"Equipped with his five senses, man explores the universe around him and calls the adventure Science."
Edwin Powell Hubble. The students in my classroom live these words each day in science as they use every opportunity available to explore the world around them to develop an understanding of it.
My students attend public elementary school in a town in Massachusetts.
We are a classroom that is about 60% female, representing a broad range of cultures, ethnicity and learning needs. Most but not all of my students live in the neighborhood which ranges from low income to middle income. This group of fourth graders brings variety of background knowledge, strengths and learning styles that they contribute enthusiastically to each activity. They are eager to know more about the world around them and optimistically make the most of the limited materials available to them, mostly purchased by me. Many express an interest in science as a future career and our town's science program doesn't have the funding to support the development of critical thinking skills and the use 21st century learning tools necessary to students who hope to follow these career paths. I aim to support these dreams through rigorous yet engaging science instruction and exposure to technology used by scientists.
My Project
One of the challenges of teaching science to two groups of 28 students is that a teacher demonstration is nearly impossible for every child to observe all at once in the classroom. If I am teaching a step in an experiment, I need to either walk around and show each group or pair individually or to have students crowd on top of one another to get a glimpse at what I am doing. This is not the most efficient or effective use of science instructional time already limited in favor of math and reading. Additionally, my fourth graders have been using science notebooks as a tool to record thoughts, questions, conclusions and reflections as they work. They are eager to both demonstrate the process they followed and share their notebooks with their fellow scientists. We would use a document camera to present both in a way that is accessible to all of the students in class. Additionally, students will gain early exposure to the technology that they are likely to find in future science classrooms.
It is in these early years of instruction that students either fall in love with or develop an apathy toward learning.
My hope is to foster a love of science and technology that remains with my students throughout their academic careers. By purchasing equipment such as this for my classroom, you are helping me to build the bridge between what my students can imagine is possible in scientific inquiry and the ability to make these ideas happen, as well as a way to communicate ideas to peers.
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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. Harrington and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.