Welcome to SCATS 2012

SCATS 2012 Campers Walking The Center for Gifted Studies kicked off the first full day of SCATS 2012 today, and dreary weather didn’t stand a chance of dampening spirits.

Sunday we had the pleasure of welcoming 195 students from 54 Kentucky school districts and six states across the country to Western Kentucky University’s campus. Each brought enough clothes to last two-weeks and enough energy and excitement to last a lifetime of learning.  For these students, learning never stops, and for many, that’s why they came to SCATS.

“I didn’t really want to spend the whole summer not doing anything,” said Hunter. “I also came to meet new people because there are a lot from different states. It’s pretty diverse, and I thought it would be interesting to come.”

Haley echoed Hunter’s sentiments.

“When I’m not in school, I don’t get to learn anything,” she said. “Instead of wasting my time sitting around at my house, I thought I might come here and learn new things.”

After taking time to meet their counselors and roommates last night, SCATS campers arrived bright and early this morning for their first class sessions. Introductory activities started things off, but campers said they hit the ground running.SCATS 2012 campers looking at a map

Eden said she’s already written a piece in her class called “Be a Writer.”

“We had to pretend to interview ourselves and refer to ourselves in third person,” she said. “It was fun!”

Justin said both his classes — “Behind the Scenes at the Museum” and “Fun with Chemistry and Physics” — have already presented some exciting challenges.

“For the museum, we’re creating an advertisement for a museum in a city we select,” he said. “In physics, we’re studying the periodic table and learning about the elements.”

We want every camper to leave SCATS with new friends and amazing camp memories, but as Eden said, it’s also wonderful that our students leave camp with knowledge they can take back into their classes once school starts in the fall.

“I love that we get to learn stuff that we wouldn’t get to learn in regular school,” she said. “Going into my classes in school next year, I want to be able to use the knowledge that I got here.”

It’s going to be an amazing two weeks!

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