VIKES PROGRAM

Teays Valley’s elementary gifted program, known by the acronym VIKES, serves students identified in the Superior Cognitive area of giftedness, according to Ohio law.

Allowing gifted students progression to the fullest extent of their capabilities is the goal of the VIKES Program. The program’s objectives include creative problem solving, critical thinking, divergent thinking, logical reasoning, research methods, interpersonal relations, oral and written expression.

VIKES is a “pull-out” program. Gifted students in grades 3, 4, and 5 are pulled from their regular classrooms one day a week to attend class in a resource room staffed by a teacher trained in the education of gifted children. Marilyn Clifton, the current teacher, earned a master’s degree in Gifted and Talented Education and is certified to teach gifted students in all grades, kindergarten through 12th.

In the VIKES classroom, currently housed at TVHS, students are presented challenges and enrichment activities. They also have the opportunity to interact with each other, and research has shown that these very able students need time together to “be themselves.”

Content, instruction and process are all differentiated in the VIKES classroom. Emphasis is placed on the higher level thinking skills of analysis, synthesis and evaluation. Stories from the Junior Great Books series are read, notated and discussed. Terrapin LOGO teaches beginning computer programming via geometry- based problem solving. Students tackle challenging math problems from the Mathematical Olympiads for Elementary Schools and then compare their abilities to other students competing in this international program.

Each year, students pursue a major independent study during the second semester. Students research a topic for several weeks before writing a research paper, synthesizing a product related to the topic, creating a visual display and presenting an oral report. The culmination of each VIKES year is the Achievement Fair held in May when the students present their research to evaluators.

2009-2010 ACTIVITIES

LEGO Engineering Day
The 2010 LEGO Engineering Day's focus was transformers. During this enrichment class, VIKES students first built a robot before transforming it into a moving vehicle and finally transforming it to a moving robot. The students followed detailed instructions from Michigan Learning while using advanced LEGO parts and pieces from LEGO kits not available in stores.
" What a creative way to teach math, science, and technology in a hands-on session!" Marilyn Clifton said.
Pictures

Space Camp
The VIKES traveled to Space Camp in Huntsville Alabama in October. For more information about their trip, click here.
Pictures