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Harbor View Holds GATE Project Showcase
posted: February 25th, 2010 02:30 pm |
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Talk about bells and whistles — Harbor View Elementary School was filled with steam, moving robots, movies and gymnasts on Thursday as GATE students’ independent studies projects were unveiled in a school-wide showcase.
“The amazing thing with steam is it’s not really particular about the source of fuel,” fifth-grader Rourke Funke told parents and other students who stopped by to look at his project. “It could be coal, or gas, or pellets like this.”
Then Rourke added a fuel pellet to a device that caused water to boil and steam to rise — making a whistle blow.
“That is amazing,” sixth-grade teacher Lisa Shard told him.
Shard’s daughter, Julia, was nearby explaining her Death Valley project to another group.
“I started the project after January, after I went to Death Valley,” Julia said. “It was pretty fascinating.”
Julia, also in fifth grade, used a salt-clay dough to create different desert landscapes and wore a Death Valley t-shirt.
Other projects included a study of gymnastics, with a demonstration, as well as a reports on black holes, the Holocaust, robotics and the healing power of crystals. Sixth-grader Caroline Alessandro created a project on couture, with forms and fabrics for visitors to use to make their own designs.
“I really enjoy fashion,” she said. “I was curious about the process.”
Independent studies projects and the showcase are part of the GATE, or Gifted and Talented Education program, which begins in fourth grade in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District. Students are required to create a tri-board presentation, an oral report and sometimes models, movies or maps to illustrate what they’ve learned about a topic of their own choosing. Harbor View had 30 students participate in the showcase.
