There was a time when children were taught to be “seen and not heard,” and yet today, many of the world’s most powerful leaders and harbingers for change are under the age of 20. Here are five inspiring young people who are trailblazing for a new generation of activists and innovators.

1. Greta Thunberg: Climate change activist

Age: 17

Greta Thunberg started out as a lone protestor advocating for climate change policy and was eventually named . Since photos of her holding a sign outside the Swedish Parliament went viral, she has become the leader in a mass youth movement for climate change activism. In September 2019, 4 million people joined her in the global climate strike, many of them being school-aged youth who walked out of classrooms and schools. She has become a symbol of youth activism and continues to meet with some of the world’s most influential leaders, speaking at climate rallies, forums and parliaments.

2. The Parkland School Students: Gun control activists

Ages: 19, 20

Since the devasting school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on February 14, 2018, many surviving students such as Emma Gonzalez, Jaclyn Corin, and David Hogg have become the of a large youth movement for stricter gun control laws. The students founded Never Again MSD, a coalition of the larger Never Again organization, and led the powerful march and demonstration “March for Our Lives” in Washington, D.C. They continue to lead and inspire youth activists who are advocating for gun control policies.

3. Thandiwe Abdullah: Co-founder of the Black Lives Matter LA Youth Vanguard

Age: 15

Abdullah is the co-founder of the Black Lives Matter LA Youth Vanguard and in 2018 was named one of TIME’s most influential teens. In the wake of movements like Never Again, she called for the youth gun control movement to become more intersectional, particularly when it comes to children of color. The LA Youth Vanguard organizes students and adult allies in the over-policing of Los Angeles’ public schools. The group also works closely with the United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) labor union to campaign against the criminalization of black youth.

4. Jack Cable: Computer programmer, “white hat” hacker, and business owner

Age: 19

Many of us think of hackers as masterminds who use their tech brilliance to promote widespread havoc, sometimes for personal gain and sometimes for the sake of a joke. Jack Cable is a “white hat hacker,” a tech mastermind who finds and reports bugs rather than taking advantage of them. Cable is a student at Stanford University and the winner of the HackIT Cup in Kyiv, Ukraine, where the one-and-only Steve Wozniak presented his award. He also founded Lightning Security, a firm that helps cryptocurrency companies protect themselves against traditional hackers.

5. Sheku Kanneh-Mason: Cellist

Age: 20

Kanneh-Mason, the first BBC Young Musician to achieve “top 40” status with a debut record, began playing the cello as a six-year-old and had won a scholarship to the Junior Academy of the Royal Academy of Music by age nine. He participated on Britain’s Got Talent in 2015, and he was featured in a BBC documentary entitled Young, Gifted and Classical: The Making of a Maestro the next year. He has since received myriad awards, including the Male Artist of the Year and Critics’ Choice Awards at the Classic Brit Awards, the 2019 PPL Classical Award, and the South Bank Sky Arts Breakthrough Award, an honor bestowed on the “most promising young artist across all genres.” In May of 2018, Kanneh-Mason achieved widespread notoriety when he played his cello at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. The same year, he was appointed the global ambassador for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. He donated a chunk of his 2018 earnings to his former school, enabling ten students to continue their cello lessons. Kanneh-Mason currently studies at the Royal Academy of Music, and his latest album, Elgar, was released in January of 2020.

1. Write a poem or story about science.

Get writing! Tell a story about your favorite scientist as dramatically as you can, write poetry about a cool science fact, or describe a feat of engineering using your most vivid vocabulary.

2. Teach your family about something you love.

The best way to learn something deeply is to teach it. Turn your family members into your students and tell them all about something you’ve learned recently whether it’s how to build the best paper airplane or how a chemical reaction works.

3. Create nature art.

Make a leaf rubbing, stick sculpture, or tower of balanced pebbles to integrate both sides of your brain.

4. Invent something to solve a problem.

What’s something you wish were easier? Design something to meet a need, starting with a blueprint and working toward a prototype.

5. Test your brain with riddles.

Find challenging riddles on or elsewhere, then attempt to solve them with your family.

