Gifted and Talented Program Fall 2016 Onsite and Online Programs

Montclair State University

MSU G&T Program

Fall 2016 Onsite and Online Course Descriptions

p.1-4 Grades K-1

p.4-7 Grades 2-3

p.7-8 Grades 4-8 Online Courses

p. 8-12 Grades 4-5

p. 12-16 Grades 6-12 (NOTE: Gr.6-8 students will not be in courses where they are outnumbered by Gr.9-12 students)

p. 16-17 Grades 7-12 AP Online Courses

Grades K-1

Archeology: Digging History

Decisions, decisions! Which site holds promise for finding artifacts? Where do you begin excavating on the site? What will documents yield? What mysteries and histories will be uncovered by your trowel (and other cool tools)? In this course, we’ll be conducting interactive archeological digs.

Bubbleology CLOSED

BLOW! FLOAT! POP! Here is your chance to become an expert on bubbles! Experiment with adhesion, cohesion, and surface tension. You will also learn about the many other unique properties of water and soap. Use your problem solving skills to test bubble solutions that will help you create the largest bubble and the longest lasting bubble. Put math and science to work as you measure bubbles, build geodesic domes, learn logic, and strengthen math problem solving strategies all while having a blast!

Digital Photography CLOSED

“Smile!” This course will explore the techniques necessary to successfully take professional-quality photographs. Students will work collaboratively and individually to design, shoot, modify, and critique photographs of a variety of subjects in different settings. Digital cameras will be provided however, students are encouraged to bring their own digital cameras and accessories.

Engineering Design, Invention & Innovation CLOSED

Your work matters! We challenge you to identify a real-life problem in your world, and then engineer real change! You will identify problems, brainstorm possible solutions, and use the engineering design process to plan, create, and improve your invention, and then present it to potential investors.

Junior Vets: Pet Care and First Aid

Do you love animals? Are you thinking about becoming a veterinarian? Students will explore the characteristics and behaviors of dogs, cats, and other pets. They will learn about and practice giving emergency first aid as well as preventative care: how to identify and prevent food poisoning, and many other techniques used by animal health professionals. Students may be exposed to a trained, gentle dog or cat as part of the course activities. Students who are allergic to or are afraid of dogs and cats (and other popular pets) are discouraged from enrolling in this course.

Marketing your Favorite Toy CLOSED

Toy marketing is serious business! Learn how to develop a marketing plan for your favorite toy. Apply business and mathematics skills to predict and track your favorite toy's sales. Develop a marketing strategy and advertising budget to maximize your toy's brand recognition and assist your classmates with their marketing plans. Collaborate to develop a new toy and its marketing plan.

Pirate Doctors

Garrr, Matey! Prepare for a high seas medical adventure! Students will explore the history of modern medicine by investigating how pirates, privateers, and other adventurers learned how to remain healthy while exploring the world. Class activities will focus on introducing students to medicine and history while applying creativity, communication, collaboration, and observation skills. Students will be challenged to design their own pirate ship health plan.

Potions In Motion

Become a Potions Master! This introductory chemistry and physics course is designed to challenge students to create and investigate chemical reactions that help our society to function. Class activities will focus on introducing students to chemical reactions while applying creativity, communication, collaboration, and observation skills.

Programming Your Story: ScratchJr

Calling all digital storytellers! This introductory programming and creative writing course is designed to challenge students to create stories using the ScratchJr app. Students will explore the elements of storymaking while also learning programming logic.

Robots as Problem Solvers (RaPs): Ozobots

Save the world with robots! This introductory engineering applications course is designed to challenge students to create and complete tasks using Ozobots. Ozobots operate by interpreting the color that is underneath them into a command. Students will collaborate to learn programming logic by creating color patterns that successfully tell their Ozobot to navigate a maze or complete an obstacle course.

Rube Goldberg Machines

Use the Engineering Design Process and basic physics to plan and construct a complex contraption designed to achieve a simple task. Simple and compound machines are used to make tasks easier. However, Rube Goldberg took a simple, easy task and made it way more complex. Work in a team to design, build, and problem-solve a more complex simple machine. How far can you go?

Second Time Around: Upcycling and Recycling CLOSED

When you’ve used something once, can you use it again - in a different way? What can you do with an old shoe that you have outgrown but also has holes in the sole? A pair of worn denim jeans? Can you make an old plastic gatorade bottle into something much better and more useful? This course will allow students to explore innovative ways to reuse and repurpose various everyday items - and will allow you to design your very own unique re-purposed item!

Sustainable City Design

Green architecture meets urban planning! Discover the latest methods for developing and maintaining a sustainable city. Investigate and choose the most sustainable features for your city from renewable energy to vertical farming. Students will be challenged to design and model their own sustainable city, review and critique each other’s creations to develop a class-wide model, and- as time allows- modify the design of existing cities.

Things That Go!

Let's GO! This class will be engaged in hands-on science experiments to make things go! Students will work collaboratively and individually to create a variety of vehicles that use different methods to move. Students will apply and expand upon their understanding of physics, math, and chemistry to discover what makes things go the fastest and the farthest.

Watercolor Works

In this course, we will explore painting with watercolor. You’ll practice basic wet and dry techniques, washes, and blends. You’ll also begin to acquire skill in composition and color development. Come ready to roll up your sleeves and put on your smocks!

World Explorers: Civilizations CLOSED

Do children around the world have to go to school? Do you know how other children your age spend their time? Using virtual means, we are going to travel across the continents to see how children your age (and adults) live, learn, work, and play. What continent and country would you like to explore?

