Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums GT Research ideas for research project?

I've potentially found a good source of grant funding that will fund research into "the health and welfare of children" - blah, blah... which could easily accommodate G&T-type research. But now I need a project. If money were no object, what is it that you would like to pilot at your school? And why?

Thanks for the ideas! jojo

I don't know what you need. �How about letting students self-assign their classrooms in the early grades. �The worse that happens is one kid bites off more than they can chew and struggles until they've had enough. �Or another kid stays in kindergarten for three years before deciding his class-mates are babyish and choosing to move on- Anarchy and Chaos! �YaY � I'm just kidding.
What age group are you talking about?
Do you mean in a public or private school or pre-school? �Elementary or high school?
Are you looking for a grouping experiment, a type of cirriculum, an adminstratative/daily routine type of experiment? �Are you trying to give the kids more autonomy? �Integrate them better (by regrouping)? �You've got a lot of explaining yourself to do.

I'd always vote for more and better supplies and equipment for the school for music, art, and science. �

Hands down, for me, it would be early entrance to K, whether it be to test those with birthdays between Sept 1 - Dec 31 (our cutoff is Sept 1) or moving the cutoff date back to August (we start school and August) and allow for testing.

I like the idea of piloting an extended 'clubs' program, specialised areas of interest driven by students each afternoon with subject-specialists from universities/organisations/local businesses, etc. This could cater for a whole range of student interests. As my girls are in primary school, I would probably focus on years 1-7. And the pilot would probably be of great interest to public and private schools if it came with a business model that was sustainable. Hmmmm...

I also like the idea of investigating girls' attitudes to maths. We know these attitudes are set by about year 4. Hmmmm...

Still searching... jojo

JoJo, that sounds very cool. I would love something like that. (In fact, thinking ahead, I would probably homeschool dd and toss her in afterschool care 5 days a week if I could. I've GOT to have some time to work, but no reason it can't be in the afternoon...) Could you start at grade K? Or "grade ability 1, regardless of age".
Btw, what you said kind of reminded me of what Alexander Dawson's Afterschool Academy: http://www.dawsonschool.org/academics/after-school-academy/index.aspx

Here's a few ideas to research,how is it done and prove the benefits.

I'd like to see a Mentor Program or Online learning for some kids that need it. Let the kids out of some of the work they don't need to do this. How about an interactive class with kids across the nation. There needs to be a way to bring this into the school so that it is easy for the teachers and the school to manage and afford.

Test kids to see what level they are and let the kids move to the correct level classes during the school day. This would be a new scheduling system. Some how school need to learn it's good for the kids to do this. When some of the kids get done at a faster pace give them the option of something fun to learn or do.

Get kids more involved with nature/earth. I think this should be mostly outside of text book. Have them plant a garden or greenhouse and use this for the school cafeteria then study the economics and nutrition or learn to cook. Hike and learn about the variety of birds.

I think kids should have more exercise at school. Why not support this by combining Math with exercise or Dance in music class. Could each day start with some yoga at their seats.

I'd like to see more learning across subjects. Ex. learn about Mexico, cook the food, hear the music, act out a legend in a play, art project - clay pot, write a story related. I think the benefits of learning this way would be great to research.

Jumping the gun here, and definitely NOT trying to step on JoJo's toes, but my dissertation (next year) will probably revolve around the idea of an online learning program for HG+. If anyone has any thoughts on that, let me know.

I think one thing that's key, and that a lot of online colleges right now miss the boat on -- is the interactive potential between classmates. (The web is SO interactive... why are so many online colleges so minimally interactive? Perhaps its the nature of the consumers: mostly fulltime workers who don't want to/have time to linger and learn from each other?)

I think you might be right Clay! There is much potential for online learning programs.

The school we're at recently piloted a program to determine if learning outcomes could be increased by combining movement and learning (aka onthegomom's suggestion).

Thanks for the ideas. Keep 'em coming... jojo

This idea came from the online learning reply. �It doesn't really help the health and wellness research grant. �Well, maybe. �You could use Skyppe to make a little book club for the pull out students to meet online with a teacher and small class after reading quietly at their desk all week in their spare time. �But then you'd have to provide everybody with the same book to read. �That might be a problem. �

I've been in multiple user audio chat using Skyppe. �You could use it to get small groups of kids together, at least with audio. �I've also seen people advertising language lessons on skyppe for a negotiable hourly rate. �Maybe you could use that somehow to fine-tune a foreign language class for some advanced students from different schools at the same time with an native instructor.

Skyppe is free, but I don't know how large of a group it will host at once. �

And about financing the extra circulars. �I keep hearing how they keep getting the axe due to budget cuts. �Can you talk to a tax expert and find out if local business donated time and resources to after school clubs if that qualifies them for a tax credit. �It's not exactly a "charitable donation", but it might be something similar. �If it's not it should be.

If that's not purely rhetorical, I have some thoughts for you. In every vibrant online community I've been a part of, there's an "expert" population. People who really know about [whatever the community is focused on], and are willing to freely give their time to spread the word and help newbies, because they like the topic and they like teaching. So you have 1,000 different newbies all asking the same 5 questions, having made no effort to discover the answers to those questions by reading previous posts, and 5 or 10 folks semi-patiently re-answering them, but also discussing more-advanced topics among themselves. Every now and then, a moderately-experienced person will come along, and will stick around if the more-advanced conversations teach them something.

In an online college situation, there are rarely any resident experts, pretty much by definition. And people outside the class (who could form the expert group, or even be the mid-range crowd) aren't allowed to drift in. The community is just too small to take on a life of its own.

When I went back to school to get my accounting hours, I took an online business stats class, because I wasn't sure my prior hours of psycho-stats would count. I like stats, and since the class wasn't very mathy, what I remembered from previous (very mathy) classes was enough to make me the expert among the student group. Let me tell you, there is nothing fun about answering the same question ten times over without the reward of being part of an "expert" peer group. Particularly when most of the people didn't come back to read the answer, much less express appreciation.

I do taxes for a living, and on the tax boards, the expert group (who are all full-time workers) give their time even during tax season, because we know that what we learn from the group (from other experts' comments, or from looking up an answer we didn't know, or not infrequently because one of the midrange group has specialized knowledge in an area previously unknown to us) is well worth the time we put in.