Students study whales sharpen PowerPoint skills

— Fourth grade gifted and talented students at Decatur Northside Elementary School are learning about whales while sharpening their PowerPoint skills.

Students are studying oceanography, after studying the stock market for the past nine weeks, according to Tim Smithey, teacher for Decatur’s gifted and talented program.

As part of their studies, the students have been researching different kinds of whales and preparing PowerPoint presentations to teach their classmates what they have discovered, Smithey said. It will take about five weeks for them to prepare their presentations and, in the meantime, they are also readingMoby Dick and Carry On Mr. Bowditch, and watching clips from the Voyage of the MiMi.

Recycling Program

Fourth grade gifted and talented students have also taken on a recycling project as a way to serve their community, which for them is the school, Smithey said.

The students set out paper recycling bins around the school and then work together to gather all of the paper once a week.

“It’s fun and awesome and it helps the earth,” said student Summer Gunter.

The students began the recycling program last fall while they were studying their communities and natural resources, starting with their town, then working up to their state, region, country and finally the whole world.

“It’s hard work, but it’s worth it,” said student Brian Ward.

News, Pages 1 on 03/14/2012