We believe that extra curricular activities are very useful to both broaden student horizons
and enable them to think differently about topics that they may not have
thought about previously. We continue to expand the number and kinds of extracurricular activities offered to advanced students in an effort to support and challenge their learning. Currently we offer four separate activities and encourage advanced students to participate in at least one activity per year.
The activities currently offered include:
First LEGO League:
In LEGO League, students are tasked to build their own robot made entirely out of LEGOs, which they then must program to move around a game board and complete specific tasks based on a theme. For example, one theme challenged students to determine the best way to clean up after a natural disaster. One challenge involved building a robot that could successfully navigate the ambulance from a danger zone to the safety zone. Please see the link to the left for more information.
Advanced Drama:
In Advanced Drama, students are challenged with selecting, rehearsing, and performing a one act play with minimal guidance and direction from the TAG teacher. This includes things typically associated with drama, so students have to decide on costumes and props, memorize their lines, and decide how to move on stage. Advanced drama culminates in two performances, one for the student body and the other for the general public. This activity excites students and encourages their thinking about what it takes to produce a successful performance. Please see the link on the right for the full text of this year's production.
Quiz Bowl:
Quiz Bowl is a competition in which teams of students are challenged to quickly answer sets of trivia questions more quickly than other teams. Questions are drawn from a variety of subjects including literature, history, science, fine arts, philosophy, mythology, social sciences, geography, sports, and current events. Students research areas of interest within each subject in order to better know the major people, events, works, experiments, etc. This culminates with a competition to decide which team knows their material the best.
Battle of the Books:
In Battle of the Books, students collaborate in teams to read through an assigned list of 30 books that were selected because of their interest to middle school students. Students meet with their team weekly to discuss what they've read and answer practice questions. This culminates in a "battle" where teams answer questions from each of the 30 books in the list. Please see the link to the left for more on how it all works.