Electives

You will learn about many domestic animals.

• Use the internet to make a daily care plan for each of our CU animals.
• Estimate and calculate the size and weight of several of our animals.
• Take photographs, take video, make observations at Bird Park to put on the "Wild Ones" web page.
• Also, we will set up an incubator, monitor humidity and temperature and try to hatch an egg.

Topics will include many types of domesticated animals and how they affect our lives. We will learn about poultry and experience hatching eggs in an incubator. Also, learn about the proper care of CU animals with hands-on training! You will help shear the sheep and the Llama.

We'll take a quick tour (we only have 12 weeks, after all) of world art through the ages and create a few masterpieces of our own. Online, we'll look at the various creations and artistic styles of major artists and illustrators using Mark Hardin's Art-Chives. We will learn drawing and painting media and techniques. We'll start with cave drawings, do a portrait, try pointillism, and impressionism. We will try cut paper collage, and even abstract. We'll keep everything in a portfolio to take home at the end of the elective.

Curious about what life was like “back in the day,” then this is the elective for you. During this elective, we will be transported back in time to experience life from times “long ago.” We will explore music, arts, stories, games, hobbies and inventions from various time periods. We will learn and develop various skills of life from the topics of communication, survival, social etiquette and more. So much fun stuff to learn and experience, you are going to wish you had lived way back when...

In this elective we will learn what makes a computer tick! Each component of the computer will be discussed and studied; video card, motherboard, hard drives, etc. The class will jointly build one computer. After construction is finished, the class will install the software that makes it a computer, including the Windows operating system.

Learn behind the scenes techniques for broadcast and production. This elective gets everything ready for the live show by taking birthday pictures, creating slideshows or researching upcoming CU events or holidays.

The CU Campus Beautification Club will work on projects to help enhance and beautify our school grounds. We will work both inside and outside, using our creative minds and strong bodies!

Learn the basics of Chess!

• History
• Game Pieces
• Strategy
• Tournaments
• Computer Chess

• Learn the basics of molecular structure and the periodic table using gumdrops to build and combine atoms.
• Exploration of chemical and physical changes.
• Experiment with basic chemical and physical reactions.
• Explore the principles of chemistry used in toy making.
• Create our own brand of soda.
• Participate in dry ice investigations.
• Solve a mystery by analyzing various forms of forensic evidence.

Prerequisite: Student must have taken Chemistry I during the first or second twelve week session. This is a continuation of Chemistry I. The class will be a more in-depth study of various chemistry topics for those students who excelled in Chemistry I. The class will include but is not limited to:

• Learn more about the molecular structure of specific elements.
• Use higher level experimental techniques to explore advanced chemical reactions.
• Explore the properties of dry ice through the GEMS unit, "Dry Ice Investigations".
• Investigate the world of forensics through various GEMS units and science module kits. (Forensics studies will involve different techniques and will continue for a longer period.)

Gain knowledge about this time in history. Discover knowledge about castles.

• Castle Types
• Uses
• Construction of Castles
• Famous Castles around the World
• Knights
• Who is Who in the Castle
• Lifestyles
• Crop, cut photographs
• Do write-ups
• Use scrapbook supplies
• Measure borders, circumferences, work with area perimeter and square units

A class specifically for 3rd and 4th grade students. Sharpen math skills using interesting problem-solving strategies.

Our class will explore various energy sources such as solar, wind, hydroelectric, geothermal, fossil fuels and nuclear energy.

• Learn about electrical connections
• Discover how electricity is created and transferred.
• Explore series and parallel circuits.
• Design and build different kinds of circuits.
• Experiment with materials that are insulators and conductors.
• Learn how batteries work and then make our own batteries using lemons.
• Build various projects requiring electricity such as file folder circuit games and crystal radios.

Learn about various energy sources including solar, wind, hydroelectric and fossil fuels. Students will explore series and parallel circuits, then design and build different kinds of circuits. The class will experiment with materials that are insulators and conductors. You will learn how batteries work and make your own. The students will build various projects that will rely on different energy sources to work.

