Our school's science classes are unique when compared to standard science classes. As our school is arts-integrated, students often enjoy using their artistic creativity to demonstrate their understanding of scientific concepts in addition to traditional methods.
Our student body is unique, arriving from every background imaginable, yet eager not to let their socioeconomic backgrounds hold them back from succeeding.
Seventy percent of our students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. However, they are motivated to learn and are great at coping with our rigorous class and department standards. Most are not afraid to seek help when needed, and many of our top-performing students actively participate in our after-school tutoring programs. They are also excited to learn science through hands-on labs and will take advantage of opportunities to discover beyond traditional lab assignments.
My Project
The Chromebooks requested in this DonorsChoose project will significantly expand the science educational experience for my students. For example, publicly available scientific reference materials and scientific modeling applications are now ubiquitous online. Examples include PubMed, Gene, and ChemBank. Teaching students how to employ such resources will help quench students' scientific curiosities with credible and current information.
The Chromebooks will also give students access to a plethora of exciting interactive digital tutorials, learning games, and digital graphics editors that connect with and let students express their learning in any style.
For example, there are many digital tutorials available online that animate complex processes in science. Online games like Kahoot and Anatomy Arcade make the monotony of memorizing scientific content fun and exciting. Free powerful graphics editors such as Sketchpad allow students to artistically express their understanding of science concepts in digital drawings and pictures. Thus, in conjunction with expert teacher instruction and hands-on labs, the Chromebooks will further brighten the learning experience.
The examples above are just a few of the many ways that obtaining Chromebooks will facilitate learning science in my classroom. As crucial as the Chromebooks will be to the science learning process is the realization that the world is increasingly going digital. The digital age requires student computer literacy to compete for jobs. As such, having classroom sets of Chromebooks for my classroom and other classrooms in our science department will give our students early experience with applications used regularly in the collegiate and business world. Such expertise will provide our students with a brighter future.
This project will fund Chromebooks 76 to 78 of a goal of 80 for our Science Department.
DonorsChoose is the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.
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 Dr. Schuerch and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
