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August 3, 2006

Gifted students exhibit talent in
Sacramento State summer program

10 year-old Courtney Charriere examines her egg project prior to her drop.

Fifth and sixth grade students who in the past may have been excluded from gifted and talented school programs showed the engineering skills they’ve learned in a Sacramento State summer science course. A presentation of the students’ final projects was made on Wednesday, Aug. 2. inside and outside Eureka Hall on campus.

The Jacob K. Javits Gifted and Talented Students Education Program, in cooperation with the Davis school district, Sacramento State faculty and the university’s Academic Talent Search, is offering a summer program to gifted and talented students who might otherwise be passed by due to economic disadvantages, limited English proficiency or disabilities. The science courses focus on scientifically based research, demonstration projects and innovative strategies to problem-solving.

The events demonstrated what the students have learned as they exhibit two different experiments: a hang time fly-off of paper airplanes, using the principles of flight, and an egg drop, illustrating engineering design principles. The egg drop presentation was divided into two parts. First, students presented their research in Room 112 then they demonstrated what happens when an egg is dropped from the second story onto the concrete below. No eggs survived. The airplane demonstration was moved to the grassy area east of Eureka Hall. The students formed a line and showed local news crews from News10-KXTV, KCRA-Channel 3 and radio station KFBK various forms of flight.

The Jacob K. Javits Gifted and Talented Students Education program is supported by a federal grant under the No Child Left Behind Act.

For more information, contact Professor David Jelinek at (916) 214-4491 or Professor Li-Ling Sun at (916) 214-4283. Media assistance is available by contacting the Sacramento State public affairs office at (916) 278-6156.

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