6. Head to the library.

Ask a librarian to help you find books about STEAM at your reading level. Reading is a wonderful way to find a new interest!

7. Ask questions.

STEAM is all about asking creative questions and trying to find answers. Observe the world around you and keep a list of questions you come up with throughout the day: How do stoplights work? Why do some trees lose their leaves and not others? Then work with an adult to find the answers.

8. Build something using recycled materials.

Gather items you normally would have thrown away – packaging, receipts, dried-out pen, etc. – and see what you can build out of the items!

9. Interview a scientist.

If you were a scientist, what kind of scientist would you be? Research to find someone who has your dream job, then write them a letter or email asking them about their work and how they got to be where they are.

10. See what ������Ƶ offerings are coming up!

If you’re local to the Pasadena area, check out our upcoming workshops (7^th-10^th grade), check back for the Spring schedule of classes (K-8^th grade) in a couple of weeks or mark your calendars for when the (10^th-12^th grade) externship program application goes live!

Celebrating a different way? Comment below!

It’s that time of the year for Parent-Teacher Conferences.�� Usually many schools will schedule the conferences during the fall.

Here are some tips including additional resources on how to have a productive and successful Parent Teacher conference.

�ʰ���貹�����پ��Dz�:�� Before you attend the conference, make sure that you are prepared.�� Have a copy of the report card or progress report prior to the meeting.�� Many schools have online grading systems that parents can register and access.�� These systems may also include homework assignments and tests results.

Types of Meetings:�� Some schools refer to these meetings as Student Led Conferences, in which the student shares his/her work or portfolio with the parent, discusses what they have been learning in the classroom, including their progress and what they need to improve on.�� Some are the traditional Parent Teacher Conferences, in which the parent signs up and wait their turn to talk to the teacher.

At the Meeting:�� The Parent-Teacher Conference or Student Led Conference is an opportunity for parents to discuss and ask questions about the student’s work.�� It is also a chance for the parent to hear their student and/or the teacher talk about the class work, how the student is progressing, and some of the challenges s/he may encounter. Consequently, these types of conferences are held in group settings, usually in the classroom, and time with the teacher may be extremely limited.�� If the parent needs to have a more in-depth conversation with the teacher, a private meeting with the teacher should be scheduled.�� Do not discuss matters that may be confidential or inappropriate, when several people are present in the room.

After the Meeting:�� Schedule a follow up meeting with the teacher in order to assess whether or not the suggestions or action plans have been met. ��A follow up meeting also allows for the parent and teacher to discuss matters that may be confidential or more acceptable in a private setting.�� ��In addition, in scheduling a follow up meeting, the parent and the student may receive a progress report in a timely manner, giving the student enough time to meet the target or expectations.�� Often times, I have been told by parents that they wished they knew that their student was not meeting expectations ahead of time; and by the time they were informed, it was almost always too late.

As a suggestion, do not wait for the Parent Teacher conferences in order to meet with your child’s teachers.�� If necessary, schedule a meeting as soon as you realize that an intervention may be needed, or if you need a progress report sooner than later.

Here are additional resources on Parent Teacher Conferences:

There are many things I love about . The most important things to me are the freedoms the program offers its instructors that I did not have at other schools.

The first freedom I cherish here is the ability to follow up on student interests. This keeps learning relevant and engaging for both the students and the teacher. Where I have taught before there was a curriculum imposed by the administration and the state. The teacher submits syllabi and lesson plans, and observers drop in to make sure they are being followed. Here at ������Ƶ, if a student wants to learn about something I hadn’t planned for the day, I can teach it.

For example, while teaching about the Punic Wars, I mentioned that to mark his invasion of Roman territory, Hannibal Barca established the city of Barcelona. A student asked why Barcelona is famous now. There are many possible answers, but I said partly because of the distinctive architecture of Antonio Gaudì. Of course, the class was curious, so I called up some images to project. One was the still unfinished cathedral, La Sagrada Famìlia. Another student asked if there was a difference between that cathedral and St. Basil’s in Moscow. The difference is extreme, so I pulled up pictures of the painted onion domes of St. Basil’s and told the story of Czar Ivan the Terrible blinding the architect so that no one else would ever have a cathedral like his. Then we were ready to return to Roman history. A side trip into architecture and Russian history was definitely not in the syllabus, but the class was fascinated.

