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This teacher needs your help!

Mrs. Padilla (Pettus) from Victorville, CA is requesting lab equipment through DonorsChoose, the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.

See what Mrs. Padilla (Pettus) is requesting

Ecological Living Systems

Help me give my students the supplies necessary to carry out our Ecosystems learning unit (which pertains to ecology, specifically that of food webs and food chains) --to include supplies for hands-on Owl pellet dissection lab activity.

  • $698 goal

This project expired on October 23, 2025.

This project expired on October 23, 2025.

Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month

Celebrate Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month

This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.

My Project

I teach 7th grade science at a Title I school where many of my students come from underserved backgrounds, and are English Learners as well. For many of them, traditional textbook learning can feel overwhelming and disconnected from their everyday lives. This is why I’m building a classroom experience centered around hands-on exploration—where students can engage with science in ways that are visual, interactive, and meaningful.

This project supports our Ecology unit, which covers essential concepts like ecosystems, food webs, decomposition, and energy flow.

The resources I’ve selected will help bring these concepts to life:

By contributing to this project, you will be giving students the chance to practice new vocabulary and build their understanding of how energy moves through an ecosystem, simulate and explore freshwater ecosystems while allowing them to collect data and observe how pollution affects biodiversity, observe interactions among living organisms over time, and understand the role of decomposers by showing them how organic matter breaks down and returns nutrients to the soil. Most importantly, the owl pellets will be used in an engaging dissection activity where students can examine real skeletal remains and determine the diet of an owl, reinforcing their understanding of food chains and predator-prey relationships.

These hands-on materials will give my students opportunities to observe real-world phenomena, work together to ask questions, analyze data, and make evidence-based conclusions—all while building their academic vocabulary and language skills.

Your support will help create a more inclusive and enriching science classroom, where all learners—regardless of language background—can access, enjoy, and succeed in science. Thank you for helping us make learning come alive!

Mrs. Padilla (Pettus) Mesa Linda Middle School Grades 6-8

Equity Focus

This project directly supports students at a historically underfunded school. Learn more about our Equity Focus.

This project will directly impact historically underfunded classrooms.

Victorville, CA View local requests

Nearly all students from low‑income households Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education. Learn more

Never Before Funded 25 students impacted

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Where Your Donation Goes

Where your donation goes
Materials Cost Quantity Total
Leaf Pack Experiments-Stream Ecology Kit • Ward's Science $286.76 1 $286.76
Educational Insights See-Through Compost Container - Elementary-Middle School - Kids • School Specialty $67.72 1 $67.72
Delta Education Island Ecosystem Kit, Grade 5 - 8 • School Specialty $42.97 1 $42.97
NewPath Learning Food Chains & Food Webs Learning Center Game, Grades 3 to 5 - Grades 3-5 - Kids - Durable • School Specialty $41.17 1 $41.17
Large Owl Pellet • Carolina Biological Supply Company $4.46 6 $26.76
Small Owl Pellet • Carolina Biological Supply Company $2.75 5 $13.75

Materials cost

$479.13

Vendor shipping charges

 $32.41

Sales tax

 $43.84

3rd party payment processing fee

$7.19

Fulfillment labor & materials

$30.00

Total project cost

$592.57

Suggested donation to help DonorsChoose reach more classrooms

$104.57

Total project goal

$697.14

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

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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. Padilla (Pettus) and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.

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