Gifted Atlanta

Georgia Odyssey of the Mind has opened its registration process for coaches’ training, team workshops and competitions for the 2010-11 season.

Odyssey of the Mind is an international organization that encourages and celebrates creative problem solving. Competitions are open to teams of children from kindergarten through college. If your school doesn’t already have a team, it’s not hard to organize one. You don’t even have to be affiliated with a school to have  a team — you can form a team with your kid’s neighborhood friends, Girl Scout Troop, soccer team, or whatever. In fact, last year, the Dunwoody Homeowners Association sponsored a team that went all the way to the World Finals.

If you plan to start a new team, you’ll want to attend the coaches’ training on Oct. 23 at Trickum Middle School in Lilburn. Registration for the workshop is open until Oct. 16.

The Fernbank Planetarium has just opened a new production about the Hubble Telescope. The show looks at the construction and use of the telescope, and includes interviews with key scientists. Officially, the program is aimed at adults and children 10 and up, but all are welcome.

The Many Faces of Hubble will run through Dec. 3, 2010, and will return from Jan. 6-29, 2011, after the planetarium runs its holiday program. Show times are:

Thursdays at 8:00 p.m.
Fridays at 3:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.
Saturdays at 3:00 p.m.

Admission is $4 for adults and $3 for children.

The Georgia Music Educators Association (GMEA) is seeking the state’s best musicians and singers.

GMEA organizes a variety of groups showcasing the best musical talent in the state at the elementary-, middle- and high-school levels. These include a band, jazz band, an elementary orchestra and choral groups. District and All-State groups are formed based on fall auditions.

Deadlines to register for an audition are in September (dates vary by group); auditions will be held in October. Visit the GMEA web site for more information on these opportunities.

The Margaret Mitchell House in Midtown has just announced its fall 2010 creative writing workshop for young writers, which will focus on the macabre style of such authors as Edgar Allan Poe, Neil Gaiman, J.K. Rowling, Joyce Carol Oates, Stephanie Meyer and other writers of “supernatural fiction.”

The class will meet from 2:00 – 5:30 p.m. on five consecutive Sundays, beginning on Oct. 3 and ending — quite appropriately — on Halloween. An enrollment fee of $150 for members of Margaret Mitchell House or $200 for non-members includes the book The Essential Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe.

This workshop is open to kids ages 11-15. You can get more information and download a registration form from the Youth Writing Workshops page.

If your teen enjoys writing, photography or graphic design and would like to learn the ropes of publishing a newspaper, check out VOX, a newspaper run by Atlanta teens.

Published since 1993, VOX gives teens the chance to write about issues important to them and to have their writing read by kids all over the metro Atlanta area. The organization is known for nurturing young people as writers and helping them develop as informed young adults.

VOX is now accepting applications for new staff members. Those selected must attend staff training sessions on Oct. 2 and Oct. 9. Staff members also will be expected to report to the VOX offices in downtown Atlanta at least four times each month.

If that regular commitment doesn’t fit for your child, he or she can submit articles to the paper without joining the staff, by following the paper’s writer’s guidelines.

The new school year means a new season for US FIRST, which organizes technology and robotics competitions for kids ages 6-18. Kids compete in four different 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.) I don’t see any teams listed on the site for the DeKalb County area, so this might be one of those cases where one or more interested parents would need to recruit members and start a team. If you know of any DeKalb teams that are accepting members, please let me know and I’ll post it here.

This Tuesday, August 10, from 5 to 7 p.m., the Children’s Museum of Atlanta (Imagine It!) will put on Project Discovery, a hands-on program of science activities aimed at kids 8 and under. Visitors will take part in interactive experiences that show the science of color, sound, the Solar System and more.

Because Tuesday is a “Target Free Tuesday” at the museum, kids can get in free starting at 1 p.m. (first come, first served, until the museum reaches capacity). Children must always be accompanied by an adult.

The University of West Georgia has announced the first class in its IMPACT science series for 2010-11: “Weird Science.” The program, for children 5 and up, promises “a fast paced [MTV like] series of short, easy and sometimes ‘weird’ physical phenomena.” It will be presented by Lee Marek, a chemistry teacher at the University of Illinois – Chicago who has appeared on David Letterman and other television programs.

Sessions will be held on Friday, Sept. 10 at 7 p.m., and on Saturday, Sept. 11, at 10 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. UWG’s Department of Continuing Education said the program should be appropriate for kids of all ages, but small children must be accompanied by an adult — no drop offs.

Tickets are $2 per person, and can be reserved online or by calling 678-839-6611.

Looking for a way to expose your child to more science and math? Check out Ben Carson Academy, a program for elementary and middle-school children held at Morehouse School of Medicine.

The academy exposes kids to science and math, and health care careers. Although the Academy doesn’t appear to be restricted to minority students, it’s clear there is 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 and Kiswahili.

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.

Classes will be held on Saturday mornings, Oct. 9 to Nov. 13. Registration, via mailed application, is open until Aug. 31.