In this issue:
• See SIG in Action at Campus Visitation Days!
• An Interview with DI Scholarship Winner Jack Duffus
• Student Puzzles
• Article: Meeting the Needs of Highly Talented Youth

We are excited to announce that SIG will be hosting Visitation Day programs at each campus this summer. You are invited to join us to learn about the program first-hand. The day will begin at 10:00 AM and activities will include campus tours, classroom visits and lunch with students, faculty and staff.

Schedule of Visitation Days

• Vassar College Session I: July 4 and 9
  
• Denison University: July 4 and 9
  
• Drew University: July 11 and 16
  
• George School: July 11 and 16
  
• Vassar College Session II: Aug 1 and 6
  
• Bryn Mawr College: Aug 8 and 13
  
• Amherst College: Aug 8 and 13

If you have any questions or wish to make a reservation for the day, please contact Danielle Carpino at 866-303-4744 (toll free) or at [email protected].

An Interview with DI Scholarship Winner Jack Duffus

In last month’s newsletter, we announced the new partnership between SIG and Destination ImagiNation®. SIG and DI share a common commitment to the development of creativity, teamwork, self-confidence and enrichment opportunities for our participants and organizations. Students select one challenge and spend several months perfecting their "solution" for tournament day. Teams also hone their on-the-spot problem solving skills as they practice coming up with solutions for Instant Challenges-- additional challenges that are revealed to the teams only minutes before their presentation time. Competitions begin locally but culminate in the Global Finals. At this year’s Global Finals in Knoxville, TN, SIG awarded a full scholarship for a 2002 program to Jack Duffus of Granville, OH. Jack just started camp at SIG’s Denison University campus, and this is an interview with him about SIG and DI.

Q: Are you enjoying your time with the Summer Institute for the Gifted?
A: "It's a blast! It's a really great way to spend my summer. I am having fun and learning so much."

Q: With Destination Imagination, what was the group's challenge you chose to solve?
A: "We chose the challenge where we were stranded somewhere and had to build a machine from a few simple tools. Our group was stranded in a dishwasher and used the water and the door to get us out."

Q: What do you think the similarities between Summer Institute for the
Gifted and Destination Imagination are?

A: "The fun. I'm also challenged to use my mind all the time."

Q: Any other similarities that come to mind?
A: "I like the people. There are more people in my groups that are like me. We want to learn without being forced."

Q: When you are at the Summer Institute for the Gifted and Destination
Imagination, do you feel at home?
A: "Definitely. I feel right at home. I know a bunch of the students and it’s great to see them."

Q: If you could choose any career, what would you do?
A: "I want to go to California and be a mechanical engineer. Not the kind in an office all day, but 'out there' playing around. A hands-on job."

Q: Do you get that hands-on experience with Summer Institute for the Gifted and Destination Imagination?
A: "It's mainly hands-on for me. I love it."

Our first Puzzle received a number of responses, some correct and others close. Here is the Puzzle for those who did not see it before:

The Locker-Reversal Problem
At the Lincoln Park High School there are exactly 1000 lockers (numbered 1 through 1000). The student body at Lincoln Park High School numbers exactly 1000 students. On the opening day of class in September the students line up in front of the school, single file. All 1000 are present. They conduct the following procedure:
The first student enters the building and reverses each locker. (Reversing a locker simply means that you close a locker that is open and you open a locker that is closed).
When the first student is finished reversing each locker the second student enters the building and reverses the lockers 2, 4, 6, 8, ...., Etc.
When student 2 is finished the third student enters the building and reverses the lockers 3, 6, 9, 12, ......Etc.
When student 3 is finished the fourth student enters the building and reverses the lockers 4, 8, 12, 16, Etc.
When student 4 is finished the fifth student enters the building and reverses the lockers 5, 10, 15, 20, Etc.
In general, the n th student, upon his/her turn, enters the building and reverses lockers numbered n, 2n, 3n, 4n, ......
The process continues right on through the one thousandth student. All the lockers are closed prior to the first student entering the building. The problem is how many lockers are open after the last student, student number 1000, has finished the reversal process?

The first student with the correct answer was:

Matthew Keeter (age 12) from Atlanta, Georgia. Matthew will be attending SIG this summer at our Vassar College Second Session.

Matthew wrote:

The answer is: 31 lockers will be opened. This is calculated based on
the number of "squares" which are under 1000. 31^2 is 961, and 32^2 is
1024, so 31^2 is the highest square under 1000. I did this first with
100 lockers and made a big chart. I noticed that there was a pattern- 4,
9, 16, etc., which are all square numbers, ended up being left open. So, I
calculated some higher numbers squared, and found that 31^2 was the
highest I could go before going over 1000. Thank you.

Dr. Phillip Zipse, the SIG Puzzle Master, replied to Matthew:

Very good Matthew, and you're absolutely correct.
It's the lockers that are numbered with a "perfect square" that will
be open at the end of the process. The basic mathematical principle
behind this is that perfect squares have an odd number of divisors,
all other numbers have an even number of divisors. For example,
the divisors of 64 (a perfect square) are: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64.
So students # 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 engage locker # 64.
Therefore locker # 64 is engaged 7 times and hence open at the end of the process.
The divisors of 63 (not a perfect square) are 1, 3, 7, 9, 21, 63.
So students # 1, 3, 7, 9, 21, 63 engage locker # 63.
Locker number 63 is engaged 6 times and so will be closed at the end of the process.
Since there are only 31 perfect squares less than 1000, only 31 lockers will be open
at the end of the process.

Good work Matthew. And keep solving my problems!

