Kamil Tolon Science and Art Center

Kamil Tolon Science and Art Center located in Osmangazi, in Bursa was founded in 2001 for gifted and talented students. The center is a non-profit and public body organisation that is dependent to the Ministry of National Education. The education in the center is free of charge. Its mission is to provide gifted and talented students with a differentiated and enriched academic education that will enable them to develop at the highest level by recognizing the unique development of the student. The center has 18 years of experience, expertise and reliable field knowledge. We believe that every gifted and talented student has the right to get an appropriate education to meet his or her potential for the future of our world. We also believe that interactive engagement with ideas, materials, the environment and technology promotes creativity, critical thinking, problem solving and growth. Therefore we offer different kinds of supportive education and training activities that enable students to discover their potential and encourage their academic skills, social development and artistic creativity. Education model at Science and Art Centers differs from formal education at schools. The education in the center is supportive not an alternative education for public or private schools. While school students need a passing grade or prepare for exams, the Science and Art Center students do not need grades or passing a class etc. Instead, education in the center is carried out with a project-based model and students are expected to complete creative projects at the intersections of art, science and technology with required qualities. Therefore, gifted and talented students come to the center out of school hours. Since the center is open for 5 days -morning, afternoon and evening sections,-the students select the sections according to their out of school hours. Gifted and talented students get education and benefit of our center until the universty. Education at Science and Art Centers consists of five stages: orientation, supporting education, recognition of individual talents, development of special talents and project generation. Also, each student at the center has a mentor who regularly guides him/her at each stage. We have 644 selected gifted and talented students spanning the grades of 2 to 12. They explore the sciences, perform experiments and be amazed as they discover the world around at the center. Our curriculum has a flexible structure that supports student-specific continuous development according to the variable interests and needs of each student. It consists of a differenciated education program that includes high level thinking skills that focus on improving the ability to use information, solving real life problems, and giving importance to creative thinking. Therefore, well –trained teachers help students connect with real world applications through design, programming, coding, engineering and more. All classes are taught by highly qualified professional teachers and successful professionals in the sciences and arts- 2 Music teachers, 2 Art teachers, 2 English teachers, 1 Science teacher, 2 Social Sciences teachers , 1 Geography teacher, 1 History teacher, 4 Maths teachers, 2 Guidance and Counseling teachers, 2 Turkish Literature teachers, 1 Turkish teacher, 2 Biology teachers, 2 Chemistry teachers, 2 Primary School teachers, 1 ICT teacher, 1 Technology and Design teacher, 2 Physics teachers. Teachers in the center provide enriched activities which are not being provided by the public school system to gifted and talented students. They encourage students to learn by pushing their potential so they organize programs that will inspire students’ creativity, curiosity and lifelog learning. The center includes 17 classrooms, 1 workplace for technology and design, 1 conference hall, 5 science labs, 1 BT classroom, 2 music rooms, 2 art rooms. It is important to create opportunities for gifted and talented students to work in the sub-branches. Richer, more comprehensive, deep and equipped with intellectual ideas content enables them to think creatively at a level that can adapt to rapid changes and differences and contribute to the production of new ideas with the help of projects. Therefore, the center has workshops in addition to primary subjects. They can be listed as below: • Aerospace workshop • Applied Chemistry workshop • Astronomy workshop • Geology workshop • Scientific research workshop • Robotics and coding workshop • Mind games workshop • Creative writing workshop • Art workshop • Music workshop • English workshop