Gifted Atlanta

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.

The Museum of Design Atlanta and the Midtown Alliance invite children ages 8 to 12 to a Bridge Building Challenge on May 16 and 17, 2015.

In each of four available two-hour workshops, MODA instructors will teach kids about different types of bridges, then guide them through creating their own. Students will compete to see whose bridge can support the most weight.

The workshops will be held at Cornerstone Village in Midtown.

Find out how the Chattahoochee River and its tributaries etched the North Georgia landscape in a walk and lecture presented by geologist Bill Witherspoon, May 7, 2015.

Witherspoon, a retired science educator and one of the authors of Roadside Geology in Georgia, will lead an evening walk along Rottenwood Creek in Marietta, highlighting how rushing waters carved the area’s gorges. A lecture and slideshow will follow.

The event is free, but registration is requested via the Georgia Rocks web site.

The Spivey Hall Children’s Choir will hold auditions for young singers on Saturday, April 25, 2015.

Auditions are open for girls and boys ages 10 to 13. Students selected for the program may remain in the choir until they complete high school.

Founded in 1994 and affiliated with Clayton State University, the Spivey Hall Children’s Choir consists of three groups: the Young Artists Choir, where most new singers are placed; the Children’s Choir, a larger ensemble that includes children through age 18; and the Tour Choir, a traveling group that has performed in locations across America and overseas.

To audition, complete an online application.

Dogwood Toastmasters is offering a public speaking program this spring to help kids ages 10 to 17 get comfortable presenting their ideas in front of an audience.

The Youth Leadership Program will be held on Saturday mornings from April 18 to June 20, 2015, in northeast Atlanta. The registration deadline for this free class is April 4.