Celebrating Gifted Education Month - Proclamation Signing with Governor Ivey 

AAGC Members,

In celebration of our 30 years as an organization, we have decided to revamp our Gifted Education Month (GEM) activities. Our theme is “Gifted Students, the GEMs of our Future!”. We are suggesting 9 activities for gifted students to participate in to let people in our state know what gifted students do in their classrooms. The 7 contest activity areas are Creativity, Talent Showcase, Robotics, Multiculturalism, Research and Writing, Technology, Science, Art, and Math Fusions. We have 2 activities that are not contests but are a way for AAGC to advocate for more funding for our programs, they are: Share Your Story and Legislators. We would like you to start any of these activities as soon as possible and share them with your district, your communities, other school districts, stakeholders, and legislators by posting your gifted class’ GEMs activities on social media, calling, visiting and Zoom meetings to showcase your students’ talents for legislators. Our hope is for others to see that we are doing exciting things with our gifted students and to also advocate for more funding so we can do more. Our GEM month will begin the second week of January and extend until the second week of February (January 7th through February 7th). Our goal is to showcase all the amazing activities between now and the end of our GEM celebration. Seven of the nine activities will have rubrics we want teachers to complete before submitting them to our contests. Because we are treading on new ground and not sure how many of our GEM activities will be completed, we will only have age categories once the GEM committee sees how many and in what areas the submissions will be, then we can break the activities into categories. Maximum participation in these GEM activities is greatly needed to achieve our goals and to make our state aware of gifted “Celebrating 30 Years of Nurturing Gifted Minds.”

AAGC social media addresses: Tag all of our social media accounts - Facebook, Instagram, Twitter - @alabamagifted

Locate your Legislators - https://alabamagifted.org/advocacy

Thank you,

AAGC GEM Committee 

The Alabama Association for Gifted Children is proud to announce the winning entries from our 2025 Gifted Education Month projects! These outstanding students and educators showcased creativity, advocacy, and a passion for gifted education.

Creativity – elementary level, “Shatter your Anxiety”

This project was inspired by an idea shared during AAGC’s Creativity Night, gifted students participated in a hands-on project focused on emotional expression and mental wellness. Each student created a ceramic piece or paper artwork that represented something that caused them anxiety. Then—through smashing, snipping, or tearing—they physically destroyed their symbolic stressors.The process provided a meaningful outlet for students to express and release anxious feelings in a safe and creative way. The resulting fragments were displayed as part of Cherokee County’s Mental Health Art Show.

Creativity – middle level, “Roller Coaster Escape Room”

Beulah High School 8th grade students, Wade Procise and Nolan Lindsey, took creativity and leadership to the next level by designing and implementing an original escape room experience for a 5th and 6th grade gifted class.Wade and Nolan developed challenging puzzles and immersive scenarios that kept younger students thinking and collaborating. Their detailed plans and hands-on leadership created an unforgettable experience for the participants.Attached are their planning documents and a photo capturing the excitement of the day.

Roller Coaster Escape Room.pdf

Research/Writing – elementary level, “Electricity’s History”

Each student chose a person or significant time in electricity’s history to research and design a CANVA poster. These were displayed for others to see.

https://youtube.com/shorts/PEUET--FKLI?si=eeIUlGLuAlOXdIGA

Research/Writing – middle level (a tie), “Sea Search”

The paper was written by two gifted 8th graders at Austin Junior HIgh School in Decatur as part of the Alabama Regional Future City Competition in January.  The challenge was to design a floating city 100 years in the future.  The essay describes the city the students designed as a result of their research.

SeaSearch City Essay Final.pdf

Research/Writing – middle level (a tie), "The Role of Renewable Energy in Combating Climate Change"

Renewable energy.pdf

Multiculturalism - elementary level, “Life Around the World”

Gifted students from West Smiths Station Elementary and Loachapoka Elementary explored cultures and life around the globe. For their culminating performance task, students took on the role of amusement park Imagineers, designing a new World Showcase exhibit for an international theme park. Each exhibit featured original architectural designs, regional cuisine, cultural entertainment, and a unique amusement park character representing their chosen country. 

Robotics - elementary level, “Dash Dance Party”

Third and fourth grade students at Billingsley Elementary School showcased their creativity and coding skills by using Blockly to program Dash robots. Their project culminated in an entertaining performance as the robots danced in perfect synchrony to The Pink Panther Theme Song. 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ikxid9DmY8FpwAeXGqrdZ7vkedtPKAft/view?usp=sharing

Talent Showcase - elementary,  “What if the Macy’s Day Parade was Set in Ancient Egypt/Greece?”

Students from students at F.E. Burleson Elementary School combined research and creativity to participate in a unique float contest. Each class designed and built a float representing their assigned civilization and developed a speech to explain its features and cultural significance. These speeches were recorded and compiled into a video presentation shared with the student body and parents. See vidoes and photos below.

https://youtu.be/G3zGi00Iw0k?si=yRcx8H8xdejUUhPu

https://youtu.be/I_OJM_drtpQ?si=10AOFOg6JGxsL1O8

Art, Math, and Science Fusions - elementary level, “Patterns in Math/C. M. Escher Tessellations”

Students from Dolly Ridge Elementary School created tesselations in class after talking about patterns in math and learning about M.C. Escher. 

Technology - elementary level, “Gifted Advocacy Video Project”

Explore 4 myths about gifted students and why they aren't true. This was created by a student from Hartselle Intermediate School for a gifted advocacy project.