One of the basic tenets of a defensible gifted program is to provide students with an opportunity to investigate real problems using methods of inquiry employed by experts. At the elementary level gifted students have the ability and interest but not the skills to conduct their own investigations. They also lack the systematized training exercises in critical thinking necessary for idea production. The Independent Study Process (ISP) shifts the student from factual-oriented productivity to idea-oriented productivity. The ISP has three phases: Teacher-Led, Independent Study (IS), and Seminar. After a general exploratory introduction to a subject in the Teacher-Led phase, the student selects a topic for investigation in the IS phase. The seminar phase consists of process workshops. This article chiefly discusses the nine steps of the second phase, Independent Study.