Empowering Curiosity and Inquiry through an Exploration of Anatomy
Help me give my students one fetal pig specimen per group for dissections!
$1,048 goal
Hooray! This project is fully funded
Hooray! This project is fully funded
Celebrating 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.
Our high school is a public charter. It emphasizes STEM education, mastery-based grading, and project-based learning. Through their four years at our school, students learn the importance of real-world applications, critical thinking, and problem solving. At our school, biology is taken as a junior course, as they take conceptual physics in their freshman year, followed by chemistry during their sophomore year.
Although my students come from all walks of life, socially, economically, and academically, they are all united in their desire to learn and grow both as students and as individuals of the greater society.
I have been amazed time and again by their curiosity, hunger for knowledge, and drive for innovation. You would never guess that many of them are from low-income and/or single-parent households on free or reduced lunch, and a good number of them have never had the chance to experience science in a real, hands-on way.
To my students, learning by doing has always been a privilege they did not necessarily have. It has been my goal to show them that the acquisition and cultivation of knowledge is a right, and it is a joy that I believe no one should be denied.
My Project
I have entered my fourth year teaching, and yet again my students will be doing a fetal pig dissection for the start of their second semester in my biology class! In every survey I conducted at the end of the year, students tell me repeatedly that this anatomy and physiology project was one of the most impactful and memorable experience they had in my class, and sometimes even in their high school career. Although this project evolves in the way it is executed every year, the need for fetal pig specimens to set it off is the same.
Many times, we live through our lives never knowing the intricacies of what lies beneath our skin, but with your help, my students will be able to explore the anatomy and physiology of a fetal pig and apply it to themselves.
I have always articulated what a pity it is that students know very little about their own bodies and health. Seeing another mammalian specimen and appreciating it for its intricacies and complex systems will not only bring a new appreciation for students' own lives and health but will instill a sense of wonder in the lives of others.
As always, students will be executing these dissections in groups. I have more students this year, and with your help, I am hoping to procure 36 specimens so we can keep all groups under four students and maximize hands-on learning time. During the dissection, students are held to a high standard in terms of how they treat the specimen and the dissection supplies, and they will be learning and studying the organs, organ systems, and physiology of a basic mammalian anatomy. Last year, we culminated our project with websites, picture books, videos, and posters, and I hope to do something similar this year.
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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 Ms. Wai and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
