The students who proposed this project are Writing students at Bay Port High School in the Howard-Suamico School District near Green Bay, Wisconsin. The students live in a community that has developed quickly in recent years and beautifully blends a rural history with suburban growth. For this reason, our students come from diverse backgrounds and have interests that span the agriculture and outdoorsmanship of our country setting and the culture and arts of our city. In our Writing class this year, we allowed students choice in topic for their writing practices in narrative, expository, persuasive and professional composition.
As a real-world practice in professional writing specifically, our sophomore and freshman students sought a way to improve some component of their Howard-Suamico School District. The students considered areas and needs of the schools that they felt passionate about, proposed manners to improve these, researched rationale for the improvement, and wrote the project outline you see below.
The following is the goal of this specific project in the students' own words:
The Bay View Middle School Chess Club is in need of new chess sets for their weekly meetings Tuesday mornings. Many of the clubs boards are worn down or ripped. New chess sets would allow a better playing experience for the students and help prepare them for tournament play. Chess is an exercise for the mind and helps kids learn and problem solve better in school and outside of school. The chess club is not funded by the school and new boards only come with donations. The club has plans of expanding to more schools in the district but this cannot be achieved without new and better boards.
In Their Own Words
This project will supply Bay View Middle School with new chess sets for their weekly meetings. The club meets every Tuesday morning and occasionally after school. The club currently has over forty kids. The chess club receives no funding and the chess sets have all been donated or purchased by the family who runs the club. Many of the club’s boards are ripped and worn down. The club began in 2014 and has recently been attempting to expand to include other Howard Suamico School District schools. This year a student from 1st and 3rd grade joined the club.
The chess sets will be used during the weekly chess club meetings. The sets will help prepare students for tournament play and enhance their ability as chess players. If and when the club expands to include other district schools, they will need more boards and the tournament style chess boards are sleek and portable. Additionally, the school has hosted a chess tournament in the past and has plans to host more in the future and tournament style boards are necessary to host a tournament.
Playing chess can improve kids’ tests and education scores by 17.3%. A group of students age 16-18 who had no idea how to play chess were given a test that was somehow related to mathematics and chess. They were then taught how to play chess and after a while were given the same test. Their scores rose tremendously from when they first took the test. It was proven that chess improves cognitive abilities, coping and problem-solving capacity, and socioaffective development of children. Kids improve greatly in academic adjustment, personal adjustment, and coping capacity when they play chess over sports. There is a direct correlation between playing chess and educational success. Playing chess at a young age leads to quickly developing thinking skills.
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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. Richards and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
