For Gifted Kids

You don't have to be labelled "gifted" to love learning. In fact, these sites might make you love it even if you don't like traditional school.

This list is from my old website of activities for Gifted time and innovation lab, so if the links don't work here for some reason, Here's the original post:

http://piedmontpd.weebly.com/studentspace/welcome-to-curriculum-compacting

All Subjects:

• Curations for the Curious Lessons from Ms. Gurthie based on items in the Makerspace Workroom and office. Choose any from this list http://piedmontpd.weebly.com/studentspace/category/curations

• Ms Gurthie's Studentspace- My old site of cool stuff. Scroll down it far enough and you'll find something you like - http://piedmontpd.weebly.com/studentspace

• Academic Competitions - google “middle school contest” or competition. Some require teams and money but some are free. https://tsaweb.org/competitions-programs/tsa/middle-school-competitions

• ​DIY Lessons -any topic at https://diy.org/skills

• Khan Academy -any subject https://www.khanacademy.org/

• Independent Research -any topic- Use Google Scholar, NC WiseOwl or another reputable source of academic info. Spend the class reading about this topic.

• Independent Video Scholar. - Explore some educational Video Channels. Find one you like and watch any 5 full episodes. Then use Screencastify or your phone camera to make a video telling what you learned. More here, including a list of channels ​http://piedmontpd.weebly.com/studentspace/curations-for-the-curious-video

• Podcaster- Record a podcast using vocaroo on your chromebook.

  • (an example is this Citizen Science from ExploreAStory- a podcast about museums, science and storytelling.

    • ihttps://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLL8_5VpX9TxrgEhcI8juCe3EkEI2ukOBB Share link plus your name, recording location, and “30-45 recorded seconds of your environment, preferably outside, anywhere (and everywhere)” with Ms. Gurthie she will and email to “exploreastory(at)fieldmuseum.org, with the subject line "OK to share- EAS."

• Content Curator - Compile a website of useful information and images plus links on a topic you know well or wish to learn more about. Website: Use Weebly or Google Sites.

• PowerPoint Party - Host a "Powerpoint Party" - Make a slideshow about anything that interests you then share it with your friends on Zoom - inspired by my son's college "secret society" that does this with their own life stories, and by the 14 year old featured in this tweet

• Design

  • Computer Assisted Design (CAD) Use Tinkercad to create a design.to 3D print. https://www.tinkercad.com/

• Science

  • Simulated Science Labs -Phet Science /STEM Experiments https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulations/category/by-device/chromebook

• Math

  • Khan Academy Math-explore any Math topic or grade level

  • Dan Meyer Math- Click on any lesson and view https://docs.google.com/a/cms.k12.nc.us/spreadsheets/d/1jXSt_CoDzyDFeJimZxnhgwOVsWkTQEsfqouLWNNC6Z4/pub?output=html

• Humanities

  • Play Spent (Game about Money. Play as an adult and keep to your budget) http://playspent.org/

  • Connect with Haji Kamal - A decision making model designed for the USArmy

  • Economics Simulations

  • Nobel Prize- The Nobel Prize organization has a whole section on education simulations/games that have been nominated and/or won Nobel prizes! Social studies topics can be found in multiple categories: medicine, peace, and economics.

  • Historical Simulations - A collection of historical simulations

  • Flight to Freedom - This role-playing game simulates the experience of fugitive slaves.

  • Westward Ho! – (6-12) Travel the Oregon Trail! Lots of laughter, learning and realism in this online simulation.

  • Edo Japan, A Virtual Tour - A detailed virtual tour of 18th century Edo (now Tokyo) using traditional web pages.

  • iCivics- Lessons that include simulations for studying constitutional rights, debating, roles and responsibilities of the president, and the 3 branches of government.

  • Playing History- A collection of historical simulations and games that include various areas of social studies.

• Language Acquisition /Language and Literature

  • Learn to Speed Read

    • http://www.mrkent.com/speedread/

  • Learn a New Language

    • Use Duolingo, Memrise, or any app https://www.memrise.com/courses/english/languages

• Computer Science:

  • Coding- Free Exploration -https://scratch.mit.edu/ or iPad/phone app such as Haikitzu or Blockly or Sphero Edu (robot ball coding)

  • Computer Programming Courses

    • Code.Org https://code.org/student/middle-high

      • App Lab https://code.org/educate/applab (must be 13)

      • Game Lab

      • Web Lab

    • Khan Academy Programming Courses https://www.khanacademy.org/computing/computer-programming

      • ____JS (javascript)

      • ___HTML

      • ___SQL

• Free College Courses- Don’t be frustrated if you don’t get it yet, this is just if you’re curious to look around. Do not join a Mooc or course that requires you to start on a certain day. Select the ones that you can view right now.

  • MIT Courses Online https://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm

  • Yale Open Courses https://oyc.yale.edu/

  • Coursera- Search for free Courses in tons of things. Very esoteric. For example, here is a course called “Online Games: Literature, New Media, and Narrative” that is about video games and literature. https://www.coursera.org/learn/interactive-media-gaming