Educational benefits are closely related to well-being and are of great importance both for the cognitive and socio-emotional development of children, especially gifted children, as by ensuring the conditions that give children a sense of security, they unfold their potential and discover various communicative, expressive and cognitive codes, acting collectively in a friendly-collaborative environment. I believe that all students can demonstrably demonstrate creative thinking when they are exposed to a wide range of ideas and activities and when they are encouraged to find connections between different concepts, different solutions to problems, applying their existing and acquired knowledge, in new situations. In the context of the giftedness educational programs, as a gifted educator, I approached topics related to the Environment, Climate Change, Green Buildings and Sustainable Cities, in the context of the Green Deal and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the UN, which are the path to a better life (with a reduction in Co2 emissions, healthy eating, less use of plastic), students critically highlighting how the goals are connected, trying to find solutions to the planet's problems. Through the creative experiential projects, problems related to climate change such as the greenhouse effect, which is partly due to natural disasters, but also to issues related to the circular economy, the food industry, automation, environmental shipping, quality education, are captured and other science and research topics, based on Science Technology Engineering Art Math (STEAM) and other teaching strategies and methods.
The experiential activities that are created aim to develop the learning skills of the 21st century, which are Critical Thinking, Collaboration, Communication and Creativity, the 4C's, as they have prevailed .
Gifted and Talented students are a group of the population with special educational and socio-emotional needs. In the last ten years, the Hellenic MENSA, through differentiated weekly educational programs, which it designs and implements, identifies Gifted and Talented children with the use of reliable Global Psychometric tools, offering them, through the specially designed cognitive framework, the appropriate socio-emotional education with the aim to highlight and develop their skills for the benefit of themselves and society.
Duration
The giftedness programs of the Greek MENSA are implemented at the beginning of the school year (October) and are completed at the beginning of June, including projects included in the Sustainable Development Goals (Climate Action (Goal 13), Sustainable Cities and Communities (Goal 11) and aiming at the Quality Education (Goal 4).
Description
Through gifted education, students open their intellectual horizons and, combined with their interests, acquire their own perspective on thematic axes, concerning the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the UN and other topics of science and research, understanding the importance of the 17 Global Goals of Sustainable Development, these global challenges and justifying the actions/actions to achieve them, based on Science Technology Engineering Art Math (STEAM) and Project Based Learning (PBL). Utilizing the plan: design-create-share-evaluate, as members of a supportive community, students creatively express their thoughts through art and technology, developing critical thinking while recognizing elements of themselves (e.g. responsibility, teamwork, acceptance of diversity ), improving their weaknesses (eg organization and time management).
Due to the rapid development of science and technology, the educational reality is changing, making it necessary to inform and teach students about new scientific achievements and theories, which are added to their database. Through the giftedness educational programs, our students broadened their intellectual horizons and, combined with their interests, acquired their own perspective on the educational thematic axes that they worked on during the year. The beginning was made with Food Industrial: In the context of this educational thematic axis, our students first processed food, knowing the composition, structure and properties of the foods they consume and the changes that occur during the various treatments, as food science is the basis of the scientific understanding of food composition under various conditions. Also, thinking about what roles are necessary to make a food industry run smoothly, they created their own virtual industry. In order for the students to gain hands-on experience in the proper management and utilization of food in a catering area, we visited the high standard restaurant of Glyfada, ARK. The educational activities continued by watching Daskalakis introduce the audience to the technological world by answering 25 of the 1,204 questions addressed to him, through the educational digital platform 100mentors, by students from schools, educational organizations and university faculties, among them the training team of the Hellenic Mensa. Our gifted students had worked out questions about the future of automation and artificial intelligence, the dangers of the unhindered evolution of technology and the role of humans in the training of intelligent systems and how it can affect them, so they watched with rapt attention. interesting the speech of Daskalakis. One of the educational activities of the year was the educational trip to the Costa Kotsana Museum of Ancient Greek Technology in Athens, where our students, after learning about the inventions of the ancient Greeks that were the cornerstones of their technology, visited the Nikola Tesla exhibition of " Man from the Future", for which a dedicated project had been carried out. In the framework of the educational thematic axis of Artificial Intelligence, a visit was made to the exhibition about Robots, "City of Robots", getting to know various robotic models that interact with the environment, performing specific actions and reacting to stimuli. With reference to the educational thematic axis "Industrial Controllers", it was realized, through examples, that automation and artificial intelligence applications are already integrated into everyday life and how the 4th generation Industry is evolving, while through the Socratic Seminars strategy, the students gave answers to questions about the future of the use of automation, applications of artificial intelligence. With the Mensa logo in the background, educational meetings continued online due to the spread of the pandemic. Thus, with the participation of our students in the context of the "Gifted & Growth Mindset", the thematic units concerning the Environment and Green Buildings, in the context of the Green Deal and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the UN, were successfully approached, which is the way to a better life (with reduced Co2 emissions, healthy diet, less use of plastic) while critically thinking about how the fields of sustainable food chain, sustainable industry, "green" building and eliminating pollution are connected.
