Seeing students comfortable in my classroom and excited about learning has been the greatest gift since joining Donors Choose. We are a rural, low-income school district surrounded by farmland, which many students live and work on. Many of my students are tactile or kinesthetic learners who enjoy being able to get out of their desks, move around, work with their hands, experiment, and create things.
My students have a broad spectrum of abilities and learning styles, including a unique group of learners with special needs who often require modified instruction to achieve success in our science class.
My Project
Students who experience vision impairments can often feel left out in science classes which involve visual learning experiences, particularly during lab experiments. I want to help my new student with visual impairments feel included and not as dependent on others during science labs. Though few students with visual impairments benefit from utilizing a light microscope directly, many students with low vision can benefit from devices which allow microscope images to be displayed on a screen rather than through the eyepiece of the microscope. I want to empower my student and allow her to experience using a microscope with an adaptive screen to help her see a microscopic world that she otherwise would not be able to.
Not only will this microscope help students with vision loss feel included in completing science activities, it will also allow all of my students to capture images and videos of their specimens in ways that our other classroom microscopes cannot.
Microscopes are such an important tool in a biology classroom. Students are excited to use microscopes and I do not want anyone to feel left out or miss out on the experience. Using microscopes allows students to fine-tune their science skills for future STEM careers. In conjunction with the IF/THEN website, students will learn about diversity in the STEM field and find role models in careers they hope to pursue. I am confident that all of my students will benefit from hearing personal stories from the IF/THEN Ambassadors and by using this type of microscope to capture images of microscopic life they would not otherwise be able to see.
More than a third of students from low‑income households
Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education. Learn more
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 Mrs. Abrams-Ruque and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
