My students need hands on materials to learn basic engineering concepts such as simple machines. Fifteen kits of Lego simple machines could bring them that experience.
$3,098 goal
This project expired on November 26, 2015.
This project expired on November 26, 2015.
Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month
This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because
it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.
I'm a teacher on a cart! I travel from room to room in an inner-city school with over 1200 students. I teach Pre-K through 8th grade all in one day. My teaching responsibility is morphing into being the STEM teacher for the school. The kids want HANDS ON exciting engineering projects.
My students come from a poor inner-city environment.
In addition, the majority of the students do not speak English as their first language. We have one class per grad that is taught entirely in Spanish. My students want to learn, but materials and supplies are nonexistent. Teaching engineering with nothing but pencils and paper is very difficult and boring (and even the paper is rationed). They crave the hands on projects where real learning takes place.
My Project
The Lego Simple and Motorized Mechanisms Intro Classroom Packs will be used by over four classrooms at a time (teacher on a cart, remember). Students will be able to explore the simple machines concepts with their own hands, put the actual machines together. They will learn to read a diagram, a common core requirement.
My students will be able to try new ways of doing things, some of which will work, and some will fail. Learning from failure is just as important in science and engineer as getting the correct answer.
My hope is that many of my reluctant learners will embrace the kinetic and hands on nature of the materials and lessons. Learning not only engineering concepts, but also resilience and working through failure.
STEM is where the future is.
Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, these are the careers of the future. My students don't normally get to experience these fields in a dynamic way. This project will awaken their interest and possibly start some of them on a career path in these fields. They will also learn valuable skills that are transferable to other classes and fields such as perseverance, teamwork, and working through failure.
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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. Riha and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
