My students need several hundred mousetraps and pingpong balls to explore hands-on catalyst science inquiry.
FULLY FUNDED! Mr. Petuskey's classroom raised $313
This project is fully funded
My Students
Understanding comes through vocabulary. A typical day for my special education students includes seeing, touching, tasting, and hearing that day's vocabulary. Science inquiry is the ideal catalyst for grabbing the mind and paving the way for the key word to explain what the senses reveal.
My special education students, grades 3, 4, and 5, have voracious curiosities.
Like other students at our school, they are handicapped most by poverty, which often means they have limited exposure to robust vocabulary. Abstract words, like "catalyst", are best taught via science inquiry, where my students are encouraged to ask "Why?" through all five senses. This process has little to do with memorizing word definitions. Instead, word comprehension is firmly rooted in long-term memory, in context, by seeing, smelling, listening, hearing, and tasting the word in action.
My Project
"Have we ever heard about the straw that broke the camel's back? How is the word 'catalyst' related to this expression? How can we experience that word, in action, right here in class?"
Picture 25 students entering a spacious, colorful space, in the middle of the room, all desks and chairs have been removed, and several hundred mousetraps have been armed. Each trap holds one pingpong ball as bait. These traps are very near each other, but not touching.
One student is handed a single ball. All students are asked to predict what will happen if this ball is thrown among the armed traps. There are no wrong answers.
Another student is asked to grab a tablet and make a movie. The student with the ball throws it among the traps, and the results are filmed. All students are asked for feedback, which is also filmed.
Inquiry always leads to more questions. Reviewing the movie further anchors understanding of this vocabulary word in long-term memory, strengthening fluency.
240 standard mousetraps and 288 pingpong balls are a real attention grabber!
They will move mere vocabulary into the theater of my students' imaginations.
Every experience in my classroom is geared towards two goals:
1.) negate the stigma of a special education label
2.) banish student frustration
This is accomplished through positively reinforcing an environment of safety and humor.
Always, this requires lessons that think outside the box, and a dash of showmanship on my part.
Nearly all 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 Mr. Petuskey and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
