Building Bridges and Cars While Becoming Financially Literate!
Help me give my students makerspace materials to enhance a financial literacy lesson.
FULLY FUNDED! Mrs. Sharma's classroom raised $508
This project is fully funded
Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month
This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because
it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.
My Students
Our school is an exceptional 7-12 grade public charter school. Our students come to us from all walks of life: free and reduced-priced lunch, English language learners, special education needs, and gifted student population.
My goal is to engage students in creative activities to foster a love for math, science, and engineering while being financially literate about decisions they make.
The students at my school have never had the opportunity to engage in activities in a STEAM Lab/ Makerspace setting. Our students are highly motivated and crave engaging opportunities outside of the classroom environment.
For the first time, our school has the necessary space and infrastructure to create a Makerspace. I would like to provide my students with the necessary materials and infrastructure to see themselves as future mathematicians, scientists, and engineers.
My Project
This proposal will provide my students with reusable and consumable materials to use for multiple projects over the span of several years. Our Makerspace will offer students the ability to "explore, play and be creative" while working on engineering projects and models. All this FUN will give students the opportunity to explore careers in science, technology, and math.
My engineers will design and build model bridges and cars while working within a given budget.
Students will calculate the cost of a sample balsa wood bridge and brainstorm ways to reduce costs. They will then work in teams designing the cheapest bridge and the most cost-effective bridge. Students will learn the importance of being cost-effective while using a bridge-building simulator to evaluate the strength of their bridge. The project will culminate with a competition to evaluate the cheapest bridge and the strongest bridge with the lowest calculated cost per pound.
While the bridges use mostly consumable materials, the model vehicles students will create using reusable pieces from Teacher Geek and can be reused for several years. Students will be given the cost of each piece of material - hole plates, connectors, gears, angle brackets, etc. They will also need to take into account labor costs (time taken for construction), and tool rental costs. At the end, students will race their cars and evaluate how the cost of a car relates to its speed and efficiency.
More than three‑quarters 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
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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. Sharma and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
