Projects
Students will be completing the Texas Performance Standards Project called The Ripple Effect: A study of water. Students will learn about the properties of water and issues surrounding the quality and quantity of water sources. Students will investigate a local water supply and discuss ways to conserve water and limit pollution. They will conduct a study of their own water usage in order to develop a solution for preserving the local water supply.
In conjunction with the water study, students will be participating in Genius Hour during our 90 min pull out classes.
Genius hour is a movement that allows students to explore their own passions and encourages creativity in the classroom. It provides students a choice in what they learn during a set period of time during school. It allows students to explore their own curiosity through a self-manifested sense of purpose and study while within the support system of the classroom.
Our Genius Hour projects need to have meaning, or have a positive impact on the lives of others. The purpose of learning is student-centered, sourced, and dependent.
Students connect with teachers to plan, peers to produce, and experts and community members to establish a sense of purpose for their work.
Whether students "make," publish, design, act, or do, "Creating" is a core principle to Genius Hour. As a learning model, it promotes inquiry, research, creativity, and self-directed learning.
Students will work through a cycle of steps during Genius Hour to keep students accountable and on track.
1. Finding a Passion
2. Pitch the idea to your teacher
3. Plan out your project
4. Work on your Project
5. Design a Product
6. Showcase your Presentation
Genius Hour
Community Service Learning
Through meaningful learning experiences in GT, we are hoping to use our time in Gifted and Talented to develop generous, conscientious children who will grow to assert a favorable influence on our world. Empowering our youth to make a positive impact on their environement, community, and world is one of the most important obligations of each generation.
Each student will create a thoughtful project for our showcase in May, that has a positive impact. We will use our Genius Hour time to work on these projects.
Soft Skills
Students will come home from school acquiring new skills not just in Math or Reading, but soft skills needed to be successful in life.
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Autonomy - Owning learning and being proactive about making a plan and overcoming challenges encountered along the way.
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Collaboration - Taking on individual roles while working together as a team toward a common goal.
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Communication - Sharing ideas and information clearly and effectively.
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Creativity - Generating original ideas, solutions, and products.
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Critial Thinking - Interpreting and analyzing information to solve real problems.
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Growth Mindset - Seeing challenges and mistakes as opportunities to learn something new.
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Professional Ethics - Showing integrity and honoring commitments.
Mindset
Mindsets are beliefs—beliefs about yourself and your most basic qualities. Think about your intelligence, your talents, your personality. Are these qualities simply fixed traits, carved in stone and that’s that? Or are they things you can cultivate throughout your life?
People with a fixed mindset believe that their traits are just givens. They have a certain amount of brains and talent and nothing can change that. If they have a lot, they’re all set, but if they don’t... So people in this mindset worry about their traits and how adequate they are. They have something to prove to themselves and others.
People with a growth mindset, on the other hand, see their qualities as things that can be developed through their dedication and effort. Sure they’re happy if they’re brainy or talented, but that’s just the starting point. They understand that no one has ever accomplished great things—not Mozart, Darwin, or Michael Jordan—without years of passionate practice and learning.
Coding & Robotics
Every student in every school should have the opportunity to learn to code.
This is not a new concept, it has been written about extensively. Teaching kids to code should go hand in hand with reading, writing, and arithmetic. IT IS THEIR FUTURE!
We all know that we are living in a different world since the iPhone made its début 8 years ago. A totally different world – a world that has been turned inside out, upside down, backwards, forwards & all around. Society is changing, studies predict that as early as 2020 we are going to be 1,000,000,000 short of coders.
Computer science is among the highest paid careers of college graduates. It is imperative that more kids take an interest and learn to code. Schools, educators, and parents everywhere need to be promoting these kind of classes or we are going to be left in the dark.
With that in mind, we will spend time during our classes to learn about digital citizenship,coding, and creating and coding robots.
We will be using the STEM Robot mouse for our K-1 students, and the Lego WeDO products for grades 2-5.
Engineering is Elementary
Engineering is Elementary is a curricular program that integrates engineering with elementary science topics. Connections with literacy, social studies, and mathematics can also be made.
Children are fascinated with building and with taking things apart to see how they work. Engineering fosters problem-solving skills, including problem formulation,
iteration, and testing of alternative solutions.
Engineering embraces project-based learning, encompasses hands-on construction, and sharpens children's abilities to function in three dimensions.
Lessons using the EiE curriculum will be woven into the scope and sequence of the GATE program.