This project is part of the Black History Month celebration because it supports a Black teacher or a school where the majority of the students are Black.
My Students
Imagine growing up in Detroit and rarely leaving a setting of burned out and abandoned houses and dilapidated schools. Then imagine your environmental science teacher telling you the environment was a beautiful resource we need to conserve. Would you believe her without seeing it first?
My students are 10th graders at a small African-centered school in Michigan.
Almost all of them have lived in the city their entire lives and few have any concept of what natural landscapes look like at all. This trimester we will begin to study environmental science, and as their teacher I must convince them that the natural world is beautiful and valuable and full of creatures and resources that it is humanity's job to preserve. My students have never experienced a natural world full of plants and animals. They only know the setting of urban decay in which they have grown up and have no concept of how their daily actions affect the rest of the world.
My Project
In order for my students to see the value in preserving the environment, they have to literally SEE it.
As of now our school has one projector which all the teachers battle over. In order to give my students a full understanding and appreciation of the world outside their city I need to be able to show it to them on a daily basis.
I plan to use the projector to show my students videos about endangered species, global warming, and other environmental issues. As we study ecology and the importance of biological diversity, I will use the projector to make the natural world we are discussing come alive for them.
I believe every person should grow up with an appreciation of all the wonderful places and creatures that share our planet with us.
Showing students what else is out there in the world and why it is so wonderful will have a lifelong impact on how they go about their daily lives. Their global environmental perspective will inform everything they do, from whether they recycle to how they vote in elections.
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 Ms. Miner and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.