Tryout TV; College for kids; Totv

The following program is a tryout TV production made possible in part by a special grant from the Friends of Channel 21, Incorporated. Let's do some thinking, see how far we can get and what you'll probably notice is that if we ask a question, any sort of an answer that we're l likely to come up with is going to include another question and another and another and another. And this process is going to keep on going. Which probably means that we're never going to know it all. But actually I think if you're doing any sort of science, whether it's biology or chemistry or physics or anything ah the real purpose of doing that is to generate questions so that you can go further and further and get a better and better feeling for what it is that you're dealing with. You improve your understanding by asking questions what was wanted was the introduction of these kids to a way of learning which

was somewhat different from what they experience in normal schools. A situation where the emphasis was on experience, on asking questions where no question was off limits and where it might be possible to encourage kids to be more receptive to uncertainty. To be more amenable to this whole process of asking questions, which I think is really the basis for learning anything, that bases education. By nature children are inquisitive. From the moment of birth they explore their environment, seek new experiences, ask countless questions. They have a natural need to know about their world and about themselves. A little more solid you see. We're getting down into the part of anybody needs some and doesn't have any. It's getting a little more solid. It doesn't have that softness to it because

it doesn't have as much earthworm activity. The earthworms are working down that far as much as they do at the surface. They do go down there but not as much. For some children however, the need to know is more intense. In truth, it is a rage to know. Children with a rage to know are often identified as being gifted and talented. And because they are ready for some learning experiences far beyond what is expected of them, they present a particular challenge to our educational systems. Education says that we should respond to the needs of the children. But the gifted child has unique and special needs also. There's the need to question, the need to deal with ambiguity, the need to delve into problems at depth, the need to to see the abstract issue, the complexities that can be there.

To some extent, the schools are responding to the needs of the gifted. But more than just the schools have responsibility for the education of the gifted, talented and creative. In Dane County, Wisconsin, parents, the public schools and the University of Wisconsin in Madison came together to create a special program called College for Kids. Within the resources of the school and ah even with with exceptional outstanding teachers, there comes a time when the school cannot meet all of the demands. And it's then the responsibility of institutions, like the University of Wisconsin to respond to the needs that we see in these gifted children and to open the facilities and the minds of the professors here on campus to these children to allow them, to to examine each other, to see each other, to mirror some of the same feelings and

experiences that they have. College for Kids provided these opportunities as 250 young people went to college for three weeks for three intense hours a day. And over 80 faculty and staff members from 61 different departments offered them very special experiences. [background talking] [background talking] Do you see it? Yeah, that's cool. Someone is moving around in there too. [background talking]. Now look around that slide, you're likely to find quite a few different things. Some will be moving and some won't be that there should be lots of those diatoms on there because there's a lot of them in the lake and in the on the [unclear]. Oh, something is moving. It's It's by a diatom. [background answer diatom] Look, quick it's moving with the diatom. Listen

There that is a live diatom I think because I detect a little bit of green in it which is chlorophyll. [background] I got a boat. This is one, mine's alive. So is mine. Yeah, Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. College for Kids is a very special program. It's special because instead of just providing a workshop experience; one in which children would come to the university and take a workshop in computers or a workshop in chemistry or lasers and holography. Instead, the children have been visiting all the major research areas on the campus and we're talking about the process of learning. So that the skills that one uses in learning chemistry may also be applied to the arts. The use of problem solving, the use of how to acquire information, how to ask good questions, how to search within yourself for the

questions and the solutions. Betsy Kean of the UW chemistry department. We're not going into theory. We are saying, what can you learn about the world around you. What can you learn about how the world operates. How can you make sense out of the world. Yes. To help children learn more about their world and consequently more about themselves were the goals of College for Kids. But how does a university do this for a group of elementary students? [background speaking] [Professor Walter Plaut, Zoology] What was wanted was an introduction of these kids to a way of learning which is somewhat different from what they experience in normal schools. The approach used by zoology professor Walter Plaut, was to encourage your students to question like scientists. That these these kids are not ah let me use the word brainwashed. They're much freer in what what can be asked, what can be done, what can be looked at.

