The classroom at Fesler Junior High was a flurry of activity Monday as students - divided into groups - hunched over several dollhouses.

One by one, miniature fans installed on the dollhouse ceilings began to whir, as tiny lights made the houses glow.

Brad Bachrach, a sixth-grader at Rice Elementary, and his partner Kevin Avila-Sonroman, a seventh-grader at Fesler, approached teacher José Segura.

“We got three light bulbs and one fan working,” the pair said in unison.

“Good!” Segura responded.

Kevin and Brad are Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) students with the Santa Maria-Bonita School District.

They were among approximately 100 students taking part in the first district-wide GATE Enrichment Day - in which GATE students participated in their choice of several fun yet intense workshops in the fine arts, math and sciences.

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The workshops - created and overseen by teachers who had volunteered their services for the day - ran the gamut from magic tricks and drama, to graphics design and editing, to science and math-blaster activities.

“We just wanted to do something for kids,” said Malin Heaton. “It's just kind of thinking outside the box.”

As vice president of the Partnership Advocacy for Gifted Education, Heaton and several others spent nearly five months putting the day together.

Segura - a GATE-certified teacher at Miller School - said he came upon the dollhouse activity during a conference at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo.

“It's a fun way for me to teach,” he said.

The dollhouse activity required the students to set up both series and parallel circuits in order to light up the houses and get the fans going.

“It's fun connecting the bulbs and everything,” said Kevin, who wants to be an electrical engineer. “There's lots of things electricity has to offer.”

Meanwhile, Battles School third-grader Sierra Curren was busy editing a story for a newsletter that will be sent out to all GATE students and their parents.

“(Editing) is hard because you have to get everything down without spelling mistakes,” said Sierra, who also took part in the cartooning workshop. “Sometimes, when people are editing, they don't catch the mistakes.”

For Fesler student Mariana Casas, the electricity workshop held an element of wonder.

“It's like magic,” the seventh-grader said. “When you light up something, it doesn't look like anything. But when you actually see how (the light) is created and you create it yourself, it's pretty magical.”

Natalie Ragus can be reached at 347-4580 or nragus@santamariatimes.com

January 8, 2008