Investigations:
Gifted Program for Students in Grade 7

The seventh grade Investigations classroom provides additional challenge and opportunities beyond the regular curriculum. It provides a blend of enrichment activities, independent studies, and small group explorations that will challenge and accelerate the student. Opportunities for students are interdisciplinary in nature and involve students solving realistic problems.

Students in the Investigations program meet 4 times per cycle during the regular school day. In addition to enrichment opportunities, a reseach-based curriculum, developed by the College of William and Mary's Center for Gifted Education is used. The curriculum highlights persuasion, especially as it relates to oral communication.

Investigations students have the opportunity to particpate in many academic competitions which may include National History Day, ecybermission, ExploraVision, and various writing competitions.

Type 1 Activities

• Expose students to a wide variety of topics, occupations, persons, places, and events ordinarily not covered in the regular curriculum.
• Activities include field trips, demonstrations, films, and performances

Type 2 Activities

• Advanced research skills and analysis
• Exposed to activities that include data collection, levels of moral reasoning
• Mock trial simulations
• Advanced publishing skills

Type 3 Activities

• Represent the highest level of experience for the gifted student
• Students conduct their own historical research using primary sources
• Enable the student to become an actual investigator of a real problem or topic by using methods of inquiry and response
• Students take on the role of an acting professional in the field of science, history, writing, or community activism

Click here to view an Investigations class project on "Saving Animals from Every Toxin."

Integrated Humanities for Gifted:
Gifted Program for Students in Grade 8

Integrated Humanities for Gifted [IHG] is an integrated academic course that provides eighth grade gifted students with a curricular program that integrates English and the humanities. Students enrolled in this class pursue a rigorous literature-based curriculum that simultaneously integrates other academic disciplines.

The class uses the College of William and Mary's Center for Gifted Education's curriculum, which is combined with English. Students enrolled in this class conduct in-depth research and have the opportunity to present that research in documentaries, performances, exhibits, and other formats to peers and adults outside of the Governor Mifflin School District.

In addition to a structured curriculum, the IHG classroom provides additional challenge and opportunities. It seeks to unlock the potential of intellectually gifted students by providing a blend of enrichment activities, independent studies, and small group explorations that will challenge, accelerate, and develop the child academically and socially. Opportunities for students are interdisciplinary in nature, theme-based, community centered, and they involve students solving real world problems.

Type 1 Activities

• Students are exposed to a wide variety of topics, occupations, persons, places, and events ordinarily not covered in the regular curriculum.
• Activities include field trips, demonstrations, films, and performances

Type 2 Activities

• Advanced research skills and analysis
• Exposed to activities that include data collection, levels of moral reasoning, simulations where students become investigators of society
• Mock trial simulations
• Advanced publishing skills

Type 3 Activities

• Represent the highest level of experience for the gifted student
• Students conduct their own historical research using primary sources
• Enable the student to become an actual investigator of a real problem or topic by using methods of inquiry and response
• Students take on the role of an acting professional in the field of science, history, writing, computer technology, or community activism

Cathleen Scarborough, cscarbor@gmsd.k12.pa.us