Stephanie Devlin & Mercedes Blades Capstone Project

For our senior project, we decided to help and teach a lesson at a middle school. We’ve always had a love for helping others, especially children. Out of all the elementary and middle schools around Philadelphia, we felt the most tied to Science Leadership Academy Middle School. Since we’ve both attended SLA for the last four years, we felt entitled to work with younger versions of us and see how they incorporate the five core values (research, inquiry, collaboration, presentation and reflection.). Despite some miscommunication and traveling issues, we made the best out of the time we got to spend with these students. This was such an amazing learning experience for us since Stephanie wants to major in education, and Mercedes wants to major in psychology. In the beginning of the year we got to help students one on one with support if they needed it, some of the things included: helping them record for their podcasts, reading assignments, and just overall just getting to know the students’ better. For our final product we created an lesson that dealt with origami hearts, to see which way the children learn better. The goal we had was to use this lesson to see what type of learning is easier for children based upon how their brain works (Mercedes) and the best skills for teaching children (Stephanie). This is an experience that we will never forget, and we will always be thankful for the opportunity we were given to work with these students. Special thanks to SLA Middle School, Mr.Boyle, but most importantly Ms.Hamilton for allowing us to work with her students!​
Stephanie & Mercedes teaching Ms.Hamilton’s class at Science Leadership Academy Middle School an origami lesson.
Stephanie & Mercedes teaching Ms.Hamilton’s class at Science Leadership Academy Middle School an origami lesson.
Stephanie & Mercedes teaching Ms.Hamilton’s class at Science Leadership Academy Middle School an origami lesson.
Stephanie & Mercedes teaching Ms.Hamilton’s class at Science Leadership Academy Middle School an origami lesson.
Stephanie working one on one with students, helping them make their origami hearts.
Stephanie working one on one with students, helping them make their origami hearts.
Mercedes working one on one with students, helping them make their origami hearts.
Mercedes working one on one with students, helping them make their origami hearts.
Outcome of some of the hearts made by the students!!
Outcome of some of the hearts made by the students!!
Class picture with the hearts!
Class picture with the hearts!

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