Sophomores enrolled in GT English have been completing the Futurism Projecis assignment for several years and tenth grade teacher Courtney Todd continued that tradition.

“I think doing this project was a great idea and it gives the students a large assignment that they’re very passionate about,”rising junior Zach Johnson said.

Gifted and talented classes must balance teaching the state mandated curriculum along with meeting the academic needs of students who learn in a non-traditional way. This project is meant to to teach research skills while allowing a significant amount of creativity and choice in the topic.

“Basically the futurism project has students look into a topic or career field they are interested in and predict what it will look like in ten years when it’s time for them to enter that field,” GT English II teacher Courtney Todd said. “I was so impressed by some of the creativity and time spent. It was also neat on my end to watch some students own their projects and be proud of what they created. One of my students did an awesome project where he built a prosthetic hand!”

Some of Todd’s students were interested in subjects not generally taught in high school, and this project provided an opportunity to explore these issues.

“I did stem cell repair of pathologies in the lungs,” Johnson said. “I learned that stem cells can pretty much cure any lung pathology but the FDA restricts stem cell research which stunts experimental research.”

Many students researched common human problems and believe developments in the future will bring solutions.

“I researched the future of blindness and how it will be treated,”rising junior Gabby Glorioso said. “There’s no full cure for blindness but there’s a lot of technology that will progress a cure over time.”