Information about our Fall 2012 YES Program will be available in mid-August.
The Fall YES dates are Saturdays, October 27, November 3, 10, 17.
Parent Sessions: Spring 2012
Week 1: Dr. Richard M. Cash, “Understanding the Brain of Your Gifted Child”
Week 2: Megan Bearce, MFT, “Helping Gifted Girls Grow Up: Tools to Navigate Adolescence and Beyond”
Week 3: Kris Happe, "Communicating with your Gifted Child's School"
GRADES 1 & 2 – Period 1
The Artful Scientist: Leonardo DaVinci and YOU This class is full
Are you an artist or a scientist? You could be both, of course. Leonardo DaVinci certainly was! Leonardo was a great artist who painted the famous Mona Lisa. He was also an eager scientist who studied the flight of birds and insects, drew detailed sketches of them, and wondered how to build flying machines. Explore the ways that artists and scientists work, through creative dramatics, theater games, exciting experiments and demonstrations. You’ll think like Leonardo as we learn about his paintings, his inventions, and his amazing observations of the world. This class is for artful scientists and scientific artists ready for fun filled learning. Invent, create and explore and become a modern Leonardo DaVinci!
Brenda and Tim Barrett: Brenda currently teaches elementary students as a curriculum specialist in White Bear Lake. Tim has created and taught classes for eight years at The Bakken Museum using creative dramatics to talk about science. They also worked with CLIMB Theater to teach K-12 students creative activities to deal with real life issues. Both Brenda and Tim have taught gifted students at YES classes since 2008. They enjoy finding new and curious connections between the worlds of art and science.
Ben Franklin’s Invent-a-thon This class is full
More than just a face on the $100 bill! Come join us as we take a trip through history and begin to explore some of the MANY contributions and inventions of Ben Franklin. In this class, you will: Shock your friends with static electricity! Save a house from lightning bolts! Print your own cards and money! Learn Ben’s contributions to science, community and the United States. This class is very hands-on and project- driven. Get ready to learn why many Americans regard Ben Franklin as an important and amazing historical leader.
Scott Wilson: Scott earned his degree at Univ. of St. Thomas and has taught 1st and 2nd grades at Mounds Park Academy for 12 years. Scott places a strong emphasis in the curriculum on providing children with the opportunity to ask questions and seek answers through their own special abilities and talents.
Spanish Culture Quest
Do you have an itch to travel? Join us for a fascinating look at various Spanish speaking countries and learn some Spanish vocabulary along the way. We will become historians and learn about important Spanish-speaking people in history. We will discover the cultural traditions and explore the food, music and daily activities experienced by children in these beautiful countries. Students need no prior Spanish language experience. But, you may be surprised that many words in Spanish resemble words in English (cognates).
Ericka Bergthold:
Calling All Hungry Artists!
Imagine art made of fruit, vegetables, flowers and leaves! Join us for fun as we learn about the work of painter Giuseppe Arcimboldo, who used these objects to make detailed portraits of other people. We'll try our hand at Arcimboldo's style, making interesting collages of images and natural objects. You really can make pictures and sculpture that you can eat, and use fresh produce as an art tool! Along the way, we will investigate artistic style and art history through hands-on activities. Sometimes your product will be your unique creation and sometimes we will work together to make giant works of art. No experience necessary; just bring your creative self and spirit of discovery.
Carrie Arnold: MA, Instruction, St. Mary's University; BA, "Art, Community and Pedagogy," Hamline University. Carrie has worked with children and youth in Alaska, Missouri, England, Switzerland, and is always happy to return to teach in Minnesota.
GRADES 1 & 2 – Period 2
When Walls Can Talk…
What do they say? Architecture can tell us many interesting things about the people they were built by, the places they were built, and much more. We will explore how architecture can tell a fascinating story about people, places, and time. Discover how societies have been inspired by architecture. We will design and construct our own examples of story-telling with architectural and design elements. Students will gain an appreciation of built environments and the buildings and cities that make them up.
Laura Cumming: BS, Interior Architecture, University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point. Laura's experience includes: teaching sessions at a contemporary ceramic studio, studying latin and leading a student trip to Italy, studying art, architecture and design in Greece and Italy with UW-SP. She has worked at prominent architectural firms and currently works as an independent interior designer and consultant.
