GILROY
– Gilroy’s high-achieving students are having a blast attending
classes after school and on Saturdays. They program robots to
navigate mazes, use computers to create animation and explore Web
design, aviation and veterinary science in the district’s
specialized after-hours instruction.
By Lori Stuenkel
GILROY – Gilroy’s high-achieving students are having a blast attending classes after school and on Saturdays. They program robots to navigate mazes, use computers to create animation and explore Web design, aviation and veterinary science in the district’s specialized after-hours instruction.
The after-school academies and middle school enrichment classes run by the district’s Gifted And Talented Education (GATE) program, which got off to a late start this year, are actually open to all students but were designed with high achievers in mind.
Nicole Tervalon’s robotics course, held after school twice a week at Luigi Aprea Elementary School, introduces students to basic robot-building and programming.
“The kids that come in, the idea of robots excites them, but most have no idea what that means,” Tervalon said. “Most of their experience with robots is in the movies. They really don’t have any concept of what’s involved with actually building and programming a robot and how difficult this actually is.”
Above all, the students want to build something anything. Before the students start building their robots, Tervalon usually offers some type of background lesson, such as a discussion of gears and how their different sizes change speed and movement.
They hone their robotics skills using Lego Mindstorms, robotics invention kits, which include a chip that students program to make their robots move. Once they construct their first robot and direct it to move around, “that just thrills them,” Tervalon said.
“I think it’s kind of an ownership thing: They did it from beginning to end, their parents didn’t have to do it for them,” she said.
Tervalon, who contracts with Gilroy Unified School District through tutoring service Extreme Learning, has an extensive background in robotics. She earned two graduate degrees in oceanographic engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology after receiving a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Washington State University. Tervalon developed instrumentation and integrated it into an autonomous underwater vehicle as part of a post-doctoral fellowship with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute.
After teaching some engineering at San Jose State University, she began tutoring and teaching a robotics summer school course through Extreme Learning. GUSD contracted with the tutoring service this summer for high school exit exam preparation classes and currently uses Extreme Learning to provide after-school instruction at Glen View Elementary School. The district pays $1,800 for the robotics course, which includes the use of five kits, which cost $200 each.
“(Tervalon’s) got great experience, a rapport with kids, knowledge about robotics,” said David Payne, chief executive officer of Extreme Learning. “She’s really an inspiration to young women.”
Although only a handful of girls enrolled in the robotics class this time around, Payne said next time, he hopes to get an equal number of boys and girls.
GATE after-school academies were created to serve students in grades three to five who do not attend Rucker Elementary, the district’s only school offering GATE education during the school day. They are usually limited to about 20 students, although Tervalon teaches two classes of 10 students each because they use the robotics kits in pairs.
GUSD offers one other GATE academy course this session: veterinary science, taught by Dr. Dennis Harrigan. Both classes started earlier this month and continue through early February.
Tervalon said the students’ excitement grows with each new project and they often ask to show the robots to their parents.
“That makes my day,” Tervalon said. “That’s why I do it, because I want the kids to be learning something, but I also want them to be having a good time.”
Tom Stanley also sees students having fun while learning about animation in his course, part of the GATE middle school enrichment classes.
Stanley, an engineer with IBM – now Hitachi – for 27 years, has a clear passion for his hobby, but he is even more thrilled when he sees some of that passion sparked in his students. He tries to bring animation to students through a variety of fields, noting that involves technical processes but also artistic ones, likening animators to playwrights.
“Whereas a picture’s worth a thousand words, animation is worth a billion words,” Stanley said. “You can look at pages and pages of data and that doesn’t make any sense, or you can look at a graph. … Animation is a way to represent just enormous amounts of data to our senses, and our eyes are probably one of our most powerful senses.”
GATE middle school enrichment classes, held on Saturdays for six weeks, are the only GATE instruction available to students in grades six through eight.
Stanley also conducts his class in a lecture-and-lab format, often discussing animation’s century-long history.
The course attracted 16 more students than the designated 20, and Stanley credits two high school volunteers with making it logistically possible to teach the large group.
Other enrichment classes include aviation, taught by Robert Bickle, and Web design, taught by Mark Cleveland.
Joe Guzicki, GUSD’s student services coordinator, is already in the process of looking for more volunteers to teach GATE academies and middle school enrichment courses in the spring. The session is scheduled to start in February. Tervalon will be back with her robotics course, and Stanley said he is looking forward to at least another two sessions.
Any professional, or parent, with a hobby or passion and a desire to spend two hours a week teaching students is encouraged to contact Guzicki for information on starting a course. The district will assist in developing a curriculum.
“Exploration classes seem to be what the kids really like,” Guzicki said, “where you get to explore something that’s different from what you normally do in school.”
Contact Guzicki at 848-7106.
