I teach General Biology, Anatomy, and Dual Credit College Biology to 10th through 12th grade students in a low income school in north central West Virginia. My students come from a variety of backgrounds and experiences, but the vast majority are hardworking and motivated to succeed. Many are taking multiple science classes their junior and senior year to prepare for college.
To allow our students to better understand the curriculum, science classes should be about 50% lab based.
My students respond very well to these activities and are excited to be doing real science investigations.
To perform the lab activities necessary to stimulate student motivation and understanding, my classroom requires supplemental funding every year. I receive a very small budget in the fall of each year which barely covers the dissection specimens for my anatomy class. Unfortunately, the rest of the funding comes from my own pocket.
Next year, I will be facilitating a university biology class in which juniors and seniors will receive college credit. This requires me to integrate more technology into my instruction which will better prepare my students to be competitive in the 21st century job market.
My Project
The activities incorporated into this project will allow students to experience some of the same technologies utilized in biological research laboratories across the country. The balances will be used to determine the mass of compounds, and the microcentrifuge will prepare samples to be prepped for both DNA and protein electrophoresis. One of the proposed labs allows students to use color chromatography to separate the colored pigments found in chlorophyll.
Hands-on lab experiments are necessary to improve student understanding of biotechnology, and these activities require specialized equipment.
The requested supplies will be used multiple times for all of my classes. They are essential for establishing a classroom laboratory that will benefit hundreds of students in multiple grades and science courses.
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Mrs. Merritt and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.