Sioux City Talented and Gifted students slither through maze, conduct electricity at annual retreat

Dontrell Robinson, a fifth-grader at Leeds Elementary School, tries to negotiate his way out of a "laser" maze after fixing it. The maze was set up as part of a Sioux City Community School District Talented and Gifted program retreat held at Morningside College in Sioux City. The students had to weave their way though a luminous string maze without ringing bells attached to the lines. By Tim Hynds, Sioux City Journal.

Alternately slithering on the floor like a snake or gingerly hopping over multiple strings of lights, Spalding Park Elementary School fifth-grader Divine Adams had to maneuver his way through a maze. Oh, did we forget to tell you that he had to perform this exercise in the dark? Plus every time he tripped over a string, a bell would ring. That meant he had to answer a trivia question before proceeding.

“That was really hard,” Divine said after successfully navigating the “laser” maze. “You had to really think about every step without ringing the bell.”

Divine was one of the fifth-grade Talented and Gifted students participating in the Sioux City Community School District’s second annual TAG Retreat, held May 16 at Morningside College’s Lincoln Center.mAccording to elementary TAG specialist Nicole Umland, TAG students are not only encouraged to become self-directed learners in the classroom, they are also the instigators of activities for the one-day retreat.

“All of the students created activities that they thought other kids would enjoy,” she said. “That gives the TAG kids the opportunity to hone problem solving and leadership skills in a fun setting.”

In addition to the laser maze, kids could learn how to animate a cartoon, make duct tape wallets and even conduct electricity by using a potato.

View the full story by Earl Horlyk at the Sioux City Journal.

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