Archive
UPDATE: Ben Carson Academy — new information
I just heard back from the folks at Morehouse School of Medicine. This year’s fall session of the Ben Carson Science Academy will begin Oct. 8 and will run every Saturday through Nov. 12. Applications are due Sept. 9; payment of $190 is due by Sept. 23.
The academy meets from 9:30a.m. until noon. Students can leave at that time or, if they bring a lunch, they can stay around for an optional robotics class, which will meet from 12:30 – 1:30 p.m.
For more information, contact Dr. Jacqueline Scott.
Registration open for Ben Carson Academy at Morehouse School of Medicine
It’s open season again to apply to Ben Carson Academy, a program on Saturday mornings for elementary and middle-school children, held at Morehouse School of Medicine.
The academy exposes kids to science and math, and health care careers. The Academy also has a socio-cultural aspect that’s designed to engage the Black student. For example, students learn about African-American contributions to medicine and participate in African dance. However, the program is not limited to minority students.
One advantage of enrolling your child at Ben Carson Academy is that it may put them on a path to someday be selected for the Vivien Thomas Summer Program, in which high-school students can work as apprentices in biomedical research labs at Morehouse.
The web site is still showing last year’s program dates, and I’m afraid they didn’t answer the phone or respond to my e-mail asking for the correct dates. But, chances are it runs from October to November, as before. The application deadline is Aug. 31.
US FIRST turns LEGOs into lessons in technology and engineering
Another school year, another new season for US FIRST, a technology competition for kids ages 6-18. Teams compete in one of four divisions:
- Junior FIRST LEGO League, for ages 6-9 (grades K-3)
- FIRST LEGO League, for ages 9-14 (grades 4-8)
- FIRST Tech Challenge, for high school students
- FIRST Robotics Competition, for high school students
In the primary program, teams build structures from LEGO bricks. In the rest of the programs, kids design and build robots from LEGO products or kits.
Registration is open now for all but the robotics competition by visiting the US FIRST web site. (The robotics registration will open soon.)
IMAX film on Hubble Space Telescope opens at Fernbank this weekend
Hubble, an IMAX film about the Hubble Space Telescope, will begin its run at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History this Friday.
The film includes astounding images of the outer reaches of the universe, and shows Space Shuttle astronauts on a mission to repair the telescope.
My son and I saw this film at Space Camp this spring, and it is truly remarkable. Seeing the Hubble’s images on the larger-than-life IMAX screen will captivate the imagination of anyone remotely interested in the vastness and beauty of space. And watching the astronauts at work is especially poignant in light of the conclusion of the Space Shuttle program.
The film will run at Fernbank through Jan. 1, 2012.
Future Problem Solvers — a challenging program for grades 4-12
It’s often been said that today’s school environment focuses too much on forced memorization of facts at the expense of teaching children the skills of analysis, synthesis, critical thinking and communication.
Whether you believe that or not, it’s certainly true that kids can benefit from more practice in these areas of complex problem solving. That’s the emphasis of the Future Problem Solving Program International (FPSPI), a competitive program for students in grades 4-12.
In Future Problem Solving, children focus in on one of several problems, all of which reflect real-world issues of today, or realistic scenarios that could emerge in the future. For example, topics might include aspects of ecology, medicine, social problems, crime or technology.
The kids conduct research, develop a list of problems and possible solutions, apply criteria to choose the best solution, and develop an action plan for their scenario. Teams write reports, which they submit to evaluators for review. The teams with the best work are invited to in-person competitions.
Generally, students participate in teams of up to four kids. The competition has three divisions: junior (grades 4-6), middle (7-9) and senior (10-12). Some competitive parts of the program will allow entries by individual students. A team can be affiliated with a school, but doesn’t have to be.
FPSP also includes a non-competitive program called Action Based Problem Solving. This is open to children in grades K-9, and allows teams of any size, which means it can be done as a classroom activity.
Registration is now open for Georgia FPSP. The Georgia affiliate will offer training for coaches in September.
GSU Saturday School announces fall classes
It’s that time again — time to register for Saturday School at Georgia State University.
