Social Studies & History
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🛸 Teaching Students to Question the Evidence: The Roswell UFO Investigation
The Roswell UFO Investigation Project transforms students into historical detectives as they analyze primary sources, witness accounts, military statements, photographs, and conflicting evidence from the 1947 Roswell incident. 🛸🔎 Designed especially for gifted learners, this inquiry-based experience develops critical thinking, source evaluation, perspective-taking, and evidence-based reasoning while challenging students to decide for themselves: What really…
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Why Every Gifted Classroom Needs More Real-World Problem Solving 🌎💡
Gifted students thrive when learning is meaningful, challenging, and connected to the real world. This post explores how inquiry-based learning, STEM, technology, and authentic problem solving help students build critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and innovation skills. Discover simple ways to transform your classroom into a place where curiosity leads learning and every student has the…
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10 Creative Ways to Use micro:bit in Your Elementary STEM Classroom (Plus How FarmBeats Adds Real-World Rigor)
By Beth Smith, M.Ed. | #smithingifted The BBC micro:bit is one of my favorite STEM tools because it does far more than teach coding. It transforms students into engineers, scientists, inventors, and problem-solvers. But here’s something many teachers don’t realize… You can take your micro:bit lessons to the next level by pairing them with Microsoft…
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The Secret to Stress-Free Vacations: Plan Less While Enjoying More ✈️🌎
This blog post explains how using a travel planner can make vacations more organized, less stressful, and more enjoyable. It highlights the importance of planning key details like budgets, itineraries, reservations, and packing lists in advance to avoid overwhelm and overspending. It also emphasizes how a planner can simplify family travel and help capture meaningful…
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Is Your Child Finishing Everything Too Quickly? They May Need More Than “Extra Work.”
Discover how to recognize the signs of an advanced learner and why these students need meaningful challenges instead of simply more work. In this post, you’ll learn practical ways to nurture your child’s curiosity at home and explore engaging, classroom-tested resources designed to develop critical thinking, creativity, STEM skills, and a lifelong love of learning.…
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Our Hometown: Roswell, New Mexico — More Than UFOs
Our Hometown Research Project is a ready-to-use gifted curriculum that turns your local community into a living classroom. Students investigate history, geography, economics, culture, architecture, tourism, and real-world problems while creating meaningful products like maps, graphs, podcasts, Google Earth tours, interviews, and community research projects. Designed for 3rd–5th grade gifted learners, this curriculum builds critical…
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Using Google My Maps in the Gifted Classroom: Mapping The Global Innovation Lab
The Global Innovation Lab is growing! 🌎🚀 In this post, I share how Google My Maps is helping us connect classrooms around the world so students can collaborate on real-world challenges like water conservation. If you want your students to think bigger, create meaningful solutions, and learn alongside students from other communities and countries, I…