School-Level Activities for GATE Students

Although identification of GATE students is managed at the District level, programming and activities for gifted students are managed at the individual school level. Individual school programming includes differentiated instruction in the regular classroom and/or before/after-school enrichment opportunities.

For information about programming and activities for GATE students at your school, please contact your school's Teacher Specialist.

District-Level Activities for GATE and Other High-Achieving Students

GUSD participates in five annual competitions for GATE-identified and other high-achieving students:

Invention Convention

Each fall, GUSD hosts an Invention Convention open to all GATE-identified fourth through eighth grade students. Students are invited to use their problem-solving and creative thinking skills to invent new products. Students display their inventions at the annual Invention Convention. Inventions are judged by a panel of community members, which in the past has included staff from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Awards are given out by grade level.

Participation in Invention Convention offers students the opportunity to:

• Participate in a differentiated activity;
• Research and learn about the process of inventing;
• Take a hands-on approach to developing a new concept;
• Learn to work in teams or individually;
• Compete with same-age inventors;
• Receive recognition for their achievement.

Participation in Invention Convention offers parents the opportunity to:

• Encourage students to find and research different ideas;
• Support students in gathering resources;
• Guide students in following competition requirements and deadlines;
• Help students set up and display their invention. 

For more information on participating in the Invention Convention, please contact your school's Teacher Specialist.

Math Field Day

Every fall, each elementary and middle school in GUSD identifies high-achieving math students to participate in math enrichment activities in order to prepare for the District-wide Math Field Day competition. Identified students in fourth through sixth grade practice math skills including computation and problem-solving. The District-wide Math Field Day competition is held each spring. The winners of the District-wide competition are invited to represent GUSD at the Los Angeles County Math Field Day competition, which is also held each spring.

For more information on participating in your school's Math Field Day activities, please contact your school's Teacher Specialist.

Los Angeles County Math Field Day

The Los Angeles County Office of Education (LACOE) hosts a county-wide Math Field Day competition each spring. County Math Field Day is designed as an enrichment activity to promote mathematical reasoning, teamwork and a balanced mathematics curriculum for students in upper elementary and middle school. Participation allows students to demonstrate their math knowledge through competition. The competition covers computational and procedural skills, conceptual understanding and problem-solving.

For more information about Los Angeles County Math Field Day, visit LACOE's Math Field Day website.

Scholastic Bowl

Scholastic Bowl offers high-achieving high school students in GUSD an opportunity to represent their school and participate in an academic competition in the areas of Fine Arts, Language Arts, Mathematics, Social Science and Science. Scholastic Bowl competitions are held each spring. Each of the four high schools in GUSD sends a team of five students to the competition. The first phase of the competition is an essay contest. Team members are given 60 minutes to write an essay addressing an assigned prompt on a controversial issue. The second phase of the competition (typically held one week after the essay competition) is held in a quiz format. During the first part of the quiz section, team members collaborate to come up with the answers; during the second part of the quiz section, individual students respond to questions.

For more information on participating in your high school's Scholastic Bowl, please contact your high school's Teacher Specialist.

Spelling Bee

Each year, GUSD hosts a Middle and Elementary School Spelling Bee. Students are provided with a list of up to 1800 vocabulary words to study in preparation for the event. Students in fourth through eighth grade compete at their school sites for the top positions. The top four spellers at each of the four middle schools compete for team and individual awards. In elementary schools, there is only one representative from each site competing for medals, cash prizes, a dictionary and trophy.

Watching Spelling Bee competitions provides a model of how good spellers learn to spell correctly through understanding word origins, definitions and visually remembering word patterns.

By participating in the Spelling Bee, students have the opportunity to:

• Expand their vocabulary
• Learn concepts of print
• Develop correct English usage

It also teaches students determination and discipline.