Another freedom I appreciate is the ability to design different assessments for each class. I don’t have to have a standardized test. I can shape the assessment to the subject and to the students. In “Folklore and Fairy Tales of Many Lands,” students have created a visual or written response or reaction to each story to demonstrate their understanding. In “Create and Rule Your Own Country,” students will display the artifacts (flag, map, currency, etc) they created during the class, then go on a gallery walk to look at other students’ work, writing what they like best about each project.

The trust ������Ƶ Academy has in the teachers’ abilities is a breath of fresh air to those of us who have worked with administrations that were more rigid and controlling. And the interest and enthusiasm I see in the students here demonstrate what a wise policy it is!

Does your child want to join a class taught by Anita, or another great Academy teacher?

Happy ! Every year, American Education Week celebrates individuals and organizations that ensure every child receives a quality education. Whether you are a parent, student, educator, or other supporter of learning, there are things you can do to honor those making a difference in the lives of students from all backgrounds. At ������Ƶ, we will be celebrating this week by gearing up for our Awards Dinner this Friday, where we will honor three local stars of gifted education. This event also helps us raise funds that will go toward scholarships, professional development, teaching resources, and other areas that increase the quality and accessibility of the programs we offer. This year, American Education Week is focused on honoring high-quality public schools and individuals that make them great (like two of our honorees, ). However, regardless of your educational background or involvement, there are numerous ways you can participate this week to recognize excellence in education!

Here are ideas of ways you can celebrate American Education Week:

• Post on social media about someone who made a difference to your or your child’s education using the hashtag #AEW2017. (If the person is part of ������Ƶ, tag us or use the hashtag #������Ƶgifted to make sure we see it!)
• Parents, ask your kids different questions about their school day: What do you wish you learned more about? What does your teacher do that helps you learn at your best?
• Students, thank your parents or other adults who have spent time searching out programs that fit your specific interests and needs. Be open with your parents about your school day and specific ways they can help you achieve your learning goals.
• so we can continue to offer scholarships that guarantee no child is ever turned away from our programs for financial reasons.
• Show your appreciation for an – this includes office administrators, cafeteria staff, counselors, bus drivers, janitors, and others who keep schools and education centers running at their best in behind-the-scenes ways.
• Thank someone personally for the work they do in increasing access to quality education: this could be a policymaker in your area, an individual here at ������Ƶ, or someone else you know.
• Think about the opportunity for impact you possess, and then use it! You may be able to advocate for policy changes in your public school district, donate supplies or electronics to a program in need, or recommend ������Ƶ’s services to a newly identified gifted student in your child’s class.

However you choose to support the mission of American Education Week, thank you for doing so! Even after this week ends, continue to keep your eyes open for ways to guarantee all children receive an excellent education. All of us at ������Ƶ will be doing the same!

Like this post?����to receive more stories, information, and resources about gifted youth straight to your inbox.

In celebration of National Teacher Day, we would like to extend a thank you to all the educators who shape the lives of students across the country.

Thank You, Mattie Whyte Woodridge

Pioneer of Teacher Appreciation Day

Teacher Appreciation Day was not always marked on our calendars. Then came Mattie Whyte Woodridge, a teacher and woman of conviction and artful persuasive writing who took it upon herself to pen a letter to every governor in the United States advocating for the recognition of our nation’s lifeline to a better future, teachers. And if ever there was a doubt, writing letters to your representative can make change.

In 1944, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt received Ms. Woodridge’s letter and took action, persuading 81st U.S. Congress to consider adding a national day of recognition. In 1953, The National Education Association (NEA) and state affiliates followed suit by lobbying Congress to pass a joint resolution designating one day a year as National Teachers Day.

In celebration of Teacher Appreciation Day and Ms. Woodridge’s contribution as a teacher who affected positive change, I’d like to share this quote by writer William Arthur Ward:

Teaching is more than imparting knowledge, it is inspiring change. Learning is more than absorbing facts, it is acquiring understanding.

