Eggstraordinary students in Vacaville – The Reporter

By Joel Rosenbaum

The task for Friday for the students in the Gifted and Talented Education or GATE program at Alamo Elementary School was to create a capsule that will keep a raw egg from breaking after it has been dropped from the height of about 12 feet.

Starting with a 2-liter plastic bottle and working with items like popcorn, rice, cotton balls, marshmallows, and even mustard and mayonnaise, the students set forth to design the safest container to keep their egg from going splat.

Other guidelines for their capsules included the egg having to be 25 percent visible, no bubble wrap, Styrofoam or any material that is specifically designed and used for sending packages, including cardboard and egg carton materials.

Source: Eggstraordinary students in Vacaville – The Reporter

Trustees OK hotel, Great America, Mary’s Pizza Shack costs – Daily Republic

By Ryan McCarthy

Hotels stays costing $2,926, tickets to Great America totaling $2,502 and catering for a Crystal Middle School event have won Fairfield-Suisun School District trustees’ approval.

Mary’s Pizza Shack in Fairfield catered the Gifted and Talented Education event for more than 200 students and family members. The catering cost $1,231.

The Great America trip was for an eighth-grade class trip at the Sheldon Academy of Innovative Learning.

Source: Trustees OK hotel, Great America, Mary’s Pizza Shack costs

GATE Olympics emphasize teamwork – Daily Republic

By Susan Hiland

Tuesday was a fun day of challenging activities and learning for students at K.I. Jones Elementary School.

About 285 students participated in the first of two days of the GATE Olympics, which challenged them mentally and physically to work together to meet the goals of the program.

GATE stands for Gifted and Talented Education.“Sometimes kids who are gifted have a difficult time working in a team,” said Principal Michelle LaBelle-Fisch. “This program is to help them learn to work together.”

via GATE Olympics emphasize teamwork.

For GATE students, the ER comes to Vaca High – The Reporter

By Richard Bammer

Drawing blood. No, not for the squeamish, that’s for sure.

But most of the 125 students who attended a Gifted and Talented Education event, dubbed GATE-ER, which offered learning about medical sciences, sat, watched and listened Saturday at Vacaville High.

There, in about five different classrooms at the West Monte Vista campus, the students, all of them in the elementary grades, learned the details of phlebotomy, X-rays, making a cast for a broken arm or leg, and cardiopulmonary resuscitation, among other things.

via For GATE students, the ER comes to Vaca High.

School district to roll out some GATE program changes next year – Daily Republic

By Susan Winlow

The school board paved the way Thursday with a unanimous vote to make changes within the Fairfield-Suisun School District’s Gifted and Talented Education program in 2015-16 that will facilitate future alterations beyond next year.

The vote at the governing board meeting pertained mostly to elementary school and contained “components” approved that would give “full flexibility” for a to-be-formed committee of stakeholders to continue with the changes that will affect the middle school GATE program.

Currently the GATE program is third through eighth grade with an elementary magnet or main program at K.I. Jones Elementary School and two middle school magnets at Grange and Green Valley middle schools. The other elementary and middle schools have “cluster” programs with varied advanced instruction that is inconsistent or nonexistent, district officials have said.

via School district to roll out some GATE program changes next year Daily Republic.

School district mulls over GATE program changes – Daily Republic

By Susan Winlow

Changes could be coming to the Gifted and Talented Education program – also known as GATE – which could see the reduction of a magnet site at the middle school level, but the increase in “cluster” sites at current schools within the Fairfield-Suisun School District.

School district officials said it’s a way to meet the needs of all GATE-identified students by supplying additional access and also enhancing the program. Not everyone agreed, however, with the possible shifts set on the proverbial table, and a recent parent poll indicated unhappiness with the current cluster programs.

The GATE program is currently a third- through eighth-grade program with the main magnet program at K.I. Jones for the elementary level and two main magnet programs at Grange and Green Valley middle schools.

via School district mulls over GATE program changes Daily Republic.