Archive
Visit a museum free this Saturday
It’s that time of year again: This Saturday, Sept. 28, is the Smithsonian Magazine’s annual Museum Day, offering free admission to dozens of participating museums in Georgia.
Venues in the Atlanta area include the Center for Puppetry Arts, Museum of Design Atlanta, and the Marietta Museum of History. (Sorry, folks, looks like The High Museum opted not to take part this year.)
Three things you need to know:
1) You can’t just show up at the door. You have to register and print out your tickets before you go.
2) There is a limit of two free admissions per household.
3) This is a popular event. Be prepared to stand in line.
Register for GSU Saturday School’s next session, including LEGO Robotics
Georgia State University is now accepting registrations for the second fall session of Saturday School.
The 2013 Fall B session begins Oct. 26 and runs five consecutive Saturdays. Classes are offered in the mornings and afternoons on the GSU campus. Classes will cover a variety of topics in science, the arts, language and more, from space and weather to poetry and sharks.
Also this fall, Saturday School will offer LEGO Robotics classes, always a popular STEM program.
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 Oct. 9. A 10 percent discount will be applied if you register before Sept. 30.
Registration open for K.I.D.S. Club at Georgia Tech
K.I.D.S. Club (Kids Interested in Discovering Science) at Georgia Tech is now accepting registrations for its fall and spring sessions.
This Saturday morning program exposes kids to the fun side of science, math, engineering and technology. It is open to students in 2nd to 12th grades.
Kids in 2nd to 5th grades do a variety of hands-on activities. In past classes, these younger students have built water rockets, rubber band cars, zip lines and high rises, to name a few. Older kids — grades 6 to 12 — are offered an introduction to developing applications for the iPhone without programming. Middle-schoolers also have the option of doing LEGO Robotics.
Fall sessions will be Oct. 26 and Dec. 7, 2013; spring sessions will be Feb. 8 and March 8, 2014. The two fall dates and the two spring dates are identical programs, so you should only sign up for one class per season. All sessions are held from 9 a.m. to noon at Georgia Tech.
Georgia Tech Observatory open to public this Thursday
This Thursday, Sept. 12, 2013, will be the first Public Night of the 2013-14 season at the Georgia Tech Observatory.
The observatory, located at the Howey Physics Building on campus, will be open from 8 to 11 p.m. Visitors can view the moon and Saturn from 8 to 9 p.m., followed by viewing of the Ring Nebula from 9 to 11 p.m.
The viewing is dependent on weather.
More details are available at the astronomy web site.
Georgia Tech will offer additional opportunities for public viewing each month in the fall and spring. For specific dates, download the Public Nights PDF flyer.
For young writers, a chance to learn — and be published
Writing is, for the most part, a solitary endeavor. Yet for writers, having a support network of other artists of the written word is vital to honing one’s craft and enduring the difficulties along the creative path.
VerbalEyze is a local non-profit that offers just such support, from one-time workshops, to a “writers cooperative” of professional writers who mentor young writers, to its own independent press, open to submissions from writers ages 13 to 22.
Duke TIP program at UGA, Oct. 26
Students who have registered with Duke TIP’s 4th-6th Grade Talent Search are eligible to take part in a one-day program at the University of Georgia this fall.
The Duke TIP Academic Adventures program will be held Saturday, Oct. 26, 2013. Students in fifth and sixth grades can choose from 10 courses, including aircraft and spacecraft design, pharmacology, sports medicine, game theory, and secret agent scientist.
Registration is open now. Popular courses will fill quickly. The cost of the one-day program is $145, which includes supplies and lunch. Financial aid is available to those who qualify.
Additional sessions of UGA – Duke TIP Academic Adventures will be held in January, February and March of 2014.
START:CODE introduces advanced robotics class
Just announced: START:CODE has expanded its program to include a robotics lab — a class that will take kids deeper into programming and engineering than your standard LEGO robotics class or club.
Like a typical entry level robotics class, the START:CODE class will have students put together a robot from a kit. But the middle-school and high-school students who take this class also will learn about the embedded systems inside the robot parts — and inside all kinds of microelectronics — and how they work. In addition, the students will use the programming languages Python and C to program their robot.
The instructor is a professional software developer and a designer of embedded systems robotics.
The class will meet Wednesday evenings, beginning Oct. 2, at the START:CODE location in Decatur / Toco Hills. Registration is open now.
Georgia Tech program introduces high-school girls to engineering careers
Girls in grades 9-12 are invited to Georgia Tech to explore the fields of engineering taught at the university.
The Engineering Career Conference, hosted by the Women in Engineering program, will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 10, 2013, on the Georgia Tech campus. Cost is $20, which includes breakfast and lunch.
Registration is open now.
Imagine That offers classes in science, art
Just added to this site’s Enrichment page: Imagine That, a local business offering classes and camps in science, technology and art.
It can be hard to find educational programs that cater to the preschool set, but Imagine That has classes for kids as young as 3 years old.
Choose from after-school classes, Saturday programs, homeschool classes, parents’ night out, and camps that run during school breaks.
Apply now for fall session of STEM program at Fernbank
The Science, Engineering, Math and Aerospace Academy (SEMAA) program at Fernbank Science Center in Decatur is now accepting applications for its fall session for students in grades 4 to 8.
Sessions will be held on seven consecutive Saturday mornings, beginning September 14.
SEMAA is sponsored by NASA, so participation is free. NASA provides guidelines for the program; however, be aware that the local SEMAA program is not run by NASA personnel.
Although the stated mission of SEMAA is to increase participation in the sciences among under-served populations, admission is open to all, regardless of ethnicity.
You do not have to be a resident of DeKalb County to apply. Spaces are limited and will fill quickly.
Gifted Atlanta 