Gifted Atlanta

The leaves aren’t even off the trees yet, but somehow we’ve entered the application season for summer programs for 2011.

The Summer Institute for the Gifted is now taking applications for all of its programs, which range from day camps for elementary-age students to residential experiences for middle- and high-school kids.

Emory University is a host site this summer, which opens up a whole array of options for us local folks. Kids as young as 6 can attend a three-week day camp on campus. Older kids (ages 10-17) can live at Emory in the residential program or attend as commuter students, going to camp during the day and coming home at night.

Make no mistake: This camp is pricey. The day camp for little kids is $2,000 for three weeks. But the sad truth is, when it comes to finding camps for the gifted that will take kids as young as 6, there aren’t that many local options. As for the residential program, it’s $4,400. The commuter option will cut your fees roughly in half (to $2,500); however, commuter students miss out on evening and weekend social events — and from what I’ve read, the social aspect of this camp for the gifted is almost as important as the academic component.

The University of West Georgia is hosting a physics demonstration for children next Friday, Oct. 29, from 7:00 – 8:30 p.m. The class will be led by two of the university’s physics professors, who will present such scientific wonders as bubbles, burning steel, a bed of nails and an electrified hot dog and pickle. (I don’t know what “electrified hot dog and pickle” means; I just saw it on the flier and found it too fascinating to leave out.) UWG bills the event as appropriate for ages 6 and up.

As I’ve said about UWG before, it’s a great resource and the price is right on their kids’ classes, but be prepared for a long drive — it’s about an hour’s drive to the campus from where I-285 intersects I-20 on the west side of town.

For more information, call (678) 839-4087.

In clicking around the Fernbank Science Center web site for my previous post, I found a variety of programs coming up this fall:

• A bird watching tour in Fernbank Forest the morning of Oct. 16
• National Fossil Day activities from 1-5 p.m. on Oct. 16. Kids can do a fossil dig and create a fossil cast, and it’s all free.
• Chemistry Night In, an evening of hands-on chemistry and physics activities for kids in 4th-6th grades. The first session will be held Oct. 22 and will look at how chemistry is used to create special effects for movies. Registration fee of $15 per child ($10 per additional sibling) is due by Oct. 15.
• Exploring Nature with Your Child. Taught by an ecologist, this program encourages children to bring in natural items they find (e.g., unusual bugs, feathers, leaves) to learn more about what animals and plants are in our local habitats. The ecologist also discusses a nature topic and takes the kids out for a walk in the forest. This free program will be held from 6:30-8:30 p.m. on Oct. 7, Oct. 21 and Nov. 4. No registration is necessary.

This Friday, all DeKalb County schools will be closed for one of our furlough days. That means Thursday night isn’t a school night, making it a great time to watch the stars at Fernbank Science Center.

At 8 p.m., you can see the featured planetarium show about the Hubble Space Telescope, then hang around to watch the night sky in the observatory, which is open until 10:30 p.m.

Many moons ago, when I was a DeKalb County Schools student,  my Discovery teacher informed us about Duke TIP (Talent Identification Program), which was still in its nascent stages. Today, Duke TIP has grown into one of the premier enrichment programs in the Southeast for gifted youngsters.

Yet when I posted an item recently about an upcoming TIP Scholars weekend at the University of Georgia, I wondered whether our schools are still actively promoting the program to parents.

If you have a 7th grade student and no one has mentioned Duke TIP Talent Search to you yet, you should take steps on your own to enroll in the talent search. 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. If they meet this requirement, you’ll pay a $70 fee and sign them up to take the SAT or ACT and have their scores sent to TIP.

All students who participate will receive some benefits from the TIP program; those with exceptional scores on the college entrance exams can earn special recognition and the privilege of attending summer programs on the Duke University campus.

Application deadlines are Oct. 12 (by mail) or Oct. 19 (online) if you want your child to take the SAT or ACT in December. If you’re not quite ready, there are later deadlines for taking the SAT or ACT in the winter.

Complete information is available at the TIP web site.

Eleven museums in metro Atlanta, including the High Museum, will offer free admission this Saturday, Sept. 25, as part of the annual Smithsonian Museum Day.

To take advantage of this offer, download the free pass from the Smithsonian, then present it at the door of a participating museum for free admission for two people.

The High’s featured exhibits are “Salvador Dali: The Late Work,” and “Signs of Life: Photographs by Peter Sekaer.”

Other participating Atlanta-area museums are:

• Archibald Smith Plantation Home
• Art On 5
• Barrington Hall
• Bulloch Hall
• CDC’s Global Health Odyssey Museum
• Center for Puppetry Arts
• Hammonds House Museum
• Marietta Museum of History
• The Hudgens Center for the Arts
• The National Museum of Patriotism

The Duke TIP (Talent Identification Program) will offer a residential weekend for high-school students at the University of Georgia, Nov. 13-14.

The UGA weekend is open to students in grades 8-11 who have either participated in a Duke-TIP Talent Search or who have been identified as talented / gifted through their school.

The registration deadline is Oct. 29, although classes may fill up even before that — one is already full.

(Thank you to Dr. Spomenka Newman for sharing this information.)

Students in grades 2-7 can register now for the K.I.D.S. Club at Georgia Tech. The program, held on Saturday mornings, focuses on activities that encourage interest in science, engineering, math and technology.

Kids in grades 2-5 can choose one of two fall dates offered and/or one of two spring dates. Each session runs from 9 a.m. to noon, with students rotating among three different, one-hour activities.

For 6th and 7th graders, K.I.D.S. Club will offer classes in LEGO Mindstorm robotics.

All classes are held on the Georgia Tech campus and are led by university faculty, Tech students, or math and science teachers from local schools.

Saturday School for Scholars and Leaders has opened registration for its “Fall B” session, which will run for five weeks, beginning on Oct. 30. The program,  hosted and run by Georgia State University, is open to gifted students in kindergarten through 8th grade.

Classes are offered in the mornings and afternoons. As a bonus, during morning sessions, the program provides parent seminars on topics related to the education and development of gifted children.

The IMPACT (Improving Motivation, Performance, Attitudes of Children and Teachers) program at the University of West Georgia has announced its fall schedule of Saturday science programs, and registration is now open.

Sessions will be held on Oct. 9, Nov. 13 and Dec. 11. Classes are offered for kids from kindergarten through 8th grade, covering a variety of topics from the water cycle to kitchen chemistry to computer animation.

We went to the kickoff session of IMPACT this weekend, and I’m not going to sugar coat it. It’s a haul from anywhere in DeKalb. Just how far is it? Well, figure out how long it takes you to get to the intersection of I-20 and the west side of I-285, and then add 45 minutes to estimate your total travel time to UWG. But the price is right: just $5 for a three-hour class. And since you sign up for classes individually, you could pick one topic that really tickles your kid’s brain and make a day of it, enjoying lunch or dinner in historic downtown Carrollton.

Enrollment is limited to 24 children per class, so if you’re interested, sign up soon.