“A week is not enough, but it’s a huge start.”      

 

   That’s how Allen County’s gifted and talented teacher Vicki Cooper described the pilot program that kicked o? Monday, June 10 for over 30 students.Thanks to many years of brainstorming and federal funding secured by Cooper, the ?rst Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) week-long day camp for local kindergarten through sixth graders took place last week.

 

   Modeled after similar STEAM programs hosted in Logan County, Cooper said,  “I knew if they can do it we can ?nd a way to make it happen here.”

 

   The district was awarded an $8,000 Title 4 grant speci?cally for this purpose. The students who registered were able to choose which classes they were most interested in taking, Cooper added, so she was able to cater the schedule to their liking.

 

   Over the course of the week, kids worked on building a small rolling robot, constructing a gingerbread house complete with a paper circuit board, expressing their creativity through acting exercises and honed their computer coding skills.

 

   “We want to expose kids to all of the di?erent kinds of opportunities,” Cooper added.      

 

   Cooper said she is very excited to give these students an environment to let their creativity blossom; extra time that a typical school day just doesn’t allow for.

 

   “There’s a misconception that you’re either gifted or you’re not,” she explained. “But that’s not the case. It’s just like if you speak Spanish. If you don’t use it, you lose it.  You have to foster and nurture those abilities and work those muscles.

 

   The STEAM camp wouldn’t have been possible without the teachers and instructors who agreed to lead, along with a volunteer who has been invaluable to Cooper and the GT program. Courtney Hughes, she said, has provided countless hours of her time into making sure  the camp and other GT activities are successful.In terms of if the camp will be o?ered in the future, Cooper said she’s already applied for more funding. She hopes to include middle school students next year and transportation the next. Since state funding is extremely limited, parents or anyone who wants to support more opportunities like STEAM for gifted and talented students can make a monetary donation. Checks should be made out to the “GT Activity Fund” and can be dropped o? at Cooper’s o?ce in the Allen County Primary Center.

 

   “We ?nally made it happen and I hope we can keep making it happen, Cooper said.