My budding environmentalists need supplies for their service learning lab at Lake Michigan including gloves to keep their hands safe, pipettes and resealable bags for water sampling, garbage bags to collect trash, and pencils to record data.
This project is part of the Black History Month celebration because it supports a Black teacher or a school where the majority of the students are Black.
Perhaps we will not find any beached whales on the shore of Lake Michigan, but we will certainly find dead fish and trash! But why!?
To bring science to the beach, 10th - 12th graders in my Environmental Science classes have proposed to do a service learning project at the local beach. The students have already identified and expressed discontent at their community's lack of interest in taking care of the environment. Now, they are searching for a project in which to apply their science skills in a way that will benefit their community and advocate for sustainable change.
The students have adopted a beach for the school year and we have the basic science supplies we need to do water testing. But we need some basic supplies that will allow us to conduct real scientific research and serve our community at the same time. With our commitment and our hard working hands, we can pick up trash and record qualitative data on the beach conditions at no cost. Using the science skills we've practiced in the classroom, we can perform water quality testing at the lake to determine the health of the beach. Now all we need are a few more supplies to make our goal a reality.
With our trash bags, clipboards, and testing kits in hand, students will head to the beach to perform litter, water quality, and beach conditions assessments which will be added to a database for public access. Then we will analyze our data back in the classroom using laptops. The project will allow students to help restore Lake Michigan's health, identify problems and solutions in their local environment, and experience a hands-on, "real world" investigation which will excite them about careers in science. The project will culminate in a student-generated action project to improve the beach for visitors as well as the animals and plants who call it home.
Your generosity will impact 120 Environmental Scientists who want to apply science to the real world. Furthermore, you will improve the environmental quality on Lake Michigan and begin to beautify a high-need community that has waited far too long for change.
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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 Mrs. Meixner and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.