This makes it a challenge because there isn't really any way of organizing a sessions like this. You have to let it take its own course. If you organize it, you in a sense defeat the purpose because then you predict what the results are going to be. And I have no idea what sort of predictions I should make. The whole idea is to that these kids explore on their own. Let me tell you what questions I ask. I'll ask Can I see the end of it. Is there something surrounding this object I'm looking at. Is there a membrane or wall around it. Secondly, I ask if there is a nucleus. Then I ask if there are some other parts which I know should be in a cell. If it's a plant cell or a plant object, I'll ask are there chloroplast there, bodies that contain green pigment. There are other portions of cells which we know should be there

and if they're present then it begins to look as though this were a cell. Wilbur Walkoe also let the kids explore. But in this case, they were learning how to solve problems. We devised an educational game that explores different ways the problem can be solved. Usually the commonest error is working on the wrong problem, defining the problem incorrectly. And so for important group of problems people solve, the important thing is the slow down and think about what you're trying to accomplish first. What we're doing today is to play a simulation game where they're beginning to explore an Aztec ruin. And the game is designed to look at the different roles in clarifying purpose, in gathering information and moving for solving the problem. It's what models a particular kind of problem and they learn it through experience. Learning through experience was emphasized. So was working on real world problems problems chosen by the children.

What will be doing tomorrow is going to a computer routine that I've written to support this kind of problem solving and the children will be working with that for two days. They've each brought in projects that they're interested in working on. The whole idea of the game video the computer program, is to set up kind of a balance between disciplined thought and wide open creativity. Ah, it tries to get the best of both. From biological sciences to physical sciences, from social studies to visual and performing arts, children repeatedly dealt with the delicate balance between the disciplined, logical approach and the freer, creative approach. In creative movement for example, children let their entire bodies explore the meaning of words. OK. And rest. Stretch up high, high and melt. Melt. Close your eyes. Close them. Feel everything melt. Make little melting sounds that helps you melting. Keep melting. Melt the elbow.

Structured by the need to convey a message to others, they are still free to interpret in their own personal style. They are also taught how to watch critically. Right now as an audience, a dance audience, going to watch. You know the theme of the dance, its threaten and cringe. Watch their movements to see how clearly they're telling you the theme, OK. Also watch for the space between them, whether the space get small or gets large or gets twisted around. OK, they're going to begin when they're ready and finish. Make your own finishing statement. OK. The rage to know encompasses art, music, dance and unless talented children have an opportunity to develop these talents at an early age, the rage to know in these

areas may be extinguished forever. Contrary to popular belief, the gifted don't always make it. At least 30 percent of our high school dropouts are gifted and many of their troubles begin appearing in junior high school. Troubles with identity. Troubles with accepting their own special abilities. [Donna Rae Clasen] What we want to do in College for Kids is to respond to the needs that we know are in gifted children. And to nurture these needs. To tell them that it's all right to be bright. That it's all right to question. And we hope by having them at this age when they go into high school or into junior high school, they will have had the experience of being in a community, in an environment where they found a place where their characteristics were accepted and validated. Across disciplines the children were encouraged to use their abilities. They were especially challenged to think creatively with Professor Francis Hole, children learned about the soil in a traditional way by studying soil samples. But they also

participated in a more creative approach, one integrating science and the arts. Was the first to do all the things. We're having leisure ease here today. And we're having leisure ease, pleasure on the soil. So we depend on the soil for this experience. So let's see how this goes. Roots of the tree. Where are the roots and ah soil [music] and [?] soil Badgers and bumble bees, [singing response] badgers and bumble bees Products like bread and cheese [singing response] products like bread Work place and leisure ease [singing response]

