Building Together - Tools to Construct Rubberband Cars
My students need utility cutters and glue guns to create rubber band cars.
$231 goal
Hooray! This project is fully funded
Hooray! 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.
Cutting cardboard with scissors is a very time consuming task, but it can be done in a more time efficient manner.
I teach at a very low income public school and approximately 65% of my students qualify for free and reduced lunch.
In addition many of the students have just recently immigrated into this country and they are learning English for the first time. They come into my classroom very eager to learn and full of questions about pretty much everything. They love to do hands on activities and are not shy about voicing their enthusiasm when they get to participate in such activities.
My Project
I believe that the best way to teach, is to have students do. I want my students to be able to create projects that they build with their own hands. Using box cutters and glue guns will allow my students to create a cardboard car powered by a rubber-bands in a more efficient manner. I did this project with my students last year, but using white glue and scissors. These tools were not sufficient to create the car. The scissors would not cut the cardboard at all, and it took an extraordinary amount of time to cut all the pieces. Also, the white glue took forever to dry, and when the white glue finally did dry, the parts of the car would occasionally break off. Despite these construction problems and the length of time it took to construct the cars, my students were able to use their cars for a variety of physics problems. We were able to discuss construction, energy, calculate speed, and other physics concepts.
My biggest concern for this hands on project, is the amount of time required to build the car.
I want to give them an opportunity to design and create their car, but I also want to allow ample time to discuss and elaborate on the concepts. Through this project my students will be able to make a car in a more timely manner, increase their understanding of the ideas, master the 8th grade science standards, and ultimately become better problem solvers.
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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. Ting and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
