SIG - Hudson
Week 3 Newsletter
Important Information
Closing Ceremony information:
- Our Gallery of Student Achievement is located on the 3rd Floor of the school, and is open from 4:00 to 4:30 PM.
- Our Certificate Presentation will begin promptly at 4:30 PM in the gymnasium on the 4th Floor. All of our students will receive a certificate recognizing their achievements.
- Special congratulations to Jason Schreiber and Justin Zuna, who will receive plaques at the ceremony to recognize their third summer of excellence at SIG! Both boys have been at the SIG - Hudson campus since its inception in 2011.
Thank you to everyone for this SIGnificant summer of adventures! We hope to see you all again next year.
Under The Sea
In our final week, the students spent time creating a PowerPoint presentation to explain about the oceanographer they studied, and to present the answers to five ocean questions they had. They ended the week presenting these to their peers on the television. Students also learned more about ocean creatures, unique fish, and marine life in the midnight zone of the ocean. Additionally, the students combined their marine science and speaking skills when they split into groups to study major marine events, such as the Deepwater Horizon spill, the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, and the discovery of the Titanic. This information was conveyed in a “news report” in their speech class.
Note: If you are interested in obtaining the PowerPoint presentation your child created, please e-mail Mal at hssd@aifs.com.
The Detective
Things were certainly mysterious this week!! Because we are now experts in looking at crime scenes, interviewing witnesses, looking at clues, and solving mysteries, our class decided to take a hand at creating our own mysteries. Some were really difficult and we were almost stumped, but we all had fun with each other's mysteries!
Sports Stop - B
It has been great to see the students approaching the sports we play with more strategy and thought. This is helping them to enjoy the games more as the resulting increased team cohesion helps them to experience more and more success. In the classroom component of the course, students have created some very original games and we have even had the opportunity to play some of the games students have invented!
Building Blocks of Engineering
Students continued to explore options to meet the challenges they created. We discussed design flaws and made modifications to their projects. We reviewed various concepts including Friction, Propulsion, Thrust, and Precision. Some students showed interest in other projects and were able to complete an additional project. Others who were unsuccessful with their first challenge, modified or completely changed their projects.
Curious Chemist
The chemists wrapped up their final week by learning about other aspects of chemistry and science, such as chromatography, magnetism, elements, and plant cycles. They learned how different types of pigments are used in washable markers, testing this through chromatography. Also, they played a magnet game representing the attraction and repulsion between magnets, and an ocean game learning about the roles of different types of sea life. Students continued to learn about various elements, and they dyed carnations to learn how the water moves through the flower and transfers the dye. Students completed their final project, using the Scientific Method to answer an individual question, and to report their results of research and experimentation.
Art Alley
A tornado of little artists burst into Art Alley and out came these incredible assemblages from cast off materials for their final projects! Making something out of nothing, creative minds artistically arranged the "junk" into art and became dioramas, stage sets in a box, buildings, a jungle, a hotel, sculptures and imaginative constructions! From what the students learned at SIG and what is important to each, a work of art evolved.
Sports Stop - A
This week in Sports Stop students grappled with the competitive nature of sport. Highlights of the week included soccer and basketball challenges, as well as a fierce kickball game that spanned over the course of three days. After spending half of each period engaged in physical play, our class would congregate downstairs to discuss the more intellectual aspects of the game. Students learned about the rules of baseball and compared and contrasted them to their experiences in playing kickball through illustrations and discussion.
Cracking Codes: Patterns & Probability
This week, the students have been putting the finishing touches on their major project. As a way of showing what they have learned about making and breaking codes, we have students creating board games, making models, and composing stories! We are excited to share these creations with our families and friends at the Closing Ceremony.
Biology of Me
Biology of Me students had a very exciting last week of class. They completed their end of course projects. Each student presented their project and their at home assignment to the class. They are looking forward to parents seeing them on Friday. Students took one last look at all our anatomy models and recreated the DNA strand. Time was spend in the computer lab finding biology games that related to their project. We did a few more experiments, including using celery and cream cheese to demonstrate what clogged arteries look like. All their questions and some extras were categorized to create our very own Jeopardy game to play on our final Friday.
Simple Machines, Complex Designs
We spent time this week putting together all the simple machines we learned about into a complex machine that will perform one task. That's right, we decided to make a Rube Goldberg machine! After some class discussion, we decided to design a machine that will give a treat to a dog. We had fun working on this project, and I'm sure our dog enjoyed his treat!
Lessons from the Wild Things
Every class began with reading a book to the students sitting in a circle and will end with each student author reading his very own book he/she bound, wrote and illustrated. We talked about the books that were read in our reading circles. This week, we had a student read to the class a book he brought from home. The class then finished up their books and they are sensational! Some wrote a whole story with pictures, having a beginning, a middle and an end, with trouble in the middle. Some made a book on butterflies or animals and insects, racing cars, while some told a story. The students who finished their book learned to make an accordion bound book, and they look beautiful.
Expanding The Universe
Students further developed their final projects, either by doing research, or constructing models based on their their individual projects. Students created multimedia models, dioramas, and displays, each dealing with a different theme in astronomy. Students planned space missions, space colonies, imaginary solar systems, depictions of the universe, the formation of earth, and planet models. Students used research to create textual elements in their projects that support their topics and/or original ideas.
Spying: Secrets, Surveillance, and Science
The students have spent the week putting the finishing touches on their major project. A number of the students have designed a series of spy gadgets, synthesizing what we ave covered in class with their understanding of real-world application. We also have a game that requires an understanding of spying and a narrative that has been constructed around the world of espionage!
Speaking, Writing, Empowering!
This week in Speaking, Writing, Empowering! students studied the more advanced aspects of speaking (such as a tone, tempo, pitch, and volume). During speeches and speaking exercises, a heightened emphasis was placed on delivery; most notably, eye contact. Our class will wrap up with students selling products in mock advertisements, delivering the news in taped newscasts, and presenting essays that display their own creative/individual interests.
Rocks, Minerals, & Crystals
Students learned about other types of rocks, such as birthstones and gems used in jewelry, and they used a computer to study the “Gem Encyclopedia” and learn about the origins of many famous and obscure gems. They learned about mining using chocolate chip cookies, blood diamonds through a National Geographic video, and responsible consumerism based on these lessons. Students created their own “jewelry” and completed their final project, which was to create a rock, mineral or crystal. For the final project, students wrote a story about their discovery, and created an informational poster with the characteristics of rocks they have learned about throughout this class.
SIG - Hudson
Thank you for a great program!!
Email: hssd@aifs.com
Website: www.giftedstudy.org
Location: 600 Park Avenue, Hoboken, NJ
Phone: 732-703-7320
Facebook: facebook.com/SummerInstituteForTheGifted
Twitter: @SIGifted