And on the soil. I approach the teaching of soil science, I think in a way that's rather unique. I don't approach it as a scientist alone. I approach it as a human being, ah, who is able to express himself in poetry, in music, as well as in words and as well as in numbers, figures. So you take some of the real soil, you're making a piece of jewelry on ah 15,000 year old soil, that's it's really valuable material. It's worth more than diamonds you can't eat diamonds, you can't grow carrots in diamonds but you can grow carrots in in the soil. Therefore in a sense, the soil is much more valuable. Gifted kids learn basic facts and skills with amazing speed and the rage to know drives them to get involved, to

experience, to produce, to create. Professors gave them these opportunities. In physics, children did holography. In chemistry, they made their own lasers. In art, they made etchings and designed copper bracelets. Yes, I guess I do. Very slowly and carefully. [background noise] And then the last piece. This one is very very hard. [background noise] So I want to be sure I've got it nice and dull red. [background noise] In the university television studios, they made their own commercial. OK, ready to roll tape down here. I want to talk back to you a second. Should I press countdown? Not yet. I'll

tell you when. Yeah. [?] Now, you can get rid of the third fader. Just use the fifth fader for the record. Fifth fader for the record. OK you're going to erase that all for me. Good Now were're waiting for Floyd. With you ask for Floyd is he's rolling tape? It's rolling Tom. Tom, thank you Floyd. OK roll tape down here. Tape rolling John, OK. ready to take bars and tone. John you know how to do tone. Yeah. OK. Take bars and tone. And you hold it for a minute for me. Take a signal joiner. Bring one of those up. Biological science science. Good. Now remember camera 2 he's going to go over good shot camera 4. Music, creative. That's right That's ok you're doing fine

Want to learn more about our... As professors and the university staff shared knowledge and skills with the children, there was an underlying feeling about the joy of learning. The atmosphere was charged with the excitement of discovery. Professors, teachers and kids were aware of it. I've also seen that these professors have an incredible spark. They have a real love for whatever area it is that they are working in and their enthusiasm has been rubbing off on to the kids and the kids come out also very fired up about the different areas, the different disciplines and they're curious, they're asking questions. If I were to put in just a few words what I want the kids to get out of that, is a joy in curiosity, period. It's fun to be curious. It's fun to ask questions and it's fun even though nobody can get you an answer. And it's fun even though you yourself cannot get to an answer immediately. I would like the children to have to go away saying to themselves, that was a lot of fun. It's a lot of pleasure

looking at soils, getting acquainted and acquainted with soils. We are hoping to get them excited about finding something out for themselves in planned way and giving them some laboratory experiences that are interesting and fun. After being in the laboratory for this week, we would really hope that students would take away with them an idea that science is exciting and they're curious, they're asking questions, they're enlightened I think by by having the experience of meeting these professors and being touched by that greatness or that enthusiasm. College for Kids. Kids absorbing information, exploring on their own, solving problems, asking questions. But should such a program be limited to students who are identified as gifted? College for Kids is set up specifically for gifted children. And because of that design, all children would not be comfortable in this

environment. The gifted child sees the world differently. The gifted child is comfortable with complexity. All children would not be comfortable in the mental stimulation that's provided. The gifted child is. It's a perfect fit. But it is not for all children. Every child, gifted or not, needs time to figure out what new experiences mean. During College for Kids, this time was called family time. In small groups of 10 or 12 under the guidance of a teacher who had received special training for working with gifted children, kids reflected on what was happening to them. And what's this? B.J.. A rock. OK we got in a rock. All right. Chris ,copper, ore. What do you think? Copper, ore. Copper ore. Bill, copper, ore. Conrad Brzezinski and Marilyn Sykes family, took time to prepare for a day in chemistry.

Why do you think it's copper ore? Are you certain about that. Why? Because we're extracting. We're extracting copper today, so you think that this is copper ore because we're extracting it today. Yeah. Yeah agree with Bill. Baron, are you skeptical or you agree? I agree. I agreed. Anyone skeptical, anyone, anyone going along with all this? Bob? It doesn't mean anything because What do you think? You might be but if we're working you know you're going to a dinosaur lab, you see a chipmunk run by that doesn't mean it's dinosaur. Good point there. Kids also talked about themselves. Because these students have special gifts, they also have special concerns and anxieties. Carol Berman's family talked about being in a special program. What kinds of things have you been able to share with your friends about College for Kids and what you've done here. I tell some of my friends just a little bit because I don't tell them too much of it because some friends that I have might think I am bragging.

