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Mrs. Quezada from Chicago IL is requesting supplies through DonorsChoose, the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.

Creating Young Engineers

My students need engineering materials like K'Nex, simple machine parts, alternative energy kits, and bridge building inspiration to become competitive in STEM fields.

  • $991 goal

Hooray! This project is fully funded

Hooray! This project is fully funded

My Students

Building, creating, trying, failing, designing, inspiring, succeeding, believing--Tinkering. I believe the process of creation is essential to the development of children. Providing time, materials, and an environment to tinker will help create a new generation of engineers and problem solvers.

My students are 97% low income and 30% English language learners.

They live in a world where few engineers look like them, where few engineers grew up like them. Most do not have computers at home, few even have Lego's. Sports and outdoor play are a way of life, but exposure to and encouragement for engineering skills and practices are scarce. However, late in the school year I brought in an old television and my students dissected it with careful exploration. They were planning, sketching, and repurposing; they were trying to identify circuits; they were re-designing pathways; they were beaming. My students love engineering--they just don't know it yet.

My Project

I am requesting a myriad of engineering resources, from K'Nex materials, to toothpicks, to books, to simple machine parts and renewable sources of energy plans. My students will be given the opportunity to explore. In this guided exploration, I hope that they not only learn about scientific and engineering process, but that they also learn about themselves. Most, because of their race and economic status, are in a systemic cycle of failure. I hope engineering practice will help reinforce resiliency and the idea that failure is part of life and part of the process, but with honest effort, creativity, and teamwork there is a solution to reach the end goal.

Our district's public schools are largely failing our students and selective enrollment high schools are one of the few paths to college.

STEM ability is essential to secure a place in these competitive high schools, and early exposure to engineering is critical to my students' success. My principal has been generous enough to donate the valuable resource of time. My students will have 90 minutes a day in my classroom, and I am looking to you for the resources to make those minutes meaningful.

Mrs. Quezada
Grades 3-5

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TEACHERS, FEELING INSPIRED?

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Where Your Donation Goes

Materials Cost Quantity Total
K'NEX Renewable Energy Set • Kaplan Early Learning Company $169.96 1 $169.96
K'NEX EXPLORING SIMPLE MACHINES SET • Frey Scientific $139.50 1 $139.50
KIT ALTERNATIVE ENERGY • Frey Scientific $67.46 1 $67.46
BOOKS MECHANICAL ENGINEERING SET OF 5 • School Specialty $52.53 1 $52.53
CONSTRUCTION SET ENGINO STRUCTURES AND BRIDGES ENG-M09 • Frey Scientific $40.46 1 $40.46
78610 K'NEX LEVERS AND PULLEYS ST • Frey Scientific $35.99 1 $35.99
78620 K''NEX WHEELS AND AXLES INDIV ST • Frey Scientific $35.99 1 $35.99
78630 K'NEX GEARS-INDIV SET ST • Frey Scientific $35.99 1 $35.99
SCIENCE INTRO TO ENGINEERING EXPERIMENTS KIT • School Specialty $35.10 1 $35.10
0-86651-266-7 BUILD TOOTHPICK EA • Frey Scientific $33.29 1 $33.29
TIMER APPLE - SCHOOL SMART • Frey Scientific $8.06 5 $40.30
24 Game Single Digits • Kaplan Early Learning Company $18.66 1 $18.66
Simple Machines Activity Cards • Kaplan Early Learning Company $12.71 2 $25.42
TOOTHPICKS FLAT PACK OF 2500 - SCHOOL SMART • Frey Scientific $1.79 5 $8.95

Materials cost

$739.60

Vendor shipping charges

$61.31

Sales tax

$0.00

3rd party payment processing fee

$11.09

Fulfillment labor & materials

$30.00

Total project cost

$842.00

Suggested donation to help DonorsChoose reach more classrooms

$148.59

Total project goal

$990.59

How we calculate what's needed

Total project goal

$990.59

15 Donors

-$977.71

Donations toward project cost

-$842.00

Donations to help DonorsChoose reach more classrooms

-$135.71

Excluded support for DonorsChoose

-$12.88

Still needed View calculationHide calculation

$0.00

Our team works hard to negotiate the best pricing and selections available.

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Project Activity

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