General EXPO Information

All about EXPO

2024-2025

Parent Information and Awareness video

EXPO Basics:

• 1st-5th Grade students are pulled for GT services for 2 and a half hours weekly

• Kindergarten students are pulled for GT services 45 minutes weekly beginning March 1st

• Progress reports and their reflection will be available through your student’s Google Classroom account (they must log on via their Denton ISD portal for you to view it) at the end of each nine weeks period.

  • Students 2nd-5th will rate themselves-we will work together to achieve accurate self-appraisal.

  • Students will submit their self-reflection to me and I will provide feedback on whether I agree or disagree and why.

  • On my Google Site, there is a link for parents to complete a form stating that you reviewed their progress report with them.

• On occasion, students will have EXPO homework mainly involving elements of a research project or other large project

• Furloughs, Probation, and Exiting the EXPO program are instituted under special circumstances.

Curriculum:

The goal of the EXPO curriculum is not only to challenge your child,\ but to teach them how to become life-long learners.

Each grade level of EXPO students will study different interdisciplinary units that will exercise their creativity and higher-level thinking skills. Students will also participate in numerous scholarly activities and games.

All EXPO students will begin each year focusing on their affective skills in our Gifted unit. The unit focuses on self-awareness by looking at strengths, weaknesses, multiple intelligences, intellectual virtues, organizational skills, goal-setting, and generally what it means to be “gifted”. These topics are a great way for our gifted students to learn from each other.

Major units based on TPSP (Texas Performance Standards Projects):

2nd grade: Animal Adaptations and Biomes

Students will learn about how and why animals adapt to their environment. They will study the different types of adaptations such as migration, camouflage, mimicry, etc. They will use this knowledge as we enter our research on specific biomes and the animals that live there. Students will create a biome (at home) and a Google Slideshow presentation (at school) upon completion of this project.

3rd Grade: Math in Nature

This is a science and mathematics unit that allows students to explore and gain knowledge about mathematical patterns found in nature, such as tessellations and the Fibonacci Sequence. In conjunction with this unit, students will also challenge their mathematical reasoning skills through hands-on equations. The Hands-On-Equations program is a concrete kinesthetic approach to solving math problems.

4th Grade:  Enigmas and/or Texas History Museum

Enigmas: Students will investigate a naturally occurring enigma, an unsolved mystery. Each student will have an opportunity to explore in depth an enigma and hypothesize possible solutions. In their explorations, students will use scientific research processes. This guide links the Enigmas unit to the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) for fourth graders. Enigmas is a science unit that allows students to study a naturally occurring enigma, using scientific research methods. Though a science unit, Enigmas also leads students to practice skills in the other subject areas of English language arts, mathematics, and social studies. 

Texas History Museum: This project generates a deeper understanding of population groups that have settled in Texas. Students can study immigrant groups of the past or contemporary immigrant groups. How did the geography of Texas affect the settlers’ decisions to move here? What did geography have to do with their choices once they arrived? Students will understand how physical geography is vital to the decisions and choices people have made or will make. Additionally, students will learn concepts of cultural geography. What did population groups bring with them from their old homes? What contributions have they made to Texas? This project promotes understanding of others through the discovery of similarities and differences among population groups who come from various places around the globe to live in one place. Students will create an artifact representative of the culture they researched. The artifacts will be displayed museum-style in the library for all the students to see.

5th Grade: Part 1: What problem can I solve in the world? Part 2: Can I afford my lifestyle?

This project generates an understanding of how individual giftedness, overexcitabilites, can be used to solve local and/or global issues.  This unit allows students to explore their passion and how they can use their giftedness to help others. Students will research careers, local and global resources, colleges/universities/trade schools, and high school tracks to better solve or make a difference in their community. After choosing a possible career path and the necessary skills and education required students will research how far their income will go. Students will research the housing market, car market, and cost of living to fit their budget. Students will create a large poster to present to their peers and share how we can all make a positive difference in the world.

Additional Units:

K-2nd Grade-P.E.T.S. (Primary Education Thinking Skills)

Through the P.E.T.S. unit, students discover the world of higher-level thinking skills and the experiences and adventures of some loveable animal friends. (Dudley the Detective & Sybil the Scientist: Convergent thinking-deductive and analytic, Isabel the Inventor and Yolanda the Yarn-Spinner: Divergent thinking-creative and inventive, Max the Magician: Visual and Spatial Perception or reasoning and Jordan the Judge: Evaluative thinking)

Scholarly Behavior and Class Expectations:

Please complete the following scholarly behavior contract with your student: Form here

These are examples of what scholarly behavior looks like.

• I think carefully about my answer before raising my hand.

• I reread directions before asking for help.

• I look at the examples when I don’t understand the directions.

• I have all papers/handouts organized in my folder.

• I bring materials back to school the very next day after taking them home.

• I complete all of my homework each day.

• I seek knowledge even when it is not required by my teacher.

• I use different authors and resources in my research

• I ask about facts and think about questions.  I’m curious.

• I have empathy.

• I keep track of my learning in books, notebooks, journals, or electronically.

• When something is difficult or challenging, I don’t give up- I work even harder.

• I know what I want to do, and need to do.

My email address is scooksey@dentonisd.org . 

Please feel free to check out our site: https://sites.google.com/g.dentonisd.org/cookseyexpo/home