My students need 15 small sharks and some cleaning towels for dissection during our physiology unit.
$351 goal
Hooray! This project is fully funded
Hooray! This project is fully funded
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.
Have you ever wondered about the anatomy of one of the most feared animals of all time? My students are extremely curious to be able to study the anatomy of sharks in Life Science. They understand that sharks are perhaps the most misunderstood creatures on earth. They would love to explore it.
My students live throughout Orange County, CA.
Most reside in Santa Ana and Tustin. I would say about 90% Hispanic and 10% White is the current population. My students in general are very eager to learn science, they claim is their favorite subject and want to make sure they obtain a world class education. Our school is a charter/public school that receives Title 1 funds from the state. The school only houses a little over 500 students from Kinder to 8th Grade. The school made substantial test scores last year, making the school with most gains in the entire Orange County. The school however is trying to focus more in the sciences this school year.
My Project
Five years ago I had the opportunity to do the same dissection with students, they dissected sharks. Five years later (now) I still get emails from students thanking me and remembering the day they discovered the inside of the shark. I think that it was so powerful because the shark is such an exotic animal that we as humans see as a threat. The activity will consist of having students in groups of four and each students has an assigned role, such as the surgeon, the note taker, and the timekeeper. Students will then proceed to cut and study the different parts and various body systems, such as the digestive, nervous, and endocrine systems. As a result of this activity, students will be able to understand how major body systems provide oxygen and nutrients to the body, they will also understand how waste products are removed. Students will also understand and visually look at the nerves, gills, and the brain of the shark, which interestingly is similarly shaped to ours.
Being that our school as many other schools is currently struggling financially, our science budget has been tremendously cut.
There will be no budget this year for an assignment of this magnitude. I believe our students need to be exposed to an assignment like this one because they have never been. My goal is that students learn from this and use the experience to perhaps become interested in a science career in the future. I personally had a great science teacher whose dissections in class motivated me.
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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. V. and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.