Gifted students display their work
JACKSON TWP — Most Seneca Valley Middle School students don't get much exposure to subjects such as chemistry, robotics or sewing in their regular curriculum.
But through the district's gifted education program, called Purpose Enrichment, seventh- and eighth- grade students have an opportunity to explore a topic of their choosing and present their findings at the end of the school year.
Nearly 110 students participated last week in the annual Scenario Showcase Night at the middle school.
Students in the gifted program pick a project or area of study in September and work on it during the year with help from their teachers, instructor Megan Loewy said.
The students mostly work on the projects outside of class, but they also meet with their teacher once a week to update them on their status and to get guidance.
On showcase night, they demonstrate their projects to fellow students, parents, teachers and administrators.
“These are not graded. It's all about getting feedback from other people,” Loewy said.
Students are referred to the gifted program starting in first grade, teacher Theresa Wolf said. Each student has an individual education plan, which is updated each year.
The middle school projects gives them an extra way to learn and can keep students from getting bored with their classwork.
“We know these are students who have the ability. We give them the opportunity to enrich themselves and to learn things they wouldn't otherwise get from the general education curriculum,” Wolf said.
The projects included topics as making clothes, studying history, creative writing, culinary arts, robotics, engineering and science.
Eighth-grader Marc Amado studied chemistry and showed off some basic chemical reactions Wednesday, including elephant's toothpaste — a reaction between hydrogen peroxide, yeast, water and dish soap.
Marc said he always has been interested in science, and the project gave him a chance to learn some basics of chemistry before he takes the chemistry course in high school.
“I like making chemical reactions; it meets the eye,” he said.
Eighth-grader Nishant Jayachandran programmed a Lego Brainstorms robot to navigate a maze by detecting a black line using a light sensor.
He learned how to program the robot from its instruction manual, but trial and error was also important, he said.
“I did a lot of experimenting. You have to mess with the robot yourself to learn about all the quirks,” he said.
Emma Roberts, who is in seventh grade, showed off two newly hatched ducks Wednesday.
Emma got 13 duck eggs, some of which were not viable, and learned to incubate and care for them at home until they hatched, Wolf said.
