Natalie001's blog

Y.E.S. Summer 2012!

Thu, 31 May 2012 20:20:05 +0000

Hey, Teens. My name is Natalie Harrell and I am going to be one of your supervisors again this summer. I was in the Y.E.S. Program when i was in highschool so some of you may remember me. I am so excited to be back and see all of the new and old faces.

Girls Inc. Reflection

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 18:36:59 +0000

Hi my name is Natalie Harrell and I am one of the STEM Developers for Learning Places. Today we were at Girls Inc. and our theme was optics. We started the class of with a visual color blindness test. The girls were given a sheet of paper with different color circles and numbers blended inside of the circles. The test was for the girls to be able to see and recognize the numbers inside of the circles, which I think they all did, and if the didn't they would be considered, to some extent, color blind. Next we did an optic investigation called Mini Cartoon Thomatropes. This investigation involved the girls creating two separate images (ex: lightning bolt and dark cloud or heart and an arrow) on two cut out circles. The two images were glued back to back and one hole was punched on both ends. Using string they were to tie a large loop, using the holes, on both ends. Holding the ends of both loops the girls were told to wind up their thomatropes, let go and observe. The investigation was to guess and figure out what would happen to the two images when you looked at them while they were spinning. The girls found it exciting to see that the two images blended together to make one image. Overall the girls were interested and had fun today with us.

LP Update!

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 14:14:26 +0000

Hi my name is Natalie Harrell and I am one of the STEM Developers for Learning Places. We have been visiting our community sites for about two weeks now and everything has been going great. Our community sites are Herbert Hoover-Grand, Herbert Hoover-Adams, Girls Inc., Grace Hill-Howard Branch, and Christian Services. The kids we have been working with this summer have been great and excited to see us when we visit. The ages at our site range from 4 to 16(this has been a challenge)and LP has working on ways to expand and change our curriculum to fit all these ages; we are doing this by providing different process skills to the different age groups. But overall this summer is going great and Learning Places is working hard.

My first blog of the summer!

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 14:09:09 +0000

Hi my name is Natalie Harrell and I am one of the STEM Developer for Learning Places. So far the summer has been great; we are startng off focused. This week we have been refreshing our memory on everything we learned about inquiry and preparing ourselves for our community sites which we start visiting next week. We have also been learning about the seven processing skills: Observing, Questioning, Hypothesisizing, Predicting, Planning & Investigating, Interpreting, and Communication. We are working on how to combine our inquiry teaching with each of these processing skills. Well I'm very excited about this summmer and I hope for the best.

Our Spring Semester is Coming to an End!

Sat, 26 Apr 2008 16:00:19 +0000

Hi my name is Natalie and I am one of the STEM Developers for Learning Places. Well our spring semester is almost over and I think that we have done an excellent job of preparing ourselves for the summer. Overall this semester has been alot of fun and I have learned alot. Inquiry was our big theme for this semester and I think that I have the best understanding about it now. Our goal was to create a curriculum based on inquiry to teach to our community sites in the summer. I am excited to to teach and present all of activities,(our hard work), to the kids, and I know they will enjoy it. Being in Learning Places this semester has meant alot to me, it means alot to me because I feel like I am a part of something that is great, and I got paid for it! I have a great job.

I have several favorites, and most exciting activities that I love doing, and think the kids will enjoy the most. The create your own flower/plant activities were alot of fun and gave me a chance to use my imagination and be creative, which is an important part of inquiry. Our sand activities were good hands-on activities that I enjoyed, and that the kids would enjoy because it was messy and fun but you still learned things about sand that you never knew. We also worked on optics which I thought was fun too. During this semester we had seversl visitors come and talk to us. One of my favorite visitors was the blind woman who came and tought us how we could change our curriculum to being appropriate for kids with diabilities. She impressed me alot because she helped us so much and I could not believe that she was blind!

Archaeologists for the Day

Sat, 05 Apr 2008 18:39:27 +0000

Hi my name is Natalie Harrell and I am the STEM Developer for Learning Places. Today was our last day of working on sand acitvities to use with our community sites. The activity was for each of us to pick a container of sand and to search through the sand, using tools we had choosen, for artifacts. Using the artifacts found, we were to investigate and create a story or theory of what we thought happened. The questions to answer were, who died? who was the killer? where did the murder take place? etc. This activity was alot of fun and we all came up with some really crazy stories! We all came to the conclusion that this activity would be one that our community sites would really enjoy; with a few minor changes.