In the framework of the Hellenic Mensa 2020-2021 educational programs, our gifted students in the age group of 6-8, discovered what science is and how great scientific personalities, with their discoveries, put their own stamp on the history of global science community. Also, as "planet's saviors", the gifted young students, realizing that the environment is a dynamic system that evolves and adapts to the changing effects and reactions between biotic and abiotic factors of which it is composed, discovered the effects of human interventions in the environment and thought ways to maintain the balance of the ecosystem. The gifted students of the age group 9-12, learned in the first thematic session of Gifted & Mindset Education of the educational year, how and where the raw material that arrived from the farm to the plate was produced, which processes and who people intervened, while designing and promoting their own packaging, they understood what role packaging plays in food preservation and how it has evolved over time. They also realized the importance of the use of automation in the industrial sector, a fact that also occupied them during the second thematic session where they entered the role of industrial controller. They also asked themselves what are the individual issues related to the food industry and how it relates to the 17 goals of sustainable development, thinking about how the circular economy is achieved and how food waste can be avoided. Subsequently, the first thematic unit "Following Eratosthenes" in which the age group of gifted students (13-17) participated, was completed and crowned with success, continuing the creative collaboration with corresponding new projects in the younger age groups of the gifted programs, such as the "Golden Section" project. In the continuation of the educational programs, the gifted students creatively elaborated the subject unit of Environmental Shipping, knowing the history of shipping and discovering the environmental threats from the increase of shipping activities in the Arctic. With the Mensa logo in the background, the educational meetings that had started online due to the spread of the pandemic, continue on a more permanent basis, giving the opportunity to participate to gifted students from all over Greece with the aim of their socio-emotional development in a friendly and receptive environment . Despite the ongoing lockdown and the new year, educational activities continue with children's participation in educational competitions, such as the 24th Nationwide Student Creativity Competition for the 2020-2021 school year, entitled "75 years of the United Nations - We shape today the tomorrow we imagine ', where students expressed through art their thoughts on how they would like the world to be in 2045 and what they should do today as individuals to shape the world they dream of. Also, with the aim of motivating themselves internally, setting goals and strengthening elements that make up their cognitive profile: information processing speed, cognitive flexibility, metacognitive ability, the teenage students, in the form of a project, thought and designed smart applications in the context of Vodafone's Generation Next , which is a STEM skills training program with free access for all in new technologies and science. For the participation of the "3D" team in the Vodafone technology competition, two of Mensa's educational programs, "Gifted & Mindset Education" and "Coding", collaborated, where the participating students developed their technological skills, collaborating effectively in the team, having a common goal of implementing their idea in the form of an application. In the context of the Athens Science Virtual Festival 2021, Hellenic Mensa also participated, with the action - workshop "About... Wrapping" by the teacher of gifted students Despina Korentini. This project was part of the "Gifted & Mindset" educational program and was based on STEAM, as the evolution of food packaging follows the evolution of science and technology, focusing mainly on the relationship between Art and Science. and providing opportunities for the development of skills of children and adolescents. One of the objectives of the workshop was for the children to get to know the types of packaging and to understand the way materials are used in food packaging, to reflect on the impact their use has on the environment and to develop strategic thinking in the promotion of packaging in the context of competition.
As part of the Hellenic Mensa 2021-2022 educational programs, our gifted students in the age group of 6-8, made a c-astronomical journey participating in NASA's Space Food Challenge, in order to adopt a sustainable model on earth and in space, learning about astrobotany and the reuse of available resources on the surface of Mars. Through creative experiential projects, the gifted students of the age group 9-12, developed skills learning how we manage natural disasters and crises and what are the characteristics of the human - survivor, depicting problems related to climate change such as the greenhouse effect, to which natural disasters are partly due, understanding that the climate, flora and fauna, play an important role in the balance of the natural environment and participating in the Global Climate Action Project. As problem solvers, adolescent students developed leadership skills, cooperated by working in a team and leading decision-making, communicating through technology, scientific and social ideas, research results and opinions, developing each scientific field, and finding solutions and taking active part as global citizens in issues related to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. In the framework of the research projects, that of the "Golden Section" was added, where with the support of a professor from the University of Charlotte, North Carolina, the teenage students engaged in research and the revival of Fechner's experiment. With the Mensa logo in the background, the educational online meetings continue, giving the opportunity to participate to gifted students from all over Greece with the aim of their socio-emotional development in a friendly, receptive and creative environment.
