Snake River Talented And Gifted Program Fosters Young Inventors
Sometimes it’s tough being a creative kid, but some very gifted and talented young folks in one eastern Idaho school district have been given an opportunity to express themselves lately. Their teachers aren’t even getting paid for it.
In Snake River, the calm and the quiet of the countryside, echos the sound of perhaps a whole new generation of inventors.
“It kind of gets people thinking so that when they’re old enough to have the money to actually invent something, they can do that,” said 13-year-old Brayden Wherli. “They can brainstorm, and they can have ideas.”
Wehrli is part of Snake River Schools Gifted and Talented program — a group of kids who live up to that title.
At the middle school on Thursday, students from 3rd to 8th grade showed off their projects created for Invent Idaho — a regional and statewide competition to invent and build something unique.
The kids each had to come up with 25 different ideas.
“If it didn’t have a patent then the student was free to make the invention,” said teacher Jill muson.
Munson said it’s an important outlet for the creative kids.
Gifted and talented teachers in the district spend about 16 hours a week amongst the four of them, outside of their regular teaching hours.
Instruction for the program is all volunteer. Muson said there’s no state funding for gifted and talented programs. But she said, that doesn’t really matter. It’s the love of the kids and the love of the program that keeps them in it.
That love and hard work could mean a world of new inventions someday — inventions like 10-year-old Jessa Preston’s “Smellarm Clock.”
“I got tired of waking up to a beep,” said Preston. “So, I wanted to wake up to a smell.”
The Snake River District hosted a regional competition of student inventions on March 3.
Last weekend, on March 10, a group of parents took the winning projects up to the statewide compeitition in Moscow where 9 Snake River students took home prizes, including Wherli.