Dr. Zipse (doctor of puzzles, problems, riddles and other mathematical excitement)

Student Submitted New Puzzle:

Andrew Burban, aged 12, another SIG student, who will be attending our session at Amherst College this summer, in addition to his submission, sent us in his own puzzle. Here it is:

You'll find one in the beginning, and also at the beginning of eternity,
the end of space and time, and at the end of every race. What is it?

Send your answers to Dr. Zipse, at [email protected]
First correct answer receives recognition in our next edition of The Gifted Student.

New Puzzle

This one comes from our newest member of the SIG staff, Dr. Alan Groveman. Alan will be the Residential Director at Bryn Mawr this summer and will be joining SIG full-time in the fall for work on program development and technology. We are delighted to have Alan on board. Besides his work as a clinical psychologist, Alan has extensive experience in education. Most importantly, he is also a SIG parent!

A murderer is condemned to death. He is given a choice of how he wants to die. He is told that he can choose among three rooms. The first is full of raging fires, the second is full of lions that haven't eaten in 3 years and the third is full of assassins with loaded guns. Which room should he choose?

Send your answers to Dr. Alan Groveman at [email protected]

First correct answer receives recognition in our next edition of The Gifted Student.

From the President

Meeting the Needs of Highly Talented Youth

Stephen L. Gessner, Ph.D.
President, Summer Institute for the Gifted, Parsippany, NJ

One of the myths regarding gifted and talented students is that they will thrive no matter what, because of their unusual abilities. In fact, because of their high ability and curiosity, they have often mastered much of the curriculum before the school year begins. If forced to follow the regular program, gifted and talented students can easily get bored, frustrated, and perform poorly. Since they process information much faster and in different ways than other students, they move much more quickly through the material. If these students are not sufficiently challenged and taught at a level that reaches and stretches their abilities, they get discouraged and alienated. Highly talented students want to learn, be challenged, and be excited about using their abilities to the fullest.

Gifted students also have particular social and emotional needs. Since these students are different and unusual by definition, and they often are acutely aware of their differences, they may feel lonely, rejected, and isolated. This can be particularly stressful in preadolescence and adolescent years when peer relations become so crucial. It is important to find ways for talented students to come together and share common experiences, so that they do not feel so isolated and different. This way they can develop peer relationships with like-minded students who share their high ability, interests, and creativity.

Talented youth have been known to hide their abilities and achievements because it is not socially accepted in many communities and schools to be smart. They feel conflicted between wanting to be socially accepted and wanting to use their talents to learn, explore and create. It is important to remember that not all gifted children are alike. They will differ in the areas of their strengths, achievements, and development. Some will thrive in almost any setting, but most, if not given the right mix of challenge, stimulation, understanding and support, will fail despite their incredible abilities.

Students with outstanding intellectual ability are observant, excited about new and different ideas, inquisitive, and self-starters. They process information in complex, unique, and quick ways. They enjoy hypothesizing and asking difficult and complex questions. They often take a philosophical approach, wondering about issues of meaning, purpose, and causality. Students with outstanding academic abilities in specific areas will pursue that special interest with enthusiasm, intensity, and vigor. They will have great academic success in that specific area, but often achieve at much lower levels in other areas of less ability and interest. They will have good memorization skills, advanced comprehension, and acquire skills and knowledge quickly. Those with unusual creative thinking abilities show signs of independence, originality, inventiveness, improvisation, abstraction, and humor. They can have remarkable talents in oral and written expression, using language in unusual ways, showing large vocabularies, and using metaphors and symbolic language. They do not mind being different and often revel in it. They enjoy being challenged and respond excitedly to complex tasks.

Some gifted and talented students will do well in school, finding supportive teachers, encouraging parents, and plenty of supplemental out-of-school experiences. They may be happy and socially accepted. Others underachieve, are frustrated, and withdrawn. Some have learning disabilities that have not been diagnosed and remedied. Their great intellectual ability may allow them to get by and prevent some of their learning issues to be identified. Other times their learning disability masks their giftedness.

How best to meet the needs of these highly able students? The first source of course is the student’s current school. Parents need to work closely with their students’ teachers, counselors and principals to ensure that opportunities are available for their children. These can range from existing gifted and talented programs to individualized programs, which can include acceleration, independent study, distance education, and college courses where appropriate. Some districts have magnet programs that bring together highly talented students.

When the school district is unable to provide sufficiently challenging programs for highly able students, parents must turn to outside resources. There are various supplemental programs, including weekend, after school distance education, and summer academic opportunities offered by numerous schools, colleges, and organizations. These exist in many communities and follow various formats, including day and residential programs in the summer.

Another resource is independent schools, both boarding and day. Because of their relatively small size (both total school and individual classes) compared to public schools, independent schools can often individualize the programs of each and every student to meet particular needs. Students with unusual artistic talent can receive great opportunities for advancement in the many independent schools that have outstanding programs in the arts. Furthermore, there are a number of specialized day and boarding schools that offer pre-professional training in music, drama, dance, visual arts, media, and writing. It is important for families to know that almost all of these schools offer significant amounts of financial aid, some specifically based on merit.

Whatever choices parents make for their highly able children, it must start with a careful assessment of the child’s particular talents. Once those unusual talents are identified, parents can explore the various options and determine how best to meet the needs of their unusually talented children.

(Published with permission from and adapted from The Educational Register, 2000-2001)

Please contact me about this newsletter and any other thoughts you have ([email protected])

Dr. Stephen L. Gessner
President and CEO
Summer Institute For The Gifted
120 Littleton Road, Suite 201
Parsippany, NJ 07054-1803
Tel. 973-334-6991, ext. 6932
Fax 973-334-9756
http://www.giftedstudy.com/

May Newsletter