Another GIM of a Night
Gifted Program Projects Presented
What do wind power, fashion design, and constructing your own computer have in common? On the surface, not much. But these were just a few of the project topics that the Gifted Independent Mentored Study participants choose this year to research. GIMS invites gifted students in the 11th and 12th grades to select a topic that they would like to know more about and then supports them as they independently research and construct a project around that topic. GIMS Coordinator Bruce Howell said, "We will try and match up each student with an expert in the field of the topic that they have select to serve as a mentor. The amount of contact that each student has with his or her mentor varies based on the need of the student, but the fact that they have someone to bounce questions off of or to open a door to someplace inaccessible is invaluable to our program."
Participants this year were: Naiomi Gunaratne (A History of Newspapers), William DeCraene (Architectural Design), Greg Dzuricsko (Nihilism and its impact on 19th Century Russian Literature), Grant Fitzgerald (Constructing a Hovercraft), Skya Gentle (Fashion Design), Reggie Jansen (Wind Power and Constructing a Wind Turbine), Neal Kfoury (The Psychological Causes of Homelessness), Ben Rowe (Constructing a Home Computer), and Michael Swartz (Research into Dark Matter).
GIMS Night is the culminating event where each student reports out on his or her project. Parents, mentors, faculty, and the general public are invited to see what each student learned in the process. This is the sixth year for the GIMS program and a large part of the support of this program has come from Mr. Logeman who is retiring after this year. All of the GIMS participants, past and present, owe a debt of gratitude to Mr. Logeman for the role that he has played in developing and supporting GIMS.
