Location: Arlington is a suburb of Boston, Massachusetts, located about ten miles northwest of Boston.
Population: Approximately 45,000
Things of Interest: Arlington is the hometown of Sam Wilson, the original Uncle Sam. The British marched through Arlington, then called Menotomy, on their way back from Lexington and Concord in 1775.
Industry: None
Agriculture: None
School Name: Academic Challenge and Enrichment (ACE)*. A program in Arlington's seven elementary schools: Bishop, Brackett, Dallin, Hardy, Peirce, Stratton, and Thompson.
School Mascot: N/A
School Colors: N/A
Class Participating: 20 4th-6th grade ACE classes in 7 schools.
School Contact: Linda Cohn and Anna Colozzo
Contact's Address: cohn@tiac.net and colozzo@a1.mec.mass.edu
School's Population: There are 430 students in the ACE Program, 270 of them in the math and science unit.
*The A.C.E. (Academic Challenge and Enrichment) Program of the Arlington, Massachusetts, Public Schools is designed to challenge students in Grades 4, 5, and 6 in the areas in which they have demonstrated high ability. The program focuses on academic strengths and the associated learning needs, which often fall beyond the realm of classroom work. The philosophy of the A.C.E. Program recognizes that there are many different ways in which intelligence demonstrates itself and many different types of intelligence. Therefore, students are invited to participate in the program based on specific demonstrated talents as well as general intelligence measures. Participation is on a voluntary basis following a determination of need for the program. The program presently addresses talents in the the following six areas: 1) Mathematical/Scientific, 2) Inter- personal/Leadership, 3) Visual/Spatial, 4) Creative/Reflective, 5) Inventive Thinking, and 6) Linguistic/Verbal. There are presently more than 400 students who participate in one or more of the six areas. The A.C.E. Program offers six units of study during the course of the year. Each unit draws primarily upon the skills in one of the six talent areas listed above. Students are invited to participate in those units for which they have demonstrated the requisite talents. Each unit involves the study of a topic that is multidisciplinary in focus and incorporates thinking skills relevant to the specific talent area. Each unit offers challenging activities along with specific strategies to further the child's growth in the corresponding area. The focus of A.C.E. class is oriented more toward process than product. A great deal of what happens in the classes (the learning that occurs, the insights gained, the discoveries made) cannot be measured or tested and does not result in tangible outcomes. An important underlying aim of the classes is to provide an atmosphere in which it is safe for the student to find work difficult or even fail to solve problems at first. Students are encouraged to see that learning actually begins with something that one doesn't know or understand. They are encouraged to find meaning and significance in the process of thinking, rather than solely in the content, and to pursue questions beyond the first obvious answer to a deeper exploration and understanding. A.C.E. assignments often encourage the students to connect the learning that they do in school with the world around them.