Writing workshop will conjure up some magic at Margaret Mitchell House
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.
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.
What’s it like raising a gifted child? Researcher wants to know.
Every parent has ups and downs. But parents of gifted children have a particular experience that is shaped by their child’s personality, their school’s accommodation of the child’s needs, and the level of support they get from family and friends.
A researcher in Australia wants to learn more about how parents feel about raising a gifted child (or children). Natalie Rimlinger is a Ph.D. student at Australian National University. She says that while there have been many investigations into gifted children and their needs, very little is known about the everyday experience of raising gifted kids. Natalie is looking for parents from anywhere in the world who are willing to complete an anonymous, online survey about life as a parent of a gifted child.
To participate, you must have a gifted child in either primary or elementary grades. If you believe your child is gifted, that’s enough to participate. Your child’s being formally identified as gifted is not required.
Because the survey asks questions about your interaction with your child’s teacher, you should only participate if you consider your child to have one primary classroom teacher, not a team of teachers. Homeschoolers can also participate.
Since this school year has just started, you can complete the survey based on your experience last year, or wait a month or two and fill out the survey based on the new school year once you’ve formed an impression.
The survey takes about 20 minutes to complete.
New report compares gifted populations among schools nationwide
A basic tenet of advocacy for gifted education is that gifted children come from all racial, ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds. That’s why advocates are always pushing for equal access to gifted education for all children, regardless of their family’s income.
Unfortunately, in many cases, children in schools that serve wealthier kids still get more opportunities than poorer children. That was the stated conclusion of a new study released by ProPublica, a non-profit, investigative journalism group. ProPublica compared schools, districts and states across the nation, evaluating the percentage of kids who take gifted or advanced classes, and how that percentage differed according to the wealth of the student population (as measured by the number of children receiving free or reduced price lunch).
The good news is that overall, Georgia seems to do better than some states in giving all children access to advanced learning. We have a higher percentage of disadvantaged children than the national average, yet we have a slightly higher rate of enrollment in gifted programs — 11 percent — than the national average. We also do better than the national average in terms of the percentage of our students who take advanced math, chemistry and Advanced Placement classes.
However, the results for metro Atlanta schools show that school districts with more underprivileged children do have a lower rate of enrollment in gifted programs.
To see the data for yourself, go to the Georgia results page. From there, you can drill down to view results for your school district and, in some cases, your individual school. (Not every school is listed in the data.)
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.
Full scholarships to elite colleges for high achieving, low income students
For high-achieving students from low-income families, attending a top-tier college can feel completely out of reach. But it doesn’t have to be.
The National College Match program looks for students who have achieved excellence in school, and whose families face economic challenges. Then it matches those students with elite colleges that are prepared to offer full scholarships to these talented kids.
Participating schools include Amherst, Dartmouth, Brown, Emory, MIT, Princeton, Stanford and more — 31 highly respected universities in all.
High-school seniors are invited to apply now. The application deadline is Sept. 30, 2011, and the application process requires a good bit of documentation, along with three essays, so best to get started now. The good news? With just one application, students can be considered for scholarships to up to eight schools.
Local SENG leaders plan coffee, classes for parents
For some gifted children, being ahead of the pack brings with it certain struggles, such as perfectionism, social awkwardness and emotional sensitivity. SENG (Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted) aims to raise awareness of these challenges and to help parents, teachers and caregivers better support gifted children.
Two local SENG facilitators, Kathy Courchene and Muriel Knope, are hosting an informal conversation with parents of gifted children on Sunday, Aug. 21, from 2-4 p.m. at the Atlanta Bread Company in Dunwoody. They also are planning another session of evening classes for parents, to begin in mid-September. (More information as I get it.)
Unrelated to these local events, SENG has produced a free e-book, “The Joy and the Challenge: Parenting Gifted Children,” which touches on topics including identifying giftedness, underachievement, twice exceptional children, depression in gifted youth, and advocacy. You can download the publication as a PDF or in other formats compatible with most e-readers.
If you have questions about SENG, the upcoming meeting, or the parenting classes, contact Muriel Knope at knope – at – mindspring – dot – com (e-mail address deconstructed to curb spam; rebuild it to contact her).
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.
Gifted Atlanta 