I am a Science Teacher at a Title I school in Sacramento, California. My students are wonderfully diverse and teach me something new each day. Many of my students ride the city bus for 45 minutes each day to get to school without complaint. 60% of my students are socioeconomically disadvantaged and 20% are English language learners.
Despite their hardships, my students come to school eager to learn and curious about the natural world.
Our science department is one of the stronger science departments in the district, offering challenging courses such as AP Biology, AP Chemistry, and AP Physics. Teachers here are eagerly implementing more data-based and hands-on inquiry science approaches to learning!
My Project
Every day, I try to teach my students in ways that real scientists and engineers study an do science. In order to better educate STEM in the classroom, we need more access to technology so that they can easily read current research articles, watch videos and analyze data. My goal is for students to be using technology to inform their knowledge of the biological world and help them become better science consumers.
We currently only have access to around 10 laptop carts that over 2200 students and 125 teachers share across the campus.
This project would be the start of building my 21st-century room to enable and support future scientists where students would have immediate access to the latest science technology.
To do this, we need more portable and accessible computers so that each laboratory group can record data to collaborate in their individual groups and as a whole class. Each lab station in my classroom will have a Google Chromebook computer set up so that students may input their data and results in programs such as Google numbers. Google numbers can then give students instant results and results. We can then project the class data easily and quickly, without wasting valuable class time trying to collect the numbers.
There are also a variety and extraordinarily large amount of virtual laboratory activities available for students. My students would have instant access to these virtual labs in which they will have the opportunity to perform labs that they would normally be unable to perform due to lack of equipment in the classroom or time the lab takes to run. The Chromebooks purchased for my classroom would give students accessible access to technology and develop technology skills that are so essential in this ever-changing technologically advanced world.
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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. F. and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.