53. GATE Project

Last year, Christina was tested for the Gifted and Talented Education program or GATE. She passed the test and is now identified as a GATE student. What does that mean? Not much in our school district. All three of my kids have been identified as GATE students and I have to say that I have not seen much benefit to the program; they have the same work/homework as everyone else, they take the same tests and while they learn faster and perform better than most kids, I don't believe it is due to the GATE program. The only thing that is different, is the GATE project which they have to participate in and the GATE night in the Spring where they show off their projects.
This year's theme for Christina's grade is "Change through time". So she has decided to research and show how a banana changes from a bright yellow to a very ugly brown. To show the changes, she has been taking pictures of two bananas for almost three weeks! According to some of the research she has done, bananas changes occur faster with higher temperatures; This is why bananas don't last very long in the summer. And since we have been having some pretty cold days and nights, these two bananas have taken a long time to rot.
The project is supposed to be done at school. All the GATE students meet up in a classroom on Friday afternoons (during Friday Fun!) to work on their projects. But there is no way to set up the camera and bananas at school and make sure that they are not moved. Also, I was not about to send a DSLR (even if it's my cheap one) to school! So we set it up in her bedroom. She will bring the photos at school and work on her presentation there but this part is going to be completely done here, at home.
Stay tuned for more photos of the project later in this Blog...