WOW: Publish Me CLOSED

In this class you will publish your very own short story! First, you will analyze the techniques of various authors of short stories. Each week will be dedicated to crafting and honing each element of your short story, creating a vivid and detailed work complete with illustrations. With the help of your peers, you will revise and edit your story to create a final masterpiece. An Authors Gala will be held as part of the MSU G&T Program Exhibition/Celebration of Scholars' Work where stories will be read and all of your hard work will be celebrated.

Write, Create, Act

Be prepared to bring your pens, creative minds, and public speaking abilities to Write, Create, Think, and Act! We will use our writing skills to rewrite famous stories. After that we will design unique costumes for the characters we create. Finally, we will act out our new stories. Take this course if you want to use your imagination and creativity.

Grades 2-3

Aquatic Explorers CLOSED

Calling all explorers! Embark on a virtual tour of aquatic environments. Discover some of the coolest, strangest creatures on Earth. Make connections among pre-historic creatures and those we know to exist, today. Work collaboratively and individually to explore local geography, water conditions and currents, and the food web for the world's fresh and salt water zones. Could the Loch Ness Monster, Moby Dick, or the shark from Jaws really exist in today's oceans? Discover new underwater horizons as part of the Aquatic Explorer's Club!

Archeology: Recovering Artifacts CLOSED

How do you determine where to look for artifacts? What tools do you use to begin excavating a site? Learn about the ins and outs of the process of recovering artifacts from archeological digs, and which. Learn the skills necessary to safely recover historic artifacts and preserve them for further study.

Blood and Bones

How does the heart work? How and why does the main skull bone change over time? Explore the human circulatory and musculoskeletal systems with hands-on activities, games, and demonstrations. Class videos, photos, and demonstrations will likely include examples of mammalian body parts. This course prepares students who are interested in learning about biomedicine, including anatomy and physiology.

Chess and Strategy Games

Do you daydream about planning things like epic battles or ginormous cities? Develop your critical thinking skills by learning how to plan and apply strategies for winning chess and other strategy games. Collaborate with your classmates to play group games and mentor each other to advance your individual skills. This course is designed for players with a wide range of experience.

Coral Reef Crochet CLOSED

Imagine an entire coral reef designed by hand, composed of intricate needlework designs! Learn how to crochet and how to navigate the creative design process, as well as applications for natural science, math, and engineering. Explore the crochet coral reef project developed by Margaret and Christine Wertheim of the Institute for Figuring. What else can you design with the tools and skills required to crochet?

Creative Writing: Myths and Fairy Tales

This course, like all of our WOW! Series courses, is structured as a workshop and offers an opportunity to study myths and fairytales. We will study myths and fairytales from around the world and help you understand the techniques and the art of writing myths and fairy tales. You will gain greater skill, insight, and enjoyment as readers, thinkers, critics, writers, and publishers of your own (original!) myth or fairytale.

Graphic Design Techniques

What is the process for designing a new cereal box or movie poster? Discover how graphics for print media are created using the design process and learn about various graphic design techniques. Work collaboratively and individually to create graphics using computer software.

Knights, Dragons and Castles CLOSED

From the high sea adventures of the Vikings, to the forest of Sherwood, on to the battlefields of Europe with Richard the Lionheart, to the mythical Round Table of King Arthur, the Middle Ages provide us with the most interesting and fascinating people, places, legends, and events in history. In this course you will design castles to protect your kingdom, devise strategies to defeat dragons, and learn what medieval people ate, wore, and believed. Incredible stories of mystery, intrigue, romance, and adventure will come to life.

Painting Techniques CLOSED

Painting can be rewarding, challenging, and fun! Join your fellow aspiring artists in learning painting techniques and forms of painting. Explore the history of art through the evolution of painting techniques. As an artist, you will learn how to express your ideas through a powerful, visual language.

Poise & Public Speaking

Everyone has the potential to speak effectively, evolve their own personal style, and develop poise and confidence when communicating with an audience. In American schools, in-class presentations are becoming increasingly central to academic success. This class provides fun and easy exercises to help you discover your “power voice” within and how the correct use of that voice can help make you an effective speaker in front of an audience.

Robots as Problem Solvers: Ozobots

Rube Goldberg Machines

Scratch Programming

Coding has quickly become the newest "must-have" language for future professionals. Scratch is a programming language developed by researchers at MIT and designed to help children learn to program. Students will work collaboratively and individually to create interactive stories, animations, games, and/or music - all while learning the fundamentals of computer programming.

Shark Tank: Marketing your Product CLOSED

You are the entrepreneur! Find a problem that you want to solve, or a want or need that you think should be served. Create your product or outline your service. Then develop a marketing plan for it and present it to a real panel of business experts. Learn the 4 P’s of marketing and how to pitch your product too.

Superhero Science CLOSED
Have you ever dreamed of swinging on a web like Spiderman, having the strength of the Hulk, inventing the gadgets that James Bond or Batman use in their fight against evil, or having superpowers like the Xmen or Iron Man? There are villains everywhere and now, more than ever, we need super heroes/ heroines! What would your superpower be? For what would you use your superpower(s)? What would be your identity/brand? Would you keep your identity a secret? Learn the science behind the powers of your favorite superheroes and create a superhero of your own!

Sustainable City Design

Theater Games CLOSED

How is a stage transformed to tell a story? How do actors and actresses become their characters on stage? In these fun and engaging games students will learn more about staging tricks and the art of acting. Students will design and construct their own prop or mask to use in theatrical shows.