Gifted and talented students continue to develop new skills even while school is out with enrichment summer camps.
School may be out for the summer for most kids in the Evesham Township School District, but some are still hard at work thanks to the district’s summer enrichment program for gifted and talented students.
Through the program, gifted and talented students throughout the district are offered the chance to enroll in enrichment classes during two, two-week sessions where students can continue to develop new skills even while school is out.
Whether it’s learning about NASA, exploring 3D design by using a 3D printer, investigating the Earth’s climate or several other STEM-related classes, students get the chance to learn without having to worry about grades and tests.
“When we got together and planned the course offerings this year, I think they really did a nice job of changing up the courses, adding a lot of STEM pieces to them and making them unique,” said Danielle Magulick, the district’s director of curriculum. “The classes target kids and their interests, but also make sure they’re getting educated.”
One class offered this year taught students to examine structural engineering by requiring them to sculpt superhero-themed cake designs that can remain steady on their base.
Students met with a structural engineer in the beginning of the class who spoke on creating stable structures, and then students were tasked with looking up recipes for dense cake mix used in cake sculpting.
From there, the students designed their own structures, picked recipes, baked their cakes and began sculpting.
Teacher Marnee Morris and aide Susan Rossi ran the program, with Morris describing the class as one where the kids learned about problem solving and working with kids they didn’t know.
“They learned how to make something structurally sound because they had a lot of problems with things falling over at first,” Morris said. “The biggest takeaway is that the structure matters.”
Rising eighth-grade student Evan Aronow said the cake-structure class was his favorite so far because he’s learned something new while also enjoying himself.
“Even though it was education, it was also fun,” Evan said. “You got a chance to work with people from different schools and come together to make something cool.”
Another teacher at the district’s summer camp was Maureen Heenan, who taught the Mystery History Quest class.
Through the class, students used the Google Tour Builder program to digitally travel from country to country to present topics to fellow students, made board games based on New Jersey history, investigated world landmarks and even went to the Grounds for Sculpture on a field trip.
“The kids are great and their highly motivated,” Heenan said. “This really gets them out of the framework of grade, grade, grade, and allows them to just purposefully investigate and research things they’re really curious about.”
