircraft design, or coding with the simple SCRATCH programming language. Younger children, ages 8 to 12, can take littleBits classes in which they’ll design an animal or superhero gadget from their imagination.

All classes last 90 minutes and are $25 for MODA members, or $30 for non-members.