THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, August 15, 1995 TAG: 9508150053
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MICHELE SNIPE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 118 lines
AT HOME, he spends time avoiding the wrath of two older brothers and playing Mickey Mania on his Nintendo. But when 10-year-old Kiet Ahn Tran arrives at the College of William and Mary every morning, he's more concerned with wrestling math problems, not his brothers.
How many piano tuners are there in Williamsburg?
This is the latest challenge posed to Kiet and 11 other students during ``The Challenge of the Unknown,'' a class that introduces problem-solving using math.
Kiet, along with 370 other high-ability youngsters, is spending two weeks - July 31 through August 11 - solving mysteries like this one in the Summer Enrichment Program sponsored by the Center for Gifted Education at the college.
As a student who scored in the 95 percentile on statewide achievement tests, Kiet became eligible to participate in any of the 42 accelerated courses offered on weekday mornings. Some of these include physics, computer-aided design and architecture.
At $165 a class, ``the program provides students with the opportunity to explore subjects of interest'' that aren't offered in the regular school system, said Dr. Joyce VanTassel-Baska, the director of the Center for Gifted Education.
So while many kids are sleeping in or mournfully counting down the days until summer's end, Kiet rolls out of bed at 7 a.m. and prepares for another day of classes.
``It's fun,'' says the Hampton sixth-grader. ``People think you're in college and stuff.''
And he might as well be.
In a class titled ``You Be The Judge!'' Kiet learns about reasonable doubt, the burden of proof and other legal concepts that first-year law students grapple to understand.
The class offers students ``a great opportunity to get an understanding of the Constitution,'' says Debra Benedict, a teacher from Litchfield, Conn., who runs the course.
``It's not easy. They have to plan a strategy, and wording the questions is very important,'' she says as the students prepare for a mock trial. Plus, kids have a chance to do public speaking and dress up for court on ``trial day.''
As Benedict reviews legal jargon, Kiet digs into a weathered manila envelope, his would-be briefcase, and pulls out pages of legal definitions and a copy of the case he and the class are working on.
When called on, he offers the definition for a precedent:
``If the same thing comes up again, they'll look at the old case and know what to do.''
In this case, he and his classmates are studying a trial involving a newspaper reporter who refuses to identify a story source, even though it may help solve a kidnapping case. Kiet plays the role of Peter Brown, a police officer.
While Kiet's character is on the stand in William and Mary's Morton Hall, Grace Zamora, 11, of Williamsburg and Amanda Pickens of Chesterfield are in a makeshift newsroom nearby in Jones Hall.
Students in the ``Extra! Extra!'' class are creating a newspaper that highlights each of the classes in the summer program.
The two are negotiating a name for a comic strip that will run in the student-produced newspaper, Extra! Extra!
Grace, who wears her glasses around her neck and a press pass that spans one side of her chest, sits slouched over, drawing.
``Three Men Go Up a Mountain?'' 10-year-old Amanda suggests.
``Too long,'' Grace muses. ``How about `Up a Mountain'?'' They both nod in agreement.
Extra! Extra! reporter Casey Harper, a sixth-grader from Westport, gathers her tape recorder, notes and a walking stick. Because she is blind, Casey tapes her interviews and transcribes them into a computer at home that prints in Braille, she says.
Casey wants to be a singer or a veterinarian when she grows up, but for now she is more concerned with getting her four stories together.
``Two weeks is not a lengthy period of time,'' she says smiling. ``I have a lot of work to do.''
Class participants, ages 4 to 15, are chosen from 65 school districts in Virginia. Their selection is based on an applications, standardized test scores and recommendations from school officials.
The 31 faculty members are also expected to meet certain criteria, says Katie Hemmett Hall, the center's coordinator of special projects. ``We don't advertise,'' she says. ``We're very selective about who we bring in.''
Teachers are recruited from doctoral programs in gifted education, local school systems and a pool of local specialists.
Amy Pongonis, the Extra!, Extra! newspaper teacher, just finished her master's degree in gifted education and has worked with the program for three years.
``The program is stimulating for them,'' she says. ``Hopefully, they can carry skills and apply them to school work.''
Kiet says the skills he learns do help him.
``The classes help because you're dealing with things in class that you can use in school,'' he says.
By the time ``The Challenge of the Unknown,'' the problem-solving class, gets under way, Kiet's striped shirt is untucked from his shorts. He reaches into his envelope, coming out with a granola bar his mom sent with him.
Kiet is 4 feet 9 inches tall, and the other students his age tower over him. But that doesn't stop Kiet from being the first to jump into class-participation projects. And he loves solving riddles and brain-teasing mysteries in his problem-solving class.
So as he dashes down the hall after class, he doesn't mind that the mind-tickling doesn't stop. His friend asks:
A land scraper must plant 19 trees in nine straight rows that have five trees in a row. How does he do it?
``I know this,'' Kiet says, knitting his brow, straining to recall. ``Oh, I just can't remember.''
But that's OK, because classes are over for the day. Kiet wastes no time dashing outside to run around on the college's grassy quad. It's 2:30 p.m. Still plenty of time in the day left to play some Nintendo and wrestle with his brothers. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by Chritopher Reddick
Kiet Ahn Tran learns about legal concepts in the "You Be the Judge!"
class in Willliam and Mary's Summer Enrichment Program. by CNB