My students need a Frey Stereo Zoom Trinocular Microscope and 300 Planaria Flat Worms.
FULLY FUNDED! Mr. Enguidanos's classroom raised $1,169
This project is fully funded
My Students
The world around us is full of mysterious and amazing organisms and creatures that we know little about. We want to study simple living organisms to begin to understand how they evolve, behave and grow. In a tiny drop of water we may find countless organisms interacting, both predators and prey.
Our urban school setting is situated close to the Pacific Ocean, next to one of the largest urban city parks in the U.S.
Yet our students, many of them our city's neediest, have little contact with nature. They face gang violence bravely, yet the impact on them is clear; most of them suffer from post traumatic stress. They are fearful when traveling across the city as this brings them into contact with teens from other neighborhoods that are a serious dangerous to them. So while they are curious about nature and science, they are also quite fearful of insects, plants and animals.
They have had little positive interactions in school and prefer hands-on learning. When given safe and secure opportunities to get to know plants and animals, ponds and rivers, their minds begin to revert to their natural curious state. They are filled with questions and begin to propose experimental hypothesis, such as "What would happen if...?" We propose to building learning opportunities around this natural curiosity.
My Project
If you help fund this project you will give urban youth a chance to rediscover their natural curiosity. You will give them tools to know and love nature in ways that all students should. Students who have safe and positive experiences become more self-confident in their ability to learn complex concepts. Through observation and conversation about what they observe. Students develop questions to test through experimentation.
We are requesting a microscope to view the Planarian. We are also requesting the tiny Planarian, which are fascinating and important members of fresh water ponds and streams. They reproduce sexually, and all dugesia are hermaphrodites. Two planarian will pair up and fertilize each other's eggs. Those eggs are then released in a cocoon. If there is not another dugesia present, one can reproduce asexually through a process called transverse fission. The organism will pull itself in half and the tail portion will regenerate a new head, and the head portion will regenerate a new tail. This amazing ability leads to many questions.
It just takes a tiny spark to re-engage student natural curiosity.
They have had rough lives and little time to relax and play in nature. This project, especially the gift of the microscope, will give many students the ability to observe nature in great detail which can be documented with video. They will create documentaries of the micro and macro-life in our urban park wetlands. We will give them the time and support to express their natural curiosity, you will give them the tools they need.
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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. Enguidanos and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.