Thank You, ������Ƶ Teachers

Thank you to all our teachers, mentors and counselors! You inspire not only gifted students, but all of us at ������Ƶ. Your dedication and passion help shape, guide and teach the hundreds of kids who pass through ������Ƶ every year. We couldn’t do what we do without you!

Happy National Teacher Day!

Like this post? to receive more stories, information, and resources about gifted youth straight to your inbox.

As the program manager for the Caroline D. Bradley Scholarship, I am often asked by the CDB community if Advanced Placement (AP) classes and the culminating AP exam is the best “fit” for a gifted student. AP courses have long been considered the gold standard for high achievement in upper level high school coursework. The classes are modeled on college courses and meant to represent the difficulty and breadth of material that students are expected to handle when they get to college. For that reason, some colleges give incoming freshmen credits or allow them to pass out of introductory courses if they score a three or above on the AP exam (exams are scored from one to five).

While every gifted student is a unique individual, for many who have long been stymied in general education classes, the promise of an AP curriculum comes with the following preconceptions: AP classes move faster than other classes covering the same subject matter, classmates are more motivated and likely to do the work in an engaged, enthusiastic manner, and the more talented teachers land the AP class assignments. Many gifted students are quite adept and facile at memorizing vast amounts of material which is an added plus within the fact-dense AP curriculum. But, as more high schools abandon AP programs in favor of crafting their own advanced course offerings, the efficacy of the AP program for gifted students is being questioned by secondary and collegiate institutions throughout the United States.

Statistics bear out that in many nationwide high schools, AP classes are more popular than ever, as students seek a leg up in the competitive college admissions process. But within the past five years, the trend is changing, as some of the most elite schools in the country are opting out of the AP frenzy, saying they can design better and more rigorous courses on their own that won’t force them to adhere to someone else’s�� curriculum and timeline and force teachers to “teach to the test.” Administrative and faculty detractors who have abandoned the AP program state, “Our major complaint with the AP courses was that it was a race for breadth against depth.” And instead of replicating a college level course in high school, some schools who have left the AP curriculum say they can go one better—partnering with local colleges so their students can actually take classes and garner individual internships on site.

The pro AP argument that AP credits allow high scorers to skip introductory college courses and, perhaps, graduate in less than four years, is no longer valid for two reasons: 1)increasingly, colleges and universities are abandoning the practice of granting automatic acceleration based on AP scores, 2) ��and many of the highly selective colleges and universities gifted students want to attend are bypassing AP exam results and require students who want to move past intro classes to take—and pass– their own mandated proficiency exams to prove they meet that institution’s highest standards in a given subject.

Among the CDB high school administrators I spoke with who chose to phase out the AP program, the decision to move away from AP’s did not come easily and, in all cases, followed a highly participatory, multi-year long conversation with students, faculty, parents, trustees and college admissions officers. Lick Wilmerding High School in San Francisco opted out of AP courses because: “LWHS teachers want to create innovative, rigorous courses that are 1) relevant, compelling, and impelling, 2) aligned with current knowledge and best practice in their fields and 3) reflect teachers’ particular passions and the school mission. We know, both from experience and research literature, that our teachers are most successful at engaging our students when these three goals frame the work they do. It was also the case that LWHS programs have, for many years, been truncated and eclipsed by the intrusion and distraction of AP exams during the first three weeks of May, well before the school year is over.”

Those schools who have done away with AP curricula found that the AP program became a limiting, rather than enriching, factor in their school’s determination to provide what has been described as a “21^st Century educational experience for its 21^st Century highest achieving students.” The Urban School in San Francisco also no longer offers AP courses, nor does Riverdale Country Day School in New York. Dominic Rudolph, Riverdale Country’s Head of School, said, “I think it’s sort of an impoverished view of expecting kids to learn a bunch of stuff and parrot it back to you. These kids have to be better critical thinkers, they have to be better communicators, and I don’t think passing the AP test necessarily gives them those skills.”�� When Scarsdale High School, an affluent public school outside Manhattan, did away with AP classes in 2007, the school superintendent said, “Teachers felt driven to cover what was on the AP test, ‘gaming’ their classes by teaching with only the test in mind” and that it was the teachers who asked for the change to a non-AP curriculum.

