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This teacher needs your help!

Mrs. Purcell from Morehead City NC is requesting supplies through DonorsChoose, the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.

See what Mrs. Purcell is requesting

Speeding With Solar Cells

My students need 15 solar powered cars to study the potential and kinetic energy of alternative, sustainable resources.

  • $715 goal

Hooray! This project is fully funded

Hooray! This project is fully funded

My Students

Help my students speed their way to learning about energy by providing solar powered cars to grasp their attention and engage them in conversations about their energy futures!

What a fantastic group they are!

With 106 students divided into four classes, my classroom is packed tight with children hungry for knowledge about science. As a full inclusion school with no teacher aides for science, I have the unique opportunity to engage all types of learners, from students challenged with autism to gifted and talented kids, all in the same 56 minutes! Project based learning has been my saving grace, allowing students to work at their own pace, with the help of fellow classmates if needed, in order to provide a challenging learning environment for all participants.

My Project

These materials will allow me to bring my units on forces & motion, as well as energy conservation and transfer, to life! My students will be able to explain the effects of balanced and unbalanced forces acting on an object and then illustrate the motion of the solar powered cars with regards to change in position over a period of time by graphing their results. Once these graphs are created, they will be able to interpret each others graphs and detect areas of constant speed and acceleration. Once they've mastered the concept of speed, we'll move on to kinetic and potential energy and they'll be able to explain how these energy types relate to the position and motion of their cars, and how they can be altered by the angle of the solar cells, as well as the addition of inclined planes. To wrap up the unit, students will compete in a car race and will be required to analyze their race results with regards to speed and acceleration.

Living in a coastal community, many of my students' families rely on the local fisheries as a means of income.

Time and time again they bring up the topic of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and want to discuss ways to prevent such devastation from happening to their environment. By allowing them to discover the power of solar energy and how, in their lifetime, it could be used as a realistic alternative to oil would create a powerful message of hope for them.

Mrs. Purcell
Grades 6-8

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Expand the "Where your donation goes" section below to see exactly what Mrs. Purcell is requesting.

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TEACHERS, FEELING INSPIRED?

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Where Your Donation Goes

Where your donation goes
Materials Cost Quantity Total
KIT SOLAR PHOTON RACER • Frey Scientific, Inc. $31.45 15 $471.75

Materials cost

$471.75

Vendor shipping charges

 $56.61

Sales tax

 $36.80

3rd party payment processing fee

$7.08

Fulfillment labor & materials

$35.00

Total project cost

$607.24

Suggested donation to help DonorsChoose reach more classrooms

$107.16

Total project goal

$714.40

How we calculate what's needed

Total project goal

 $714.40

2 Donors

-$98.00

Donations toward project cost

-$83.30

Donations to help DonorsChoose reach more classrooms

-$14.70

match offer

-$616.40

Match offer toward project cost

-$523.94

Match offer to help DonorsChoose reach more classrooms

-$92.46

Still needed View calculationHide calculation

 $0.00

Our team works hard to negotiate the best pricing and selections available.

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DonorsChoose is the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.

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. Purcell and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.

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