They might think you bragging? Okay. Amy. My friends that I don't tell many of them either because they think that I'm just being just being a showoff and saying that I'm so smart and things like that. But I'm not. This is different because my class last year, I felt kind of awkward because the rest of the people in my class didn't know the answer to so many things. And you found yourself answering a lot? Is that sort of an uncomfortable feeling to feel like maybe you're the only one that. Yeah it's different in this class. Because they have few opportunities to share how they feel about being gifted, these children often feel isolated and alone. Kids in Janet Brandt's family saw this opportunity to share as an important part of College for Kids. And we would like to talk about today, why family time was important to you. I don't know that. I need to have you tell me why you think a family time was important. Lots of times you want to like if you have any ideas or something from the information you've got at the places,

you want to be able to have someone to tell them to. After like say you're walking back to where you meet, um you can just say what you think about it. If we don't have time for family time, we always have time to and we just After three weeks College for Kids came to an end. Did it work? Was it truly an educational experience for the children? Whether three weeks is enough? We don't know yet. We hope that it will touch on these kids lives. They can't possibly be the same after these three weeks. I think the most special thing about the whole program was having hands-on-experience with all the different um field and sciences that we used have to wait till we're a lot older to do. We had our own computer each

day and we could. um program a sequence into it and the big computer would talk to us from that terminal. It's better than school cause in school all you do is you sit down and you sit and work. Here you get to do things and you learn more about what you do. Here you get to be active with the stuff. You got to do do what he was explaining instead of just think about it. At school sit down do your work, sit down do this, sit down and be quiet. In College for Kids. Speak out. Say what you say what you feel. Say what comes to your mind. The learning experience might have been different. But did College for Kids help gifted intelligent children understand themselves any better or increase their acceptance of themselves? College for Kids there there was a lot of people that you could relate to so easily not like in school. Because it seems like everybody

here is so different. But they're more like you. You can relate to them to them better. You didn't always have to know what they were thinking because you could be thinking the same thing. You working with kids who think the same way you do. Or not same way but. They're thinking as fast as you do. You can see the lights light up in the children's eyes when the child next to them tells about some pressure that they've been under either with their own family or with the other children in school. And it was so good for them to have somebody else who really understands. The family is special because it's you can like. You can talk about things that you've never talked about to anybody else before. And they were understanding. And when you talk to them everybody else was you know sort of into the Idea of of talking about things that. And I

just came out and said that I wanted to say this or say that and I never said before. For the children, College for Kids did make a difference. It also seemed to have made a difference for the teachers too. A difference that might affect other children. I think through the weeks that we've been here and as I've dealt with these children, I've begone to see that the my role as a teacher in a program for gifted and talented children must change. I think that teachers have to divorce themselves from being the person who decides what a person has to learn. I think we have to deal more with what the student feels is important, what he wants to take in his world because he's going to do it eventually anyway. He's going to forget the things that you've mentioned which are irrelevant to his world and he's only going to remember and grasp the things which are important to him as a human being.

It's been very gratifying, has also given me insights into doing these kinds of things of another other settings. The strategies you can use with some modification in a regular classroom setting. The ways that information is approached the regard for information, the regard for our personal process and interaction with information can be taken back. The idea that there isn't really a definite answer all the time, this idea of certainty versus uncertainty. Those things can be taken back. In the final analysis, College for Kids really didn't come to an end. It met some of the special needs of gifted and talented students. It was a place where their rage to know was respected and nurtured and where these exceptional young people discovered it was all right to be bright. What they received will always be with them. It's hard to explain what I learned but you know, it's deep down inside you, you really what to learn and that I'm sad it's over.

The preceding program was a Tryout TV production made possible in part by a special

grant from the friends of channel 21 incorporated.