Unfortunately, it seems that the choice not to offer AP classes is happening in mostly affluent schools. Cash-strapped schools may not have the resources- time or money- to design and implement specialized courses that emphasize depth or have the necessary outreach to work with nearby colleges and universities to incorporate college-level classes and appropriate teacher training into the curriculum. If high schools don’t offer AP classes and are not able to incorporate their own “honors” level classes in their place, they run the risk of being harder to tout the accomplishments of their highest level students to college admissions staff.

Research connecting AP participation to positive college outcomes has been conducted since the program’s inception by non-profit organizations, institutions of higher education and the federal government. Pro-AP advocates stress that there is strong evidence that participation in AP programs correlates with student achievement in college, including higher GPAs, more credit hours earned, college readiness and college completion. A college counselor at the renowned Chicago Laboratory School noted, “Studies that simply establish that students who are involved with the AP program in high school perform better in college do not necessarily provide proof that that AP program caused the students to be successful in college. Students who have the motivation and study habits to take AP classes in the first place have those same attributes upon reaching college,” argues the counselor. “So how can we know if it was the program that caused these students to do better in college?” To date, no longitudinal study has been implemented to target the success of gifted students in college based upon their participation in AP programs in high school.

To provide some background on how the AP program came to be, following World War II, American educators sought a way to bridge the widening gap between secondary and higher education. The Ford Foundation created a fund that supported two committees studying education. The first study was conducted by three prep schools- the Lawrenceville School, Phillips Academy and Phillips Exeter Academy—and three universities—Harvard, Princeton and Yale. In 1952, this consortium issued a report which recommended allowing high school seniors to study college level material and take achievement exams that allowed them to attain college credit for this work. The second committee developed and implemented the plan to design and choose an appropriate curriculum.

A pilot program was run in 1952 covering eleven disciplines. The non-profit College Board has run the AP program since 1955. The first year of its inception, 104 high schools and 130 colleges participated in the College Board’s AP program. In the 1960’s, the College Board focused on training high school teachers in the new curricula. And in the 1980’s and 1990’s, the College Board worked to get more minority and low-income students into AP classes. In 2006 over one million students took over two million AP Placement examinations. Any student is eligible to take any AP exam regardless of participation in its respective course; therefore, home-schooled students and students from schools that do not offer AP courses have an equal opportunity to take AP exams. ��Financial aid is available for students who qualify for it.

With tests currently available in close to 40 subject areas, College Board, in an attempt to stay ahead of the AP critics, reports that it constantly reevaluates and changes its offerings, which are developed by committees of college faculty members and AP teachers.

Since the AP program was initiated (as more than a pilot program) in 1955-56, the research supporting and documenting the academic impact of the instruction in these courses on students has been very limited. Several studies have investigated student and teacher satisfaction with AP courses, and researchers have conducted limited investigations of the educational success of students who have participated in the AP program.

In 2006, a lengthy report was published by the National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented called �� 23 high schools from seven states were chosen for participation in this study. Selected schools represented varied geographic regions and levels of community size, a range of school poverty levels, diverse cultural groups of students in the AP courses and/or IB programs and variations in the scope and services of courses and programs offered to highly-able secondary school students. Within the 23 selected schools, approximately 200 teachers, 300 students, 25 administrators/coordinators and eight counselors participated in classroom observations and interviews. Documents such as teachers’ planning and instructional materials, program literature and communication materials were collected and analyzed over the five year period of the study.

*(For the purpose of this post, I will only be addressing the AP findings—not the IB—from this study, even though the findings proved to be quite similar among both programs.)

Several important themes emerged from this study related to the question of how teachers conceptualize and implement curriculum and instruction for gifted learners in AP classes.�� Classroom observation and teacher and student interview data indicated that AP teachers tended to view their students as a homogenous group and, as such, designed curriculum and instruction in accordance with their expectations of the class as a whole, rather than in accordance with expectations and performance of individual students.

