Your Gifted Child Deserves a Gifted Education

Elementary students worked together to recreate an archaeological dig site on the Recker Campus. For their Social Studies standards, the 3rd and 4th graders created an ancient culture complete with all aspects of community – religious, art, cooking, clothing, myths, currency, number systems, government etc. They made artifacts for the community, made from things like clay, fabric, and paper. Their timeline was three-four weeks and included writing about their cultures and creating PowerPoints.

After their part was done, the artifacts were buried in an on-campus “sand lot,” and the 1st and 2nd graders took their turn! They had two weeks to excavate the artifacts and determine what it could be. Was it a tool? How was it used in the community? What kind of community were they excavating? Mountainous? Farming? River? Religion?

After the excavation, all grades came together to discuss the clues, their findings, and determine if the 1st and 2nd Graders were right.

After the project ended, the grades created a museum with the labeled artifacts and PowerPoints from the older grades. Parents were invited to tour the museum and watch the presentations that each class presented.

Middle School Gifted students took their learning deeper by not only learning about our solar system, but about different planet types, composition, location, moons, and much more.

Students created and designed their own planets and life forms based on a creative theme of their choice. They also developed travel brochures around their theme to advertise and sell the planet. Then, students built models of their planets, incorporating the elements from their creative theme. The planets were hung in the classroom at a proper distance from the class sun using calculations including gravity.

Finally, students presented and sold their planets to parents during the Science Learning Celebration. The classroom lights were covered by constellations and the class sun glowed with sunlight appearing behind it. Parents traveled from planet to planet learning about the children’s scientific knowledge and were amazed by the creativity presented in the class solar system.

Recently our Junior High & High School Gifted programs participated in a geological disaster project. In this project, an asteroid was plummeting to Earth and students needed to locate a geological area that would be safest from the incoming asteroid. During this process, students learned about trajectory, how the asteroid composition and size would affect a planet, what would happen to the planet and how long it would take the planet to recover.

The next phase involved students learning about Earth’s geological makeup. Students located the best area to build an underground colony. Students studied the various rock types, elevations, natural water resources and much more to help them locate an optimal location to build their colony. Then, students designed their colonies with sleeping areas, cafeterias, medical assistance, plumbing, water filtering and waste removal, air filtering, greenhouses, farm areas for animal preservation, electrical generation, and much more.

Once students identified all of the human, animal, and plant needs, they began constructing an actual model of their design, including working plumbing and electrical wiring. The colonies were very impressive and the thought and creativity placed into the design was deeply conveyed!