STUDENTS `IMMERSE' THEMSELVES IN GIFTED PROGRAM

JACKSON -- Students in the gifted program at Jackson Middle School took about 250 parents and teachers on an underwater adventure Tuesday night.

If the trip was make believe, the lively imaginations that conceived this exploration of all things watery are very real.

The event was based on the popular children's book "The Magic School Bus," in which students go on learning explorations via a magic bus. This time the bus went underwater.

Debbie Lusk's class of second- and third-graders even made a kid-sized magic bus of plastic inflated with a fan.

Julie Walker's class of fourth- through seventh-graders made something different from a balloon of plastic, "a human aquarium."

The event culminated a year-long study of water by the gifted students. Their research took them to the new Mississippi River Bridge construction site, to the Titanic exhibit and Mud Island in Memphis, and to the water plants in Cape Girardeau and Jackson where they conducted a water-tasting. KFVS-TV weatherman Brian Alworth came by to talk about precipitation.

"We're pretty well drenched in water," Walker said.

One project analyzed the quality of the water in the Whitewater River with the help of the state Department of Conservation. The water turned out to be quite good.

Second-grader Teresa Mansell created a Whale Walk with clay models of different kinds of whales.

Second-grader Jesse Eichhorn's project explored how irrigation systems work.

Third-grader Ashley Taylor made a papier-mache octopus with suckers fashioned from marshmallows.

Both Carrie Walker and Mitchell Battzell took different approaches to demonstrating how a water wheel works.

In Walker's class, sixth-graders Sarah Chapman and Kristin Smith wrote a play about the impact of oil spills. Sixth-graders Gabe Gross and Cameron Lacy devised an experiment to show that geothermal energy works and is cost-efficient.

They heated their model house with steam.

"The only problem is, in the summer it's going to be very hot unless you find a way to cool it," Gabe said.

They gleaned much of their information about geothermal heat from the Internet.

Steffan Troxel composed a piece of music based on the sounds water makes.

Each student was required to make a presentation Tuesday night.

"When they present it to other people it gives them a reason to do all these things," Walker said.

As the parents entered the school they encountered a swimming pool filled with many different kinds of boats. Each of the 70 students in the gifted program had to design a boat that would float.

Seventh-grader Kyle Strickland fashioned a Greek fishing boat with removable sails. Fifth-grader Dustin Mayfield made a self-propelled submarine.

The speaker Tuesday night was Southeast's Dr. Helen Nevitt, a foremost authority on gifted education.

Lusk and Walker teach the Jackson R-II School District gifted program called ALERT, which stands for Advanced Learning, Enrichment, Research and Technology. Next year, Lusk said, Jackson will become the only school district in the region with a room dedicated solely to the gifted students program.

"Some of the second-grade kids need their own private school," Lusk said. "They are so brilliant."