Most AP teachers’ decisions about curriculum seemed to follow a similar pattern. Guided by the belief that high school performance on the end-of-course AP exams was the ultimate goal of the course, teachers first and foremost considered what material would be tested and used that to determine course content. Belief in the need for student exposure to the entire curriculum and constrained time limits led to one-size-fits-all curricula with minor modifications when it came to setting the pace at which content was taught in response to the general level of understanding. Teachers considered individual student needs as they arose, particularly when a student seemed to be falling behind, but provided extra work for more advanced students very infrequently. Teachers’ beliefs that AP students were a homogenous group, and that any differentiation of the curriculum for students would entail “dumbing down” the content, led them to make few, if any, provisions for academic diversity in the classroom.

The study found that AP teachers’ instructional decisions were guided primarily by the goal of “covering” a large amount of content by the time the tests were given in early May. As a result, AP teachers tended to choose what they perceived to be the most expedient instructional method—lecture—and to forgo instructional methods they perceived to be more time-intensive (such as experiments, hands-on activities, in-depth investigations, individualized student-led research). The shared belief among AP teachers was that learning equates with exposure to content, not with making meaning out of in-depth consideration of ideas. Multiple studies have delineated that lecture-based learning is among the least successful—or enjoyable—among gifted students who find little opportunity to participate, ask questions or provide content in a lecture format.

While AP teachers in general felt that they had some flexibility in their choice of instructional methods, what is astonishing—at least to me—is the study reports that in NO case were AP teachers observed adjusting their instructional methods to meet the diverse needs of individual learners in their classrooms. It seems that the generally held belief among AP teachers that their students were a purposefully homogenous group of learners left them feeling as though they should not—and ultimately need not– make any modifications to their instructional methods to meet the various learning needs and styles of the students in their classrooms who quite often were left feeling marginalized and onlookers rather than active class members.

The majority of students participating in this study were satisfied with the nature of the curriculum and instruction within these AP courses, perceiving them as challenging and representing the “best” classes offered at their schools. Students seemed to believe that AP courses were the “best” because they were taught by the most experienced teachers, required students to take on the heaviest workload, and were populated by the most advanced students. Most of the students did not question what they were learning, whether or not they found the content interesting or the teachers’ instructional methods. Students believed that the courses would ultimately provide them with benefits in the future—without getting into specifics about WHAT exactly these benefits would/might be. The majority of the students in these AP classes described finding respite from many years of unchallenging, inappropriate and even hostile classroom experiences. Many of these students appreciated the opportunity to work with other advanced students and the highly positive, adult-like relationships with their teachers.

The interview data from students who had dropped out of AP programs told a different story, however.�� These students made their decisions to leave the program precisely because they believed that the curriculum, instruction and learning environment of the classes were inappropriate for their individual needs. All of these students indicated that they originally took the courses because they desired greater challenge than that offered in non-AP classes, but that the way the AP courses were taught did not allow them to succeed, feel welcome or learn in the ways they liked to learn.

There are important, significant conclusions from the National Research Center on Gifted and Talented which resonate today; it is still considered to be the critical benchmark for assessing the efficacy of AP curricula for gifted students.�� The study concludes that AP courses provide important educational options for students who, by their last years in our nation’s public schools, are clearly starved for challenge, interaction with similarly motivated peers, and relationships with teachers who understand them. One concern, however, that emerged from this study’s findings and has contributed to a growing departure among high schools formerly using AP curricula, is the disturbing picture that AP students’ interview responses painted of the grave mismatch between the curriculum, instruction and learning environments within many AP classes that did not mesh with the needs of gifted learners. Many AP students described educational histories riddled with boredom, uninspiring instruction, and curriculum that did not stretch them. A pervasive sense of relief at being “rescued” from general education—and even some supposed honors classes– by the option to take AP courses was evident in most students’ responses. Clearly, the level of challenge and the learning environments within AP courses are judged more positively by many advanced secondary students than other classroom environments these students have encountered. However, it’s not enough that gifted students find the educational experiences within AP classes to be “better” experiences only in comparison to the other unsatisfying courses available to them.