The educational activities continue with the participation of my students in familiar educational competitions, such as the 25th Nationwide Student Creation Competition for the school year 2021-2022, entitled "Education cannot wait", where the students expressed with group and individual participation through art their message about children's right to school and became the creators of a campaign for a school that is open and accessible to all children, inclusive, a school of quality and participatory learning. The participation in the 11th All-Hellenic Student Philosophical Essay Competition under the general theme: "Sensation, intellect and the question of knowledge" is also special. Also, in the context of Vodafone's Generation Next, the New A.G.E. team. created the School Smart Pass application https://www.vodafonegenerationnext.gr/diagonismos/4os-panellhnios-diagonismos/protasi/394?fbclid=IwAR1eUDMhry8AYhfDMoHCQDqZ1NdtvsmVWt0Txl25SZBllq8WNk2PQqc67w in order to initially serve students as it allows them to enter school faster, while it provides them with greater security, since, with the identification of the students, they cannot enter the school unknown. It also works helpfully for teachers since they don't have to check students' absences or the list of self-diagnostic test statements. Also, it is useful for the school guards, so that they know at any time in which department the student is studying and, accordingly, the hours he studies. Finally, the application contributes to sustainable development, since it aims to reduce paper consumption (compared to the consumption that would occur if printed catalogs were used). The children's application entered the map of ideas created by groups of teenagers in the Panhellenic Competition of Generation Next, being among the 10 of the Prefecture of Attica. As part of the STEM STARS GREECE competition organized in Greece by the Non-Profit Organization "SciCo" with the support of the US Embassy. in Athens and is held under the auspices of the Ministry of Education and Religion, with the aim of supporting, highlighting and rewarding students aged 14-18 with a special inclination and talent in the natural sciences, technology, engineering or mathematics, participated, succeeding in pass and stand out in the final in Technopolis, with quantitative research and creation of an application "The psychological effects of crises on teenage students -"Feel Better App".
Curricula are designed to be flexible so that students are able to act and enhance creativity through group activities, creating strong social relationships while working on the growth mindset. When you invest in children by imparting knowledge and enhancing their skills and covering them emotionally, then all you can expect is a better future.
Initiative Location
The Gifted Children Education Programs of the Hellenic Mensa, which is a non-profit, non-governmental organization with the aim of recognizing and developing human intelligence, are designed to cover the age groups of 4-17 years, with the aim of enhancing the cognitive and social-emotional skills and their self-esteem, exploring students' interests and encouraging the expression of ideas and experimentation. The giftedness programs of the Hellenic Mensa are known to provide motivation and constantly new challenges in the learning environment for students to deal with scientific topics that are of interest to them, upgrading their knowledge levels.
The specialized staff, educators of various specialties and teachers of special fields, apply internationally recognized models, providing all the guarantees for the effective outcome of the programs. This continuous support to gifted children, their parents and teachers, has made Hellenic Mensa a pioneer and reference point for Giftedness in Greece. Now this recognition also comes from Mensa International with the award to the teachers of the Hellenic Mensa. "A special mention must go to Despoina Korentini (Greece) for coming 1st in both the "Highest Number of Resources Contributed" and "Highest Quality Entries" categories." https://www.mensa.org.gr/home-gr/1440-i-mensa-international-vraveyei-ekpaideftikoys-tis-ellinikis-mensa
*In the context of the Education Leaders Awards, the president of the awards, Anna Diamantopoulou and the thirty-six members of the jury, which consisted of teachers, experts and professionals from the entire spectrum of education, after evaluation, awarded Corentini Despina, teacher of Greek Mensa, with the title of Distinguished Educator for 2020, while in the FallingWallsLab a world-renowned competition, networking forum and springboard for researchers and professionals, the gifted educator and researcher and climate action educator Despina Korentini was distinguished as a 2021 Falling-Walls FINALIST 2021 as the only Greek woman in the Future Learning category, organized by the Greek MENSA, where together with scientists from all fields, they celebrated this award in the context of the University:Future Festival, at the Panel Stage entitled Open Networking Event: Celebrate Learning Breakthroughs with Falling Walls. https://falling-walls.com/breakthroughyear/finalists-2021/?fbclid=IwAR0AzU3C1vAombp22mL8oAkglxZ6X7BlCwT-7Rhq1VQRV3MII-f92ueJcO0
As participants in Mensa's giftedness programs, students have proven and consistent benefits from them, while working on a growth mindset, cultivating a high-level analytical, critical, practical and creative thinking, and manifesting positive emotions. The educational processes followed in the giftedness programs and the strategies (e.g. Bloom's Taxonomy, Socratic Seminars, Student Choice) used to increase learning experiences in depth and breadth contributed to students:
To recognize elements of themselves and gain self-confidence, through experimentation.
To develop a growth mindset, changing the mindset of fixed perception.
To strengthen the ability of critical thinking and academically finding effective solutions to achieve a goal.
Cooperate effectively in teams and manage their roles within the team and internal conflicts.
To mobilize internally, setting their own goals.
Creatively apply previous or new information or patterns to new situations.
Recognize their emotions and develop self-regulation strategies.
Applying collaborative forms of teaching (projects), students through group work (projects) feel emotionally involved in their learning experiences, reach higher levels of learning and understanding. As members of a supportive community, students unleash their creativity and develop critical thinking.
