R.E.A.C.H. Summer Gifted Program at ULM

R.E.A.C.H. at ULM Summer 2008 a Success!

For two weeks in July, 15 participants (ages 9-17) of the R.E.A.C.H. Gifted and Talented Summer Program investigated thematic interdisciplinary concepts and learned about Reactions, Change, and Structures. The learning enviornment was relaxed, creative, and the classrooms were filled with lively discussion, debate, and creativity.

The students created pottery, constructed a Rube Goldberg device, wrote and illustrated original books, ate lunch at the SUB, and swam at the Natatorium. All of the students watched as the older participants lauched a model rocket after that group investigated the reactions involved in lauching rockets. The students in the Changes/Structures mini-course learned about tesselations and created an original tesselation poster. Look at Escher! You have some competition!

Each student created his/her own t-shirt to keep as a memento of the learning experiences at ULM this summer program. In addition to learning new ideas, students made friends with "new" people in the mini-courses.

An exhibit was held on Friday, July 25th, 2008 to display the products created during the two weeks of this program. Coby Lamanno, a participant in the Reactions mini-course created an awesome logo to use on the t-shirts the program participants created (See top of this article.) The participants in this program were excited about this learning adventure and promised to come back again next summer....and they said they would bring friends!

Maggie Durbin, a teacher at Sterlington High School and a graduate student in the College of Education at ULM was the instructor of the Reactions mini-course. Katherine Sandifer, a teacher at Neville High School who is also a graduate student at ULM seeking certification in teaching gifted and talented learners, taught the younger students about Changes/Structures.

If you are an indentified gifted student, or a parent or teacher of a gifted child(ren) and would like more information about this summer program and upcoming events at ULM for parents and teachers of gifted children and for gifted children, bookmark this blog or email me at troxclair@ulm.edu.

If you are a teacher of the gifted seeking certification in the area of gifted education, there is still room in classes this fall. SPED 575 Characteristics of Gifted Learners and SPED 578 Social and Emotional Issues of the Gifted will be taught online via Moodle by Dr. Troxclair beginning August 18th.


R.E.A.C.H. stands for Research Enrichment Acceleration and Creativity for Children with High potential.