Help me give my students the book, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, to learn how people use STEM and the Engineering and Design Process to solve real world problems.
FULLY FUNDED! Ms. Johnson's classroom raised $465
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.
My Students
My middle school students are creative and full of potential. Every day I see their smiling faces lined outside my door as they prepare to come in and engage in STEM projects. Many of my students are English language learners and they thrive in my classroom because the projects are hands-on and they have the opportunity to use vocabulary in context.
Students value STEM classes because they know the classes I teach are preparing them to be collaborative communicators for the careers of tomorrow.
My students are committed to using the engineering and design process to design and build prototypes to meet certain challenges. We've examined structures in history to build structurally sound towers, and we've constructed balloon powered rocket cars to determine the best aerodynamic model.
My students are excited to take concepts that we are learning and transfer them to real life situations. For example, one of my students commented on another teacher's new Jaguar F-Type, "Wow Ms. Johnson, Mr. S's Jaguar must go really fast because the hood is so low it cuts through the air"! Hearing my student's make these connections to the real world is what teaching is all about!
My Project
For many years educators have known that students do not access enough nonfiction text. By having the students read the text, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, students will read informative narrative text and make cross disciplinary connections between reading a person's story to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).
Students will recognize that there are real problems in society that can be solved and that an entire community can be positively impacted through the engineering/design process and perseverance.
After reading the book, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, students are challenged to design and build a model windmill using simple and inexpensive materials and a small fan as a source of wind power.
Later the students are challenged to add a cup with a string attached to the shaft of the windmill so that the model will be able to lift a specified number of objects. Using the engineering and design process students test to see whether a different number of arms, different size of arms, or arms further from the shaft make a difference in the lifting capacity of the windmill.
Students will apply their knowledge of both the text and the engineering and design process to positively impact their community and school as they look for real problems to solve.
More than half of 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
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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. Johnson and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
