Charles Townes Center Program

The Charles Townes Center (CTC) serves highly  gifted and talented students in grades 3-8. Students are chosen from a three-tiered system designed to identify highly gifted students from throughout the district.

CTC Program Overview Video

CTC Core Values

Explore, Enrich, Excel

Explore: Students generate questions and delve into challenges that celebrate individual interests and academic risk-taking while fostering curiosity and personal responsibility.

Enrich: Student learning is enhanced through collaborative experiences which broaden global perspectives, develop interpersonal skills, and build confidence in a safe, cooperative environment.

Excel: Students begin an exceptional pathway towards autonomy, combining critical and creative thinking with evaluation and reflection.

Admissions

The Charles Townes Center is designed to have a capacity of 90 students per grade level for grades three through eight. Initial entry into the Center at the third grade is based on three student performance dimensions : reasoning ability as measured by nationally standardized aptitude assessments, achievement as measured by nationally standardized assessments, and classroom performance as a composite of four authentic student performance measures (Reading Fluency, Writing Benchmark, and first semester grades for Reading and Mathematics.)  The student must meet the criteria in two of the three dimensions in order to qualify for admission to the Center.

Information on CTC Admissions procedures.

Eligibility and Admission Inquiries: Jane Snyder District Coordinator of Gifted and Talented Programs Phone: (864) 355.4821 jsnyder@greenville.k12.sc.us

CTC Program Highlights

3rd Grade Curiosity Project

Curiosity drives people to pursue their own learning. In today’s world people can learn what they want when they want. From repairing a washing machine to purchasing the best car, nearly all the knowledge in the world is available at the touch of a button. However, young children still need to know how to digest, organize, and synthesize the information. The “curiosity project” allows us to teach time management skills along with evaluation of available resources and information, problem-solving strategies, and more all while carrying out INDIVIDUALIZED learning, and developing students’ talents!

During our Curiosity Unit children choose a topic about which they have a live interest, and they follow their own driving questions. The goal of this project is to provide modeling, structure and guidance for how to use natural curiosity to initiate learning, gather information, organize, synthesize, and share it. After the children present to classmates and families in a format of their choice, they take time to reflect on their learning. Self-direction is one of the main traits children must have as learners throughout their entire lives. 

7th Grade Activism Project

Our 7th grade CTC students participate in a year-long Activism project. In this project, they work on a self-directed, project-based learning experience in their English and Social Studies classes. Each student chooses a project based on their own interests and desires to contribute to the world around them. They do so by identifying something they are passionate about that correlates to a need or a problem. Then, they take work throughout the school year to better the world around them. The project includes a community/service aspect, and the ultimate goal of the project is to improve the life/lives of someone other than themselves.

Check out ED2  Earth Day - Every Day Helping Life on Land for the Better. This student website will give you a glimpse at an activism project.