The Bacon I am proposing to bring home is that of the Scientific Method of Inquiry first proposed by 17th Century British philosopher Francis Bacon, also known as the Father of Modern Science. Our class follows Bacon's philosophy with daily experiences through direct hands-on experiments.
I teach in an inner city public elementary school.
Our students are always eager to learn; we are an extremely dedicated community that is proud to serve one of the highest populations of students currently living in homeless shelters out of hundreds of schools in our city. We strive to practice highly engaging, meaningful, challenging, cooperative, and most of all FUN learning experiences that will inevitably inspire all of our students to not only graduate high school, but to pursue college as a part of their long-term goals. Many of our students continue on to be the first members of their families to graduate with a college degree, and many are now pursing degrees in various areas of Science. As our students continue to explore the wonders of human anatomy, they are looking forward to studying anatomy at a level on par with students from more affluent schools in our area through fetal pig dissection. This project also coincides with our unit studying nutrition and healthy eating.
My Project
Due to the support of previous Donorschoose grants, my last three classes of 7th grade students experienced dissecting fetal pigs for the first time and the level of engagement and inquiry discussions went well beyond my wildest expectations. This proposal seeks fetal pig specimens and dissecting kits so that our 7th grade students can continue to work in small cooperative groups in order to explore anatomy and physiology in the most realistic manner possible. It has been exciting for our 7th graders to show the younger students and their teachers of our school the process of conducting fetal pig autopsies, and to see little eyes peeping into our classroom door each day of the project. The students will be able to see the circulatory system as a network of highways transporting nutrients throughout the body. We hope to take advantage of the Produce for Kids matching offer as this project coincides with our inquiry unit on healthy nutritional habits to combat heart disease and obesity!
I believe one major way to help bring my students out of their current state of poverty is to provide learning experiences in which they can envision themselves as doing later in life.
A project like this may be just the right catalyst to inspire our society's future nurses, doctors, and surgeons. My students' parents the last three years raved about how their kids could not stop talking about the pig dissection project at home, and to us our Science classroom is just our home away from home!
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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 Mr. Kovach and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