Inquiry With Plants

Sat, 16 Feb 2008 20:09:48 +0000

Hi my name is Natalie and I am one of the STEM Developers for Learning Places. Today everyone in our group designed and created their own flower. After creating the flower we had to explain how the flower reproduces, how does it get it's nutrients, how does it protect itself,etc. The reason for this activity was for us to think of ways to make what we did into an inquiry activity for kids. Today we also did or SCANS which was fun. Our SCANS activities were around the idea of moderate challenges-this is when you start off with a small challenge and gradually increase the challenge. Our challenges were to fit all the members of our team on boards that went from big to really small; it was easy at first but became a major challenge when we had to fit three people on a notebook!

Our Inquiry Discussion

Sat, 26 Jan 2008 20:01:06 +0000

Hi m name is Natalie and I and one of the STEM Developers for Learning Places. Today we focused on trying to get a better understanding about inquiry. We were visited by a woman named Laurie who is a professor at Washington University. Laurie did inquiry exercises and activties with us so that we could get an idea of how they work and how we should attempt them. I would say that today was a sucessful work day and one of our great stepping stones to accomplishing our goal of being able to have our summer program completely based on inquiry learning.

A Day of Inquiry

Sat, 19 Jan 2008 19:38:09 +0000

Hi my name is Natalie and I am a STEM Develper for Learning Places. Today our group focused more on finding out and practicing the true meaning of inquiry. We did Student and teacher scenarios so that we could understand from both sides how our inquiry teaching skills could improve. I feel that today had alot of meaning and was very important.

Back from break; focused and ready to work.

Sat, 05 Jan 2008 18:57:23 +0000

Hi my name is Natalie Harrell and I am one of the STEM Developers for Learning Places. Today there wasn.t much STEM covered; there was more of a focus on our site group presentations. Today I worked with the other groups so that all presentation boards were complete. I consider today a very useful day alot was acomplished.

Accomplishments For The Day

Sat, 17 Nov 2007 19:53:37 +0000

Hi my name is Natalie and I am one of the STEM Developers for Learning Places. Today my partner, Matt, and I got alot of things accomplished.Today our assignment was to discuss and create activities for our five community site that went along with each of their themes. Our five sites are Herbert-Hoover on Grand, Herbert-Hovver Adams, Christian Services, Girls Inc., and Grace Hill Howard Branch. So far we have activities planned for only two sites. We plan to complete the rest as soon as possible. Today we work hard!

First Stop, Home Depot!

Sat, 10 Nov 2007 19:33:39 +0000

Hi my name is Natalie Harrell and I am one of the STEM Developers for Learning Places. Today I work with the Hebert Hoover Team on finding decorations, and supplies that fit in with the curriculum that we are creating. Being at Home Depot gave us alot of new ideas and ways that we can make things better. My group found great colors, carpets, pictures, etc. I am very excited about what we have and how it will all come together.

Finally the peices start coming together!

Sat, 03 Nov 2007 17:15:33 +0000

Hi, my name is Natalie and I am one of the STEM Developers for Learnng Places. Today I think the group made a big breaktrough; we got alot of things accomplished. I feel tat everyone was on task and that we are finally getting some of the important things started. Today, along with my partner Matt, i came up with various activiies that went along with the theme for the Christian Service site; we plan to do the same with the remaining sites. Overall today was a good day!

Inquiry Should Help Develop Learning Places

Sat, 22 Sep 2007 19:09:06 +0000

Hi, my name is Natalie Harrell and I am a STEM specialist in Learning Places which is a grant based group that creates and develops learning environments. Learning Places is now trying to research and come up with ways to incorporate inquiry in our activities and spaces. In orderto make or activities inquiry we would have to make them more hands on with less instruction so that kids would be allowed to learn by themselves. In order for us to create an inquiry space, we would have to make a space with various things and activities that kids can explore; our goal is to be able to obseve kids sel

Time For The Fall

Sat, 08 Sep 2007 19:17:17 +0000

Hi, my name is Natalie; and on the first day of work for the fall our group started off great. We did icebreakers, activities, and really got a solid idea of what we will be doing for the school year. At this point i can see that it is going to take alot of hard work and cooperation to completenour goals that we set for ourselves. But overall I am looking forward to it and hope to have fun.