December 2021 | Louisburg High School and Louisburg Middle School | Gifted Education
P ROBLEM -B ASED L EARNING
How much screen time is “too much” screen time? This is
the question that QUEST students at LMS and LHS
tackled when they came back from the fall break.
The QUEST classes were introduced to this semester’s PBL
by being asked to consider society’s current attitude
toward “screen time” and children’s use of technology.
These groups collaborated to attempt to answer the
question of how our society can successfully take on the
problem of screen addiction. After interviewing their peers,
researching current publications on the topic, and engaging
in class activities, they synthesized presentations that they
made to a group of adults from the schools and
community, the “Shark Tank.”
This mini-unit culminated not only in a presentation to an
authentic audience, but it also engaged students in
reflection as they considered their collaboration skills,
contributions, ability to overcome obstacles, time
management, and more.
LMS H UBBARD MATH
After a brief hiatus from competing in the
annual Hubbard Math competition at
Osawatomie High School, the LMS gifted
students were able to get back into their
groove this year!
Three teams from LMS competed, and I’m
proud to say that we swept both age
groups!
• Team “We Are Groot” (Piper
Davenport, Elijah Lane, Kinsley
Rayne, and Tempe Smith), Pool 1
Champions
• Team “We Are Inevitable” (Ellia
Gibbons, Kael McGuire, Parker
Powers, and Sarah Proctor), Pool 2
Champions
• Team “Friends from Work” (Dakin
Jacklovich, Abigail Schwartz, and
Jackson Robbins), 4th place in Pool 2
I NDEPENDENT B REAKOUT !
For the past three years, I’ve been promising to take the
R ESEARCH PROJECTS gifted students to an escape room as one of our Gifted
Workshops, and we were finally able to get it done in late
Both the LMS and the LHS QUEST classes October!
wrapped up their Independent Research A huge thanks goes out to Mastermind Escape Games in
Projects this week. During Finals Week, each Overland Park for their excellent hospitality. These trips to
student presented his or her project from the OP weren’t just for fun, however. Escapes rooms are excellent
semester, and there were some GREAT ways to help students:
topics, including some of the following:
• Improving communication and social skills
• Researching the shoe market • Improving memory, lateral thinking skills, and
• College scholarships and selection critical thinking skills
• The “Gifted Portfolio”
• Learning about new topics
• Getting into a team-oriented mindset
• Personal art portfolio
• Developing attention to detail
• Car engines
• Getting physical activity
• Eagle Scout project
• Bonding with friends and relieving stress
• Spanish skills
• The legal process The high school and middle school groups were each broken
• Writing an original novel up into two smaller groups, and each group was able to
• Researching systemic racism breakout of their rooms in time. The LHS “guys” group even
• Works of Rick Riordan broke the record for fastest escape time for the “Lost in
• Programming an original computer game
Time” Puzzle and with the remaining time, they also solved
the “Outbreak” Puzzle, which had a 21% escape rate!
• Starting an Etsy business
Also, a huge thanks to Abbie Davenport, Matt Powers, and
In the QUEST class, students get to choose Jessica Gibbons for helping supervise the LMS trip!
their own IRP topics. All I ask is that their
chosen topic (1) is of personal interest to
them, (2) is challenging for them to
accomplish, and (3) benefits them down the
road.

Over the years, students have been

completing some amazing IRPs, and I’m
always amazed at what they produce!

December 2021 | Louisburg High School and Louisburg Middle School | 2

Gifted Education

L A T ER AL T H I NKING
Every few weeks, I use a “Lateral Thinking” puzzle as the
cognitive cardio warm-up in QUEST. As a kid, I discovered
these puzzles through a family friend, and I’ve loved them
ever since. Lateral thinking is the use of an indirect and
creative approach to solve a problem. In other words, it is
outside-the-box thinking that requires thinking that is not
linear or step-by-step logic.
With these puzzles, I present a problem to the students that
they must solve by asking “yes or no” questions. They
gradually collect enough information through investigation
to allow them to solve the problem. Sometimes the solution
is frustrating, confounding, and outright unexpected, but
they’re always a lot of fun to solve!
If interested, check out the Lateral Thinking Puzzles books
by author Paul Sloane.
Mr. Robert Bovaird
Gifted Teacher
Email:
bovairdr@usd416.org
Website:
https://wildcat-gifted.weebly.com
Twitter:
@LHS_Bovaird
December 2021 | Louisburg High School and Louisburg Middle School |
Gifted Education
T HE WRITERS WORKSHOP
The final gifted workshop of the semester was the
“Writers Workshop” I presented to both LMS and
LHS students.
Having spent the first 15 years of my teaching
career in the English-Language Arts classroom, I’ve
always loved teaching writing. It’s something I
truly miss about my old job, and when I had the
chance to sneak it into my gifted program, I was
thrilled!
Here are some of the activities we did during the
workshop:
• “Dude, where’s my story?” Write a story that
starts with the word “dude”
• Hemingway’s “A Day’s Wait” and the Iceberg
e Principle
• “You’re the Man Now, Dog!” Finding your own
words from song lyrics (inspired by the film
Finding Forrester)
• Advice from Stephen King’s On Writing: A
Memoir of the Craft
• Finding Your Voice: Sounding Your “Barbaric
Yawp” (from the film Dead Poets Society)
I love teaching writing—I truly do—and I loved the
chance to get to work with the gifted students on this
subject. The offer is always on the table: if a gifted
student would like help, whether it’s writing for school
or for personal reasons, I’m here to help!
3