First- and second-grade students in the Socorro Independent School District’s Gifted and Talented (GT) program used their STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) skills to create toy turkeys that could fly and escape the barnyard before Thanksgiving.
This hands-on learning project was part of the “Turkeys Can Fly!” enrichment experience organized by SISD’s Advanced Academics Department in November at the Technology Services Center. The activities were designed to teach students about the physics of flight while encouraging creative thinking and critical problem-solving.
“I liked how it was going really high and far,” said Vincent Mares, a second grader at Escontrias STEAM Academy, about the paper airplane he made to help Tom Turkey fly over the barnyard wall. “It like went far, and it went over the wall.”
More than 300 GT students participated in the camps over seven days. They were tasked with building an airplane, bottle rocket and parasail that would overcome gravity to launch Tom Turkey over the wall and allow him to land safely on the other side.
Hueco Elementary School second-grader Juliette Hernandez enjoyed building the bottle rockets. Although her rocket failed to clear the wall the first time, she refused to give up.
“They were really fun, and we got to do a bunch of experiments, and I got to keep on going and doing it over and over again because I kept on messing up,” Hernandez said. “But I learned from my mistakes.”
The mission of the Gifted and Talented Program is to offer educational services that identify, nurture, and challenge the abilities of gifted students to their fullest potential.
Nancy Franklin, SISD Advanced Academics coordinator, said activities like this one allow GT students to collaborate with other likeminded peers and expand their talents in creative and enjoyable ways.
“GT kids need the opportunity to be able to think outside of the classroom, to do exploratory type activities where there isn't an end means that we already know that's going to be the way it comes out,” Franklin said. “We want them to find that end product on their own. And so, this gives them a challenge that they can then take and find the way to make it happen.”
Jasmine Gill, a second grader at Hueco Elementary School, said she was happy to participate in the camp because she loved to go on field trips.
“I made a rocket ship, and I'm building paper airplanes,” Gill said. Students followed instructions for folding paper into hunter, stealth, or raptor paper planes and used Play-Doh and plastic bottles to build bottle rockets. “We get to use a lot of stuff to do it well.”