Gifted Atlanta

I just received a notice from the CEISMIC program at Georgia Tech. Because of very high demand, they’ve expanded the Saturday K.I.D.S. Club program for this fall. As of 10 a.m., they had 20 open spaces for 2nd and 3rd grade students, and 13 for kids in 4th or 5th grades. Spots will fill quickly!

Saturday School at Georgia State University has announced the line-up of classes for its next session, which will run from Oct. 29 to Dec. 3 (with the Thanksgiving weekend off).

Classes are held in the mornings and afternoons. Class topics, which vary by age group, include chess, math, roller coaster physics, claymation and much 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 Oct. 16.

Duke TIP (Talent Identification Program) is now enrolling 7th-grade students in its annual talent search.

TIP is a renowned program that allows 7th-grade students to take either the SAT or ACT college entrance exam. All participants receive some benefits. Students with exceptional scores can earn special recognition and the privilege of attending summer programs on the Duke University campus.

To qualify for the search, your child must have scored in the 95th percentile or above on a standardized achievement test (such as CogAT, CRCT or ITBS) in their 5th or 6th grade year. A $72 enrollment fee pays for the exam.

Deadlines are approaching fast. To apply by mail, you’ll need to get your application postmarked by Oct. 11. Online applications are due Oct. 21. These dates are for students who will take the SAT or ACT in December. Deadlines are later for students who want to take the test in the winter.

Complete information is available at the TIP web site.

Emerging middle-school writers can learn from a pro in a creative writing class at the Little Shop of Stories, an independent children’s bookstore in downtown Decatur.

The instructor is Terra Elan McVoy, author of three novels for young readers and program director of the Decatur Book Festival. The class will meet on Mondays from 4:30-5:45, beginning on Oct. 3, 2011. The cost is $200.

(Parents, if you’d like to model lifelong learning for your kids, they’re offering a writing class for adults, too.)

More information is available on the Little Shop of Stories blog.

The University of West Georgia in Carrollton has opened registration for its fall 2011 Saturday science classes.

The IMPACT (Improving Motivation, Performance, Attitudes of Children and Teachers) science program offers classes for students in kindergarten through 10th grade. Each Saturday class is just $10 per child.

Sessions will be held on Oct. 15, Nov. 5 and Dec. 3, 2011. Classes and topics are separated by grade level, but they offer classes for all ages concurrently, which is great if you have two or more kids of different ages. For example, on Oct. 15, your 1st grader could learn about bats, spiders and insects, while at the same time, your 4th grader could learn about earthquakes and volcanoes, and your 7th grader could take a class on the neurological system.

The fall season will kick off with a chemistry demonstration on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1. Admission is just $2 per person.

If you’ve never been to the West Georgia campus, it’s out I-20 quite a ways. Figure about 45 minutes from where I-20 and I-285 meet on the west side of town.

You can get a larger-than-life look at marine life in Galapagos, opening today at the IMAX theater at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History. This 40-minute film follows a marine biologist as she explores the marine life around the Galapagos Islands.

But you might not want to rush out to see this film right away. I say that because on Sept. 24, the museum will open a new exhibit on Charles Darwin, and since the Galapagos Islands played such an important role in his research, the exhibit and the film should make a nice complement to each other.

Galapagos and Darwin both will run through Jan. 1, 2012.

I’ve been keeping an eye on the K.I.D.S. Club web page, and they’d said they were going to open registration tomorrow, but I just checked and registration is open NOW. This is one of those great programs that fills quickly, so I wanted to let you know right away instead of waiting until morning.

K.I.D.S. Club (Kids Interested in Discovering Science) exposes kids to the fun side of science, math, engineering and technology. The program is open to students in 2nd – 12th grades.

Kids in 2nd – 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 6-12 — are offered an introduction to developing applications for the iPhone without programming.

Fall sessions will be Nov. 12 and Dec. 3, 2011; spring sessions will be March 3 and March 24, 2012. Both fall dates and both 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.

Registration is open for the first UGA – Duke TIP Scholars Weekend of the 2011-12 season.

The program will take place Oct. 22-23, 2011 on the University of Georgia campus. Students stay at an on-campus hotel (the Georgia Center for Continuing Education), although parents who prefer can pick up their children at the end of the program day.

Courses for this session include creative writing, robotics, film making, forensic anthropology and more. Program cost is $450, although you’ll get a $25 discount if you register before Sept. 16 — which is advisable, since spaces in popular classes fill quickly.

The program is open to any student who has participated in a Duke TIP Talent Search or has been identified as gifted according to the criteria of their local school. This would include any student taking honors, accelerated, AP or IB classes.

Visiting a museum with your gifted child is a great way to let them delve into art, science or history. And on Sept. 24, it’ll be free.

That’s when select museums around the country will let guests come in the door at no charge as part of Smithsonian Magazine’s annual Museum Day.

Like fine art? Try the High Museum. Free.

Interested in Georgia history? Take a trip to Milledgeville to visit the Old Governor’s Mansion or Georgia’s Old Capital Museum. Free.

All told, there are 10 participating museums in the metro Atlanta area, 33 throughout the state of Georgia.

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. (We went to the High Museum last year and waited about an hour to get in the door.)

The Literary Center at the Margaret Mitchell House has announced its fall 2011 youth writing workshop: “Magic: Out of the Dust of Stars.”

This class for ages 10-14 will meet on Sunday afternoons for five weeks, beginning Oct. 2. Young writers will create pieces that incorporate different forms of magic, such as transformation, disguise and surprise.

The workshop is $250 per child; $200 for members of the Atlanta History Center. The class is limited to 15 students.