While AP courses are still prevalent among the majority of United States high schools as the most challenging option for advanced secondary school learners, the NRGTC study suggested numerous ways in which the learning experiences of the students populating AP classes could be enriched, including:

• Enriching the curriculum and instruction within AP courses by decreasing the breadth of content to be covered within the scope of the courses and increase depth of subject matter
• Emphasizing the benefit of experiencing genuine challenge over other rewards for taking AP courses that may or may not ultimately be recognized as college credit
• Provide AP teachers with skills in delivering a differentiated curriculum and using varied instructional strategies to meet the needs of a broad range of gifted students
• Investigate options for gifted and talented secondary learners beyond AP courses

As with many areas of gifted education, research comparing alternative options for the wide variety of secondary level students who are labeled as gifted or who have the potential to develop as gifted adults is needed when it comes to determining how “best” to challenge, engage and prepare gifted students for the next chapter of their academic experience.

“Really, what colleges are interested in is that a student has taken the most rigorous coursework available,” a self-described AP U.S. History “dropout” teacher told me.�� “One more transcript with three more AP courses looks like a thousand other transcripts. A transcript with solid standardized test scores and interesting courses like American Studies or Science Writing, from a good school, with good results by good students helps that student stand out more in the competitive admissions process rather than hindering students.”

Whether via an AP program that allows for more individualized teaching approaches or an honors-level alternative course, the gifted student who is able to flex his/her academic muscles in classes that aim for higher-level analysis and in-depth learning over rote memorization of facts is going to not only be prepared for college, but will continue to soar.

Like this post? to receive more stories, information, and resources about gifted youth straight to your inbox.

NPR ed’s features several articles that discuss various ways in which our current system fails to meet kids where they are. Right next to an article about ��(the movement to acknowledge and better accommodate introverted personalities) is an interview discussing a new book called . Preceding both of these is the story of an 11-year-old black girl who grew so frustrated with the lack of diversity in the books she was reading in school that she decided to collect 1,000 texts about black girls. As we evaluate the myriad of educational needs of our students, my question is this: how can individualized, less standardized classroom environments help the gifted student?

Author Todd Rose identifies part of the problem this way: “We’ve come to embrace a way of thinking about ourselves as people that was intentionally designed to ignore all individuality and force everything in reference to an average person.”�� He goes on to say, “If all kids are multidimensional in their talent, their aptitude, you can’t reduce them to a single score.” These ideas are meaningful for the gifted learner.�� Gifted kids are far from simple; their worlds are emotionally, spiritually, intellectually, and physically complex. What if, somehow, there was enough freedom in the classroom to indulge, express, and cultivate some of these complexities in the company of other children? It may seem idealistic, but I think it’s possible.

What I think is most wonderful about individualization is the way it gives people the opportunity to empathize with and truly value the uniqueness of human beings. If a classroom was a space that permitted, even encouraged, the depths of human diversity, children would be free to pursue their personal potentials, while learning to love and respect one another. Chester E. Finn Jr. , co-author of refers to individualization as one educational reform that is already in motion. He has on the subject:

“ Without going crazy — everybody still needs to learn to multiply, to compose a grammatical sentence, to explain the background of the Civil War — education is ripe to shift from batch-processing to customizing kids’ instructional experience, moving from pre-set menus to some version of “grazing.” Not just with regard to what is learned or when, but also the mode of instruction — and the rate at which a youngster moves through school.”

Individualization is coming to our schools, whether it be in the form of project based learning or technological programming. I have great hope that this movement in tandem with other important reforms (such as school choice) will effect positive change in our school systems.

Like this post? to receive more stories, information, and resources about gifted youth straight to your inbox.

From science fiction, to popular culture, to UFO organizations, and even a famous jerky shop half way between Los Angeles and Las Vegas named , extraterrestrial life pervades our imagination. The question is: if they are out there, where are they?

This is the foundation of the , formulated by Enrico Fermi – one of the most celebrated nuclear physicists of our time – which states the apparent contradiction between high estimates of the probability of the existence of extraterrestrial civilization and humanity’s lack of contact with, or evidence for, such civilizations.

Enrico Fermi is also the architect of “Fermi Estimations,” which is designed to solve complex dimensional analysis problems with simple math calculations. A classical Fermi question would be, “How many piano tuners are there in New York City?”

