"The term ‘gifted and talented,” when used with respect to students, children, or youth, means students, children, or youth who give evidence of high achievement capability in such areas as intellectual, creative, artistic, or leadership capacity, or in specific academic fields, and who need services or activities not ordinarily provided by the school in order to fully develop those capabilities."  (Federal Definition)

In our LES Gifted Classroom, we use project based learning to accelerate student learning and make real-world connections needed for future success and development.

Problem-based learning (PBL) is a teaching style that pushes students to become the drivers of their learning education. 

Problem-based learning uses complex, real-world issues as the classroom's subject matter, encouraging students to develop problem-solving skills and learn concepts instead of just absorbing facts. 

Aspects of Project Based Learning

• Challenging students to understand classroom concepts on a deeper level.

• Pushing students to make decisions they're able to defend.

• Clearly connecting current course objectives to previous courses and knowledge.

• Encouraging students to work as a group to solve the complex issue at hand.

• Engaging students to solve an open-ended problem in multiple complex stages.

Benefits of Student-Led, Problem-Based Learning

Student-led learning is one of the most empowering ways to seat students at the forefront of their own educational experience. 

It pushes students to be innovative, creative, open-minded, and logical. It also offers opportunities to collaborate with others in a hands-on, active way. 

As part of our immersive educational model, we've discovered many benefits of problem-based learning:

• Promote self-learning: As a student-centered approach, problem-based learning pushes kids to take initiative and responsibility for their own learning. As they're pushed to use research and creativity, they develop skills that will benefit them into adulthood.

• Highly engaging: Instead of sitting back, listening and taking notes, problem-based learning puts students in the driver's seat. They have to stay sharp, apply critical thinking, and think outside the box to solve problems. 

• Develop transferable skills: The abilities students develop don't just translate to one classroom or subject matter. They can be applied to a plethora of school subjects as well as life beyond, from taking leadership to solving real-world dilemmas.

• Improve teamwork abilities: Many problem-based learning projects have students collaborate with classmates to come up with a solution. This teamwork approach challenges kids to build skills like collaboration, communication, compromise, and listening.

• Encourage intrinsic rewards: With problem-based learning projects, the reward is much greater than simply an A on an assignment. Students earn the self-respect and satisfaction of knowing they've solved a riddle, created an innovative solution, or manufactured a tangible product.