To say that my students have led challenging lives is an understatement. My students come from a district where the high school drop-out rate is well above 50%, yet they have succeeded in reaching their final years of high school and have given themselves the goal of going on to college.
Many of my students will be the first in their family to go to college, and some will be the first to graduate high school.
These students enrolled in chemistry to challenge themselves and to develop the problem-solving skills necessary for college. Some even have goals of working in chemistry-based fields such as forensics and medical sciences. Many of them work to make ends meet at home, and don't have time or money to contribute to fundraising.
Despite these challenges, my students are enthusiastic and eager to learn and get their hands dirty. However, given ever-increasing budget constraints, our school does not have the funds to adequately stock even basic laboratory supplies for chemistry.
My Project
My students have difficulty in maintaining motivation throughout the year, and nothing motivates them more than hands-on activities. They learn best when they're able to see the concept in action. So many chemistry concepts are abstract and seem unbelievable or just plain difficult.
In chemistry, we constantly seek the answer to the questions "What is it," and "How do we know?" One way we identify substances is to do reactions and observe its chemical and physical properties.
Just like cooking from a recipe, we need to be able to measure how much we use! In chemistry, mass is one of the most important measurements that we take in nearly every experiment. Funding a balance that reads to two decimal places will allow my students to be accurate in their measurements.
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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 Ms. Stoica and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.