This project is part of the Black History Month celebration because it supports a Black teacher or a school where the majority of the students are Black.
My Students
My students travel from all over the city of Chicago for the chance to attend this amazing selective enrollment school in Englewood.
While they have already beaten the odds academically, many of them are disadvantaged socioeconomically, with most of them qualifying for free or reduced lunch.
The curricula we offer here are rigorous, and college preparatory. We do our very best to ensure that, day in and day out, they are getting the most engaging, challenging, and realistic STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) experiences. Simply put, my students are not satisfied with their neighborhood school - they want to push themselves further and compete with other academically gifted students, even if it means working harder then they've ever worked before.
My Project
My students are college bound and our high school has a rigorous curriculum to prepare them for college.
Computer science is becoming more and more important to learn in order succeed in college and beyond, especially for students who want to major in STEM fields.
In physics, our students use computers to do everything from complete PHet simulations, to engaging with quizzes and content on Google Classroom, to completing assignments like lab reports, but they need opportunities to dig into the back end behind the technology and actually try to program.
To introduce programming, we use Makey Makeys. Unfortunately, they can be quite costly and we only have one in our classroom. Every year we use it, students report back that it was one of their favorite activities from the school year.
This project will give us a class set of Makey Makeys so small groups of students can investigate with them, instead of most of the class having to watch as only a few use it.
These Makey Makeys are students' first interaction with computer programming in our classroom. They provide the basis for learning computational thinking in a most interactive and engaging way. Please help me better prepare my students for their future careers as STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) professionals by ensuring they have access to current technology today!
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 Mrs. Beemsterboer and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.