Matter; Does it Matter? Fun with Chemistry This Class if Full
Come along on our journey into "matter" so that you can discover what it is and how it changes. Our hands-on chemistry experiments will include crushing cans without touching them and watching balloons pop into bottles -- real life applications of the "gas laws". Mixing common household chemicals, we will create matter that acts as both a solid and a liquid. Why does all that matter around us even matter? Let's use the scientific method to find out!
Jennifer Magdal: BS, Chemistry, University of MN, M.Ed., University of MN. Teaches 9th grade forensics/physical science and IB chemistry at St. Louis Park Senior High.
Down the Road to OZ
Get ready to sing, get warmed up and dance. Immerse yourself every Saturday in the Wonderful World of Oz. Actors will experience the thrill of taking their favorite character from the page to the stage. Our young actors will rehears their lines from a script and earn choreography. They will put it all together and perform for an invited audience, their family and friends on the last Saturday of YES.
Patty Hall; BA, Theatre, UMN…has taught and created theater courses in Minneapolis schools, directed Theatre for the Young in Duluth, MN…national award winner for performances at The Kennedy Center…currently works for children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis.
Rock Stories
Big things happened in Minnesota 3 billion years ago; 1 million years ago; 12,000 years ago – and the rocks are still talking about them. Grab your goggles, gloves and rock hammer (we supply them) and come to the classroom quarry we create to learn how to read rocks. Look for signs; test for mineral content; listen for the gripping tales of the land that rocks can tell us. Minnesota has been soothed by warm shallow seas, fooled by migrating water falls, silenced by ancient lava beds, bullied by glaciers. We’ll write, draw, paint, collage, sift, sort, make our own Paleozoic creatures, find real fossils in our quarry, fashion a model to understand how Minnehaha Falls moves upriver, measure and weigh to get to the bottom of Minnesota! We always get our story!
Anne Brataas: BA, English, Colorado College; MS, Zoology, UMN; MS, Environmental Science, Miami U; MA, History of Science, Technology and Medicine, UMN is president of The Story Laboratory LLC. She is an award-winning journalist; has worked at the Star Tribune and Pioneer Press. Her novel, “The Successful Mammal” is nearing completion.
GRADES 3 & 4 – Period 1
Architectural Sleuthing
Sleuth your way through some interesting architectural works of history. We will discover clues that tell us about the people and places of a historical time and how societies have been inspired by architecture. We will design our own examples of architectural clues for generations of architectural detectives to sleuth out and hopefully gain an appreciation of today’s buildings and cities.
Laura Cumming: BS, Interior Architecture, University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point. Laura's experience includes: teaching sessions at a contemporary ceramic studio, studying latin and leading a student trip to Italy, studying art, architecture and design in Greece and Italy with UW-SP. She has worked at prominent architectural firms and currently works as an independent interior designer and consultant.
Solids? Liquids? This Class is a Gas!
Chemistry is all around you, and you will want to experiment with us to find out the properties of all that matter! In this hands-on class, we will mix common household chemicals, pop balloons into bottles, and even crush cans without touching them. (Is that still "hands-on?") As curious scientists, we will predict, observe, test record, and evaluate to share the fun. Chemistry in this YES class is a gas!
Jennifer Magdal: BS, Chemistry, University of MN, M.Ed., University of MN. Teaches 9th grade forensics/physical science and IB chemistry at St. Louis Park Senior High
Props and Costumes and Make-up, Oh My!
Calling all actors, wizards, munchkins, and crafters: there’s no place like MITY, there’s no place like MITY, there’s no place like MITY ………………. Every Saturday we will recreate the land of OZ as theater technicians and actors. Our young actors will create a character from the Wizard of Oz and then head to the costume shop to build your own costume. Become the character that you create and then dance, sing, and act a number from the beloved musical. Break-a-leg!
Patty Hall; BA, Theatre, UMN…has taught and created theater courses in Minneapolis schools, directed Theatre for the Young in Duluth, MN…national award winner for performances at The Kennedy Center…currently works for children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis.