The 2011 Fall A session will start Sept. 10 and run for five consecutive Saturdays, ending Oct. 8. Classes are held in the mornings and afternoons. Class topics, which vary by age group, include sharks, archaeology, law, anatomy, writing, art 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 — a perfect solution for bright kindergarteners just entering school who haven’t been tested yet.
The registration deadline is Aug. 25.
Creative writing contest for grades 4-12
In December, I posted about the 2011 Torrance Legacy Awards competition, open to students in grades 2-12. I wanted to offer this reminder that submissions are due by August 15, 2011.
There are two categories: creative writing and visual arts. The writing contest will accept short stories (limited to 1,250 words) or poems; the visual arts contest will accept any 2D or 3D art. For either contest, works must be an interpretation of one of the following themes:
- Magic of adventure
- Serendipity
- Beyond the horizon
- Unexpected answers
- Nothing set in stone
- Creating solutions
Winners will have their work published in a collection.
The contest is sponsored by the National Association for Gifted Children, among others; however, children do not need to be enrolled in a gifted program to enter.
Zoom in on Saturn at Tellus Museum this Friday
Saturn is one of the most awe-striking and recognizable heavenly bodies. This Friday, children can get a closer look at Saturn as Tellus Museum in Cartersville hosts an astronomy workshop featuring the ringed planet.
The workshop will be held from 9-11:30 p.m. and will include a planetarium show and a viewing in the on-site observatory.
This program is open to children 8 and up. Kids must be accompanied by a paying adult. Call 770-606-5700, ext. 417 to purchase tickets.
Girls Get IT programs give young women insight into technology careers
Girls and young women who love information technology sometimes have a hard time finding mentors and role models who work in the field. The local group Women In Technology (WIT) hopes to change that through its Girls Get IT programs, happening soon.
On select Saturdays this summer and fall, girls can get a behind-the-scenes tour of some of Atlanta’s leading IT companies: IBM, McKesson, Accenture and Cisco. (Ages vary for each of these tours.)
In July, girls can participate in a job shadowing program, spending time with women who work at AutoTrader.com, McKesson, SunTrust or Turner Broadcasting/CNN.
No specific deadline to apply is posted, but organizers ask that girls who are interested submit an application as soon as possible.
How to find summer reading that fits your child’s age and ability
Many gifted kids are advanced readers, presenting parents with a tough challenge: finding books that are challenging enough for our kids’ ability, yet still age appropriate. I mean, your 9-year-old daughter may read on a 7th grade level, but that doesn’t mean you want her reading a Twilight novel.
Thankfully, there’s a tool that can help you search thousands of books to find a good fit: the Accelerated Reader BookFinder. Accelerated Reader — often known simply as “AR” — is a reading program used in some schools. But even if your child’s school doesn’t participate in the AR program, you can still use the BookFinder tool.
Just follow the link above to go into the BookFinder’s Advanced Search mode. Here’s how to use it:
- Leave the top section (Author, Title, ISBN, etc.) blank.
- For “Interest Level,” select your child’s grade level group.
- ATOS Book Level refers to your child’s reading level. The ATOS system expresses the level in a X.Y format, where X is the grade and Y is the month in school. So a child whose ATOS level is 4.3 is reading at a level where the average 4th grader would be 3 months into the school year. The BookFinder asks for a range, so if for example your child reads on a 5th grade level, you could enter 5.3 in the left-hand box and 6.3 in the right-hand box (always good to have them read up a bit to build their skills.)
- Under additional criteria, you can select a specific genre that your child likes, or simply choose fiction or non-fiction. You can skip this step, but you will get more results than you can manage.
- If you want, choose to sort the results by title, author or rating.
- When you’ve entered all the variables you want, click on Go.
When the search engine returns a list of books that meet your criteria, you can click on any book in the list to get more information about it, including the word count. (A tip: If you look at the number labeled as “AR Pts” in the description, you can get some idea of how long the book is. Books worth 0.5 points are usually picture books. Books worth 1 point may be chapter books. Books worth 2 points or more are short novels, and so on.)
Happy reading!
Gifted Atlanta 