Today’s students live in and face an exciting, challenging, and ever - changing new era- a complex technological and informational age. Students must develop a passion for life-long learning and the ability to process and use information individually and cooperatively to solve increasingly complex societal problems. Gifted students need a setting where the curriculum experiences and Gifted peers demand higher expectations and goals. The goal of the fourth and fifth grade Life Lab program in Worth County is to challenge students at their requisite stage of development and to provide viable programming that will effectively involve students so as to develop a life-long passion and enthusiasm for learning - and the thinking process. Students are given the opportunity to apply their knowledge, skills and abilities to real problems or life situation.. As students needs are met in the Gifted program they learn to love who they are and what they are becoming. During the past nine weeks students have been engaged in numerous learning experiences of which a few are listed below.

Students have been introduced to and applied Bloom’s Taxonomy; applied creative thinking and collaborative skills to complete hands-on-problem solving activities such as: working in pairs to build the highest tower from notebook paper, paper clips and masking tape and through using three ping pong balls and an empty paper tube as the basis for creating a game. Students had to plan, design, organize, create and use both oral and written communication skills to communicate instructions for playing the game. Your child used computer programs to solve logic problems and used analysis, synthesis, and evaluation to complete complex analogy activities. Students applied morphological thinking through completed simile-based analogy problems that contributed to further understanding of self and others or answering provocative questions about their favorites. They engaged in mathematical problems solving involving percent and algebraic equations.

The students are now engaged in the process of THINKING LIKE A SCIENTIST as they have completed exciting scientific investigations in which they discovered endothermic and exothermic chemical reactions and determined whether or not reaction time improves with practice. Currently students are engaged in applying the scientific method, including proper record keeping, as they complete experiments using an effervescent launcher. Students select and set the device for a specific launch angle, place specific amounts of effervescent tablets and water into the canister, and load the canister into the launcher. The CO2 gas generated blasts the canister cap out of the launcher. Students measure and record the launch distance, change variables, form a hypothesis, and then repeat the experiment several times, Students average the distance from the trials and round off to the nearest hundredth. Each subsequent experiment adds another variable and builds on knowledge gained from previous experiments. Students are required to use the steps in the scientific method to complete each experiment and draw conclusions from the data collected.

Listed below are a few of the objectives from the Unit on Thinking Like A Scientist.

worked cooperatively with others to complete scientific investigations.

developed a concept of experimental design through an experiment which required the student to identify the manipulated variable, controlled variable and responding variable.

interpreted and followed directions to construct a launcher.

brainstormed possible variables that would affect the distance the rocket traveled.

were introduced to Microsoft Excel and used it to graph the results of one of their experiments

reviewed and applied metric measure to determine volume and distance.

    divided and rounded off to the nearest hundredth.

measured angles with a protractor; wrote equations to solve problems involving supplementary and complementary angles.

used angles as a variable in completing a scientific investigation.

use right, acute, and obtuse angles to complete a scientific investigation.

formulated a hypothesis; tested, recorded, and analyzed data to determine whether to confirm or deny the hypothesis.

used results of their data collection to generate a prediction for further investigations.

group teams met to discuss results of any discrepancies in their findings and analyzed these differences to determine the cause of the discrepancies.

applied reading skills to comprehend scientific information.

I have shared with you only a few of the learning experiences. Fourth and fifth grade Life Lab students are active learners. You will always find our class buzzing with learning activities and communication. It is a joy to be teaching your child. Please feel free to call me day or night. My home, school, and cell phone are on the heading of this letter. Please take the time to visit our web site at ddrobb.com for further insight concerning your child’s programming.

Working together for your child,

Donna Robb, Fourth and Fifth grade Facilitator for Gifted.