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Fall SAVY 2016 (Day 5) – Intro to Macromolecules
Oct. 24, 2016—This week in Intro to Macromolecules, we began by reviewing our lipid lab results from last week. The acetone in which we had extracted the lipids had evaporated and what remained was the fat isolated from each type of food. The students observed that the lipid layer isolated from chocolate chips was relatively solid, while...
Fall SAVY 2016 (Day 5) – Media Mania!
Oct. 24, 2016—Hello Media Mania parents, Today was one of our favorites! We hit the ground running and began collecting data from real participants (Vanderbilt graduate students) in two of Vanderbilt’s research labs! Our class designed four experiments, which all went smoothly! Every student had the chance to serve as a real researcher as they interacted professionally...
Fall SAVY 2016 (Day 5) – Where’s the Beach?
Oct. 24, 2016—Hello Parents! It’s hard to believe that Week 5 has already come and gone! We had a busy day as we learned about several different solutions to the problem of beach erosion. By moving from center to center, students were able to experience learning in various ways. At one center, they used materials to construct a...
Fall SAVY 2016 (Day 5) – Robotic Programming
Oct. 24, 2016—Greetings! Today was an absolutely fabulous day! I have worked with gifted children for more than a decade, and I have seen how hard it is to teach gifted children how to learn from failure because they simply aren’t used to it. When things typically come easily, it can be very frustrating and disheartening when...
Fall SAVY 2016 (Day 5) – What’s the Matter?
Oct. 24, 2016—Hi parents: Today, we began our morning reading from a book called, “Mistakes that Worked”. Students enjoyed hearing how things such as the potato chip, sticky notes, chocolate chip cookies and donut holes were invented through simple mistakes. We also read a book called “What do you do With an Idea?” This author encourages students...
Fall SAVY 2016 (Day 4) – From the Page to the Stage: Novel to Script to Production
Oct. 17, 2016—Students, thank you again for an exciting session! I’m rewarded week after week by your creativity, your collaborative spirit, and your evident delight as we discover bit-by-bit the backstory of Tinkerbell, Hook, and the whole of the Peter Pan mythology. This week we (twice) met for the first time the dastardly Black Stache and his amiable lackey, the...
Fall SAVY 2016 (Day 4) – Pathogens and Protectors: The Science of the Immune System
Oct. 17, 2016—This Saturday, we started by sharing analogies of the immune system. I previously gave the example of how the immune system is similar to a castle, with each component represented by a structure or guard of the castle. Students shared incredibly creative analogies, ranging from China to minecraft, that demonstrated understanding of key innate and...
Fall SAVY 2016 (Day 4) – Creative Writing: (Re)Imagining the Monstrous
Oct. 17, 2016—The 4th day of “Creative Writing: (Re)Imagining the Monstrous” was incredibly productive, leading students to a number of exciting conclusions about literary technique and their own writing processes. To review everything we’ve learned so far, each student chose one of the three questions to answer on a notecard: 1) Who do you think is the...
Fall SAVY 2016 (Day 4) – Intro to Macromolecules
Oct. 17, 2016—This week in Intro to Macromolecules, we began by reviewing our carbohydrate lab results from the previous week. We chose to analyze our results visually by creating a Venn diagram as a group, with the two overlapping circles being labeled “monosaccharides” and “starch.” We noticed that some foods contained just monosaccharides (ex. galactose) or just...
Fall SAVY 2016 (Day 4) – Media Mania
Oct. 17, 2016—Dear Media Mania parents, Today was another great day learning about media and psychology! After reviewing how to use the scientific method and establishing that it was clear the students were thinking like real researchers, the students went to work developing their own Media Mania studies! The class was very enthusiastic as they split up into “research teams” and...