Help! Computers Needed for Challenging Coding and Physics Investigations!
My students need 2 Dell Laptops in order to perform many of the planned inquiry experiments in my physics and robotics class.
$642 goal
Hooray! This project is fully funded
Hooray! This project is fully funded
My Students
In our physics class, students are expected to find the concepts behind the physics instead of relying the mathematical computations. This causes many issues because of the outdated equipment we have at our school. Newer equipment is designed to help foster learning through experimentation. My students are all highly motivated and come from a large, urban city in Michigan. They attend our school for its reputation in preparing students for college.
Many of our graduates attend the nation's best colleges.
Each student takes seven rigorous classes per year, and some students take 5 advanced placement courses simultaneously. I stress the importance of data analysis that leads to patterns. From these patterns and trends, students discuss what they observe and reach conclusions about the science with my guidance. These skills are important in the next generation of science and will prepare students for careers in STEM fields. My students this year range from advanced placement physics students, who are in desperate need of new laboratory investigations to allow them opportunities to deepen their content knowledge in physics, to general physics who need to learn the content. Most of my students plan to pursue a career in STEM fields.
My Project
Technology is very useful in the classroom. Some teachers shy from the use of it, but I enjoy challenging my students with it. Having computers in the science classroom is vital to the success and their post-secondary studies.
Throughout the year, my students will be using these computers in various ways.
My physics classes will be able to access them for graphing using Microsoft Excel, composure of lab reports and posters using Microsoft Word and PowerPoint. They will also be use them to perform rigorous experiments using Vernier software and probes. For instance, I plan on having them take a video of a free-throw. They will then upload this video on the computer and use LoggerPro to analyze the horizontal and vertical independence of projectile motion. In my robotics class, students will use the computers to design robots using AutoCad and use Robot C to program their robots.
I currently have computers, but they are quite outdated and run slowly. Students often get frustrated and lose sight of the experiment when they are troubleshooting technology. Having new computers will be a great benefit to their learning.
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