Innovative Teaching Spaces
—

Ann Scott Carell Library
 

The 20,000-square-foot facility serves as the information and technology hub of the campus, housing comprehensive library services along with the school's network and technology support team.

THE LIBRARY

The Ann Scott Carell Library is home to the most comfortable chairs on campus and they surround an inviting fireplace. The library, with its huge windows overlooking Souby lawn, is a place with quiet nooks for those who wish to read and five small study rooms for collaboration with classmates. The library houses a 30,000 item collection and also provides students with thousands of electronic resources. The library is open every day from 7:30am – 5:00pm.

The lower level includes the help desk (the Bear Cave), the archives room, a meeting room, and a makerspace called, the Design Den.

BEAR CAVE

Harpeth Hall's Laptop Help Desk is located on the lower level of the Ann Scott Carell Library. It is open Monday - Friday during the school year and Tuesdays and Thursdays during June and July.

TECHNOLOGY

Every student in grades 5 through 12 uses a laptop as part of her learning experience. Campus technology includes:

• More than 150 faculty and staff laptops and approximately 700 student laptops
• A schoolwide wireless network
• Software to support all disciplines
• Scanners, digital cameras, and video cameras for faculty and student use
• A fully-automated library with catalog and database access all over campus as well as from home
• Internet access with email for students, faculty, staff, and administrators
• A long-range strategic plan for our technology goals
• Access to a learning management system for all students and teachers
• Ceiling-mounted wireless projectors in all rooms; and probes, graphing calculators, and video microscopes in math and science classes

Harpeth Hall is committed to preparing students to be lifelong learners and effective users of information and ideas because a well-rounded education prepares students for any type of career they might choose. The Information Services Department offers an exemplary information literacy program for students to help them develop the skills to find, evaluate, and use information.

Bullard Bright IDEA Lab
 

As a school founded on bold ideas, Harpeth Hall continues to look beyond tomorrow to innovate for the global community our girls will enter. The next level in the school’s educational excellence is the new Bullard Bright IDEA Lab.

The Bright IDEA Lab is a place for learning, experimenting, and dreaming as you have never seen before. An epicenter for creativity, critical thought, and collaboration, the Lab brings middle and upper school students and teachers together to learn from each other, build on shared experiences, take intellectual risks, and explore new frontiers.

“In a time when life is reimagined for all of us and the norms and routines of yesterday are shed, a Bright IDEA Lab gives us the opportunity to envision a different kind of learning space,” Harpeth Hall Head of School Jess Hill said. “A classroom, presentation space, studio, maker space, and lab all in one, this flexible space is without definition in the traditional sense. … In this space, the connections, collaborations, and possibilities are endless.”

The Bright IDEA Lab promotes:

Innovation

• Connection between the sciences and the humanities.

Design

• Problem-solving skills through engineering, coding, entrepreneurship, digital humanities, and interdisciplinary scholarship.

Education in Action

• Opportunities to learn from featured speakers, participate in professional development sessions convene student/teacher meetings, and conduct workshops to research, build, and launch entrepreneurial projects.

 

Learn more about the makerspaces in the Bullard Bright IDEA Lab

The Robotics Lab

In the robotics lab, girls use science, coding, and creative thinking to create and test robotic functions. The Robotics Lab is also home to the Bear Bots, Harpeth Hall's robotic team, founded in 2022. 

The determination of Harpeth Hall’s new robotics team is fierce. From a starter kit of aluminum rods, flat bearings, green plastic gears, and hundreds of tiny nuts and screws, they built a robot worthy of competing against the best. The BearBots achieved milestones rare for a first-year competition team — first with an Excellence Award at a local tournament, then at state competition, and finally on the world stage. The team showcased its engineering, design, and programming skills against the best of the best high school teams at the 2022 VEX Robotics World Championship in Dallas, Texas. More than 800 schools from across the globe attended. The trip marked the first time a Harpeth Hall robotics team has qualified for worlds. 

Stephanie Balmer Garden for Student Engagement
 

The Stephanie Balmer Garden for Student Engagement is a permanent tribute honoring Dr. Stephanie Balmer, our beloved sixth Head of School from 2014 to 2018. Located in the same space that Dr. Balmer worked with students and faculty to plan a school garden, this expanded garden will serve as a community garden, an outdoor classroom, a gathering space, and a beautiful natural retreat which will combine beauty with function and enhance the east side of campus. This teaching garden will promote student learning, interaction, connection, reflection, artistic endeavors, and a general curiosity about nature. Consistent with the school’s commitment to sustainability, Harpeth Hall will better teach girls about the importance of caring for our environment and the critical role our land plays in our sustenance through this garden. 

 

The Teaching Kitchen
 

Teaching Kitchen Featuring a moveable island and rolling supply carts for demonstrations and hands-on learning, this space is the perfect place for a Winterim for Adults class to take a cooking class and for students to prepare a meal for a Public Purpose project or combine ingredients for a chemistry experiment.