My students need a printer and toner cartridge for the classroom to help with various graphing activities for Physics. Other uses will involve printing star charts in Astronomy.
FULLY FUNDED! Mr. Hefner's classroom raised $326
This project is fully funded
My Students
My Physics class has many labs, and many labs require graphing of data. At present the only available printer is not in my classroom. Leaving students to finish the print job is not desirable. The interpretation of the graph is important for the lessons. A classroom printer solves this concern.
My Physics class is around 20 students this year.
There is a good mixture of male and female and I am also proud of the racial and ethnic balance. The class reflects the school's student population, and I am proud of that fact. The school as a whole does have a high free and reduced lunch percentage as do the schools that feed into my high school.
I am continuing to implement the modeling approach to Physics instruction. Modeling is very student-centered and hands-on. Many times graphs are made from the data the students themselves observed and recorded. The use of computer programs for graphing is extensive. The emphasis in not on producing the graph but the higher level thinking skills of interpretation and explaining what the graph itself is telling the reader. Modeling is very research based and proven effective.
The reason I am working on this DonorsChoose project is that I need a printer and toner cartridge in my room that can print the graphs to allow student interpretation.
My Project
The students make graphs in a variety of software programs. The modeling approach pushes students into higher level thinking skills where the emphasis is with interpretation of the graph and even determining the equations from the graph. It is very powerful and proven by research to help students develop a deeper understanding of Physics. Modeling does require students have time to examine and explain the graph. Often that will require a printout of the graph. With no printers in my classroom this school year I am not able to provide any printing capabilities without my leaving the classroom. As the reader would expect this is not a desirable situation to have the teacher leaving the room during instructional time.
Though this project is geared towards the needs of modeling Physics class, there are some uses within Astronomy. Printing star charts localized to different areas or times could be handled in a more spontaneous manner.
Chemistry also does graphs as well.
This project will allow students to push into higher level thinking that just cannot be done without the resources this project will fund.
As I type this, I have had the class complete 3 labs so far in the first 6 days of school. I have already run up against the problem of not having easy access to a printer in my classroom.
I have many students that aspire to have careers in engineering, medicine, and science. I want to push them along as far as possible and this project can help.
Nearly all students from low‑income households
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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. Hefner and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.