To solve this puzzle, one may make the following simple estimates:

1. Approximately how many people are in New York City? 8,000,000
2. Does every individual own a piano? No
3. Would it be reasonable to assert that “individuals don’t tend to own pianos, families do? Yes
4. About how many families are there in a city of 8 million people?��Perhaps there are 1,500,000 families in NYC.
5. Does every family own a piano? No. Perhaps one out of every five does. That would mean there are about 300,000 pianos in NYC.
6. How many piano tuners are needed for 300,000 pianos? Some people never get around to tuning their piano; some people tune their piano every month. If we assume that “on the average” every piano gets tuned once a year, then there are 300,000 “piano tunings” every year.
7. How many piano tunings can one piano tuner do? Let’s assume that the average piano tuner can tune 3 pianos a day. Also assume that there are 200 working days per year. That means that every tuner can tune about 600 pianos per year.
8. How many piano tuners are needed in NYC? The number of tuners is approximately 300,000/600 or 500 piano tuners.

Now, let’s do an alien question: in the Soyuz TMA-18M spacecraft, what is the maximum number of Alien Fresh Jerky can astronauts eat before finding an alien? Assuming the estimation of Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Program is correct, which is 20 years, and that Alien Fresh Jerkies are their only source of food.

1. How many astronauts in the Soyuz TMA-18M spacecraft? 6
2. How many calories does an astronaut consume in spacecraft per day? 2500. 6 astronauts: 15,000
3. Jerky calories? 50 calories per piece, 200 mg sodium
4. Max sodium per day? About 3,000 mg
5. Max Jerky per day based on sodium intake? 3000/200= 15 pieces
6. Total calories for 15 pieces of jerky? 50×15=750 calories
7. How many days in 20 years? 365×20= 7300 days
8. What is the maximum number of jerky will be eaten in order for astronauts to survive the trip? 15x6x7300= 657,000 pieces

Answer: assuming Alien Fresh Jerky is the only source of food on the space shuttle, the maximum jerkies Soyuz TMA-18M astronauts can consume to stay alive during their 20 years travel is 657,000.

Even though many Fermi Estimations cannot be verified or implemented in daily life, it is a great exercise to deepen our understanding of the world. Fermi Estimations require participants to think up and answer questions using math and science skills, as well as using practical knowledge accumulated through our lived experience. It is a great way to contemplate the scale of our world and put us in perspective.

Can you think of any Fermi Questions? Send it over, and let’s solve it together!

Like this post? to receive more stories, information, and resources about gifted youth straight to your inbox.

This post is part of the Hoagies’ Gifted Blog Hop: March Math-ness!. Please click the image below to keep on hopping!

An article regarding hands-on learning in math noted:

“The more avenues there are to receive data through the senses, the more connections the brain can make. The more connections that are made, the better a learner can understand a new idea. This holds not only for primary age learners, but through adulthood. All students need to approach the learning of mathematics by actively doing mathematics.”

Examples included physically measuring objects, collecting data and handling geometric objects at all stages. Experiencing lessons beyond paper or lectures deepens students’ understanding of a concept and serves those who are more tactile learners.

In fact, a found notable differences in brain function between those who physically experienced math and science concepts. When thinking about concepts during a test, hands-on students had a higher rate of activity in the sensory and motor-related parts of their brain, leading to better memory.

These methods don’t just hold true for college students. Eighth-graders in a who were assigned to build a water purification device in their science class scored an average of 20% higher on the unit test than those taught simply through lectures and text-book readings. The hands-on students worked in groups of three or four to engineer a water-purification device while the teacher walked around the classroom discussing the scientific principles of water-purification and asking individual groups questions about the principles behind their device. Once completed, students tested their devices using water from a local river to see if it had become drinkable.

While none of this research serves as impetus to drop the traditional methods of classroom instruction (students do, in fact, need to learn the fundamentals of a material before starting hands-on projects), it does give solid evidence of the benefits of mixing hands-on learning into traditional classroom learning. Integrating hands-on activities and experiments into classroom instruction helps students remember concepts and perform better on tests, in addition to aiding in long-term retention of the material. Perhaps it may also strike up an interest in science or math that a student would not otherwise realize.