Revenge of the Rock Stories
Goggle up, gloves on, hammer at the ready to investigate Minnesota’s rock history! In the classroom quarry we create, you’ll learn how to examine and probe real rock specimens; identify Minnesota’s basic rock types; figure out how glaciers transport rocks – and fool you! – sift through fossil remains of plants and animals; make fossil casts and a map of shark’s teeth that can be found in western Minnesota. You’ll learn about Minnesota’s greatest lake (which anyone has hardly heard of) and what became of it. By rotating through a series of activity stations, children will have hands-on and minds-on learning – and a solid foundation for a hobby that can last a lifetime. Children will curate a collection of Minnesota rocks to take home in a customized museum display rock box. Each child will also learn how to plan a family rock-collecting trip in Minnesota and to the Black Hills of South Dakota.
Anne Brataas: BA, English, Colorado College; MS, Zoology, UMN; MS, Environmental Science, Miami U; MA, History of Science, Technology and Medicine, UMN is president of The Story Laboratory LLC. She is an award-winning journalist; has worked at the Star Tribune and Pioneer Press. Her novel, “The Successful Mammal” is nearing completion.
GRADES 3 & 4 – Period 2
Dabbling with DaVinci: Art and the Scientist
If you are a scientist interested in art, an artist interested in science, welcome to the world of Leonardo DaVinci who was involved in both. DaVinci used an artist's creative skills and a scientist's investigative brain to paint the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper. He was a devoted scientist who studied the flight of birds and insects, drew detailed sketches of them, and wondered how to build flying machines. DaVinci was an early engineer, imagining how to build a medieval tank, a submarine, and even a helicopter. With hands-on experiments, dramatics, games, and demonstrations, we will discover the ways that both artists and scientists work. See how DaVinci lived in both these worlds through his paintings, his inventions, and his observations of the world. Come invent, create and explore!
Brenda and Tim Barrett: Brenda currently teaches elementary students as a curriculum specialist in White Bear Lake. Tim has created and taught classes for eight years at The Bakken Museum using creative dramatics to talk about science. They also worked with CLIMB Theater to teach K-12 students creative activities to deal with real life issues. Both Brenda and Tim have taught gifted students at YES classes since 2008. They enjoy finding new and curious connections between the worlds of art and science.
Benjamin Franklin’s Fabulous Inventions
Do you swim with flippers? Do you know someone who wears bifocal glasses? Do you like shocking your friends with static electricity? If you do, you can thank Ben Franklin! In this class, you will discover how to store static electricity; save buildings from lightning; fly History kites. Students will understand static properties as it relates to different materials, study the function behind lightning rods, and understand the basic concepts of off-set printing. This is a VERY hands-on, project based class; so roll up your sleeves and get ready to delve into the amazing contributions and inventions of one of America’s most prominent historical figures.
Scott Wilson: Scott earned his degree at Univ. of St. Thomas and has taught 1st and 2nd grades at Mounds Park Academy for 12 years. Scott places a strong emphasis in the curriculum on providing children with the opportunity to ask questions and seek answers through their own special abilities and talents.
Spanish Culture and Beyond
Embark on a journey to discover various Spanish speaking countries and their cultural traditions. You will explore the food, music and daily activities experienced by children and adults of various cultures. Learn about important Spanish-speaking people in history and develop an appreciation for Spanish speaking cultures and peoples. Students need no prior Spanish language experience. But, you may be surprised that many words in Spanish resemble words in English (cognates).
Ericka Berghold:
Incredible, Sometimes Edible Art!
Come discover the artistic world of Giuseppe Arcimboldo, an Italian painter known for his imaginative portraits made entirely of vegetables, fruits, flowers and other objects. His whimsical paintings will be a starting point for our investigations into artistic composition and the wonders of symmetry. Together we will wander through a bit of art history to lead us to new hands-on art adventures. You’ll create your own edible art and work collaboratively on large-scale portraits. Explore how a variety of media can be used to depict your creations: pastels, paint and produce! Join us to become an expert at design and assemblage, using 2D images and 3D natural objects in your own unique creations.
Carrie Arnold: MA, Instruction, St. Mary's University; BA, "Art, Community and Pedagogy," Hamline University. Carrie has worked with children and youth in Alaska, Missouri, England, Switzerland, and is always happy to return to Minnesota.
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Download the 2012 Spring YES catalog.