Have you ever read the Guinness Book of World Records? This class will look at serious and not-so-serious records that have been set over the years. We will build mathematical skills by studying these records!

• Big Bubbles and Soapy Shapes
• Sand Sculptures and Making a Mountain
• Giant Circle and Round Records
• Racing the Hour and Awesome Athletes
• Parachute Patterns
• Crazy Cars

An introduction to speaking German and the German culture through songs and games, as well as listening and speaking activities.

Learn about reed instruments and how they work. Students will make a reed instrument that works like a harmonica. We will study the history of the harmonica and learn the basics of reading sheet music. In addition to listening to jazz and blues music, the class will learn more about it. Each student receives their personal harmonica.

• Learn about famous inventors and find out how their inventions changed the world.
• Learn about wonderful mistakes that led to some yummy and funny inventions.
• Participate in invention dissections to find out what makes them "tick".
• Recycle pieces from inventions dissections and use various scrap materials to create our own inventions. Participate in an invention fair where students display and demonstrate the usefulness of their invention.

Create Newsletters involving skills in areas of:

• Research
• Interview
• Edit
• Produce

Gain knowledge about this time in history. Discover knowledge about castles:

• Different Castle Types
• Uses
• Construction of Castles
• Famous Castles around the World
• Knights
• Who's Who in the Castle
• Lifestyles

Join us in our adventure of learning art forms, styles, and media in the gooiest ways imaginable. We will use art to unlock creativity and open pathways to learning.

• Learn about the Geologic time line, and the creatures that lived during those times.
• Learn about different kinds of fossils and how to identify them.
• Explore our own fossil dig and make fossil castings. Reconstruct skeletons from mystery dinosaurs.
• Reconstruct the past by putting together "fossil puzzles", analyzing the ecology of a prehistoric community and discovering what is hidden in the middens.
• Students will perform various processes and skills used by paleontologists.
• Listen to a special presentation and explore the fossil collection of a true fossil expert.
• Explore an off-campus dig site used by the Fort Worth Science and History Museum specialists to collect our own fossils.

An impromptu way to improve your reading skills and fluency! Have fun and improve your reading skills through improvisation!
Take a break and enjoy a change of pace! Reader’s Theater is an activity in which you will read directly from scripts and tell a story in the most entertaining of forms – without props, costumes, or sets! Students are encouraged to "ham it up" and use intonation and gestures appropriate to their characters! Reader’s Theater will improve independent thinking skills, creativity, and self esteem. Reader’s Theater provides repeated reading practice--an important factor in building fluency, it improves confidence in reading, and establishes enthusiasm for reading.

The class will include information from various curriculum guides including ideas and activities obtained from NASA.

• Explore the world of robots and learn how we use them in our everyday life.
• Learn the basic robotic sensing and locomotion principles that allow robots to grab, release, lift, and lower.
• Your will learn the principles of circuitry necessary to power robots.
• Design and build working robots using the Lego Mindstorms multimedia program.
• Build kit robots that will perform various tasks.

• Songs
• Games
• Classic Children's Stories
• Your name
• Alphabet, numbers, and colors

Polish up on math facts, creative writing, creative thinking, reading, science, history, and reinforce fundamental skills.

Students create materials, called entries, that will help other students of their same age.
Example: A team might create an entry that explore fire as friend and foe, or an entry that shows how the digestive system deals with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich as it travels through the human body.

In Yoga Connections, we will explore a variety of yoga techniques that will help you develop life skills to use on and off the mat. Through yoga poses, games, activities, music and stories we will promote strength, flexibility, coordination and body awareness. Breathing and meditation techniques will teach you to focus, relax and practice self-control. Yoga helps promote inner-strength, confidence and self-esteem. When class is over, you will walk away with a feeling of well-being and respect for yourself and others.