If you had a bird's eye view into my gifted classroom, students are engaged in hands-on activities where they are investigating the world around them through communication and collaboration activities. My students are often working together to solve problems and creating solutions through trial and error. They come from varying backgrounds and abilities and are all eager to learn when given the tools! The magic of learning and discovering is through hands on experiences. I love seeing the excitement and pride on children's faces when they solve problems that seemed impossible at first.
"Creativity can solve almost any problem," George Lois.
I teach in a rural elementary school. Our population consists of 688 students with twenty percent from economically disadvantaged homes. Unfortunately, we are not considered a Title I school at the local level and do not have the additional funding for extra personnel, programs, technology, and/or instructional materials. We are considered a Title I school at the federal level but do not receive the extra assistance. We have an amazing PTO and administration that provides our staff with the needed materials, as much as their funds allow.
My Project
Into the Future with 3D Printing will address students’ needs by offering an innovative way to capture the attention of my students and challenge them to think about the subject matter we are investigating with a more hands-on approach. Imagining my students being able to design bridges during my architecture unit and print the designs, print artifacts from history for closer investigations during ancient civilization studies, design and print unique chess pieces during our chess unit, print prototypes of inventions, topographic or other types of maps, complex DNA strands or molecules during our Brain and DNA unit, or even cross sections of organs within the bod, all make the teacher inside of me excited to plan engaging and inspiring lessons for my students.
Gifted students need the extra design challenge when investigating many subject matters and with a 3D printer, they will be able to use their research to take it one step further and print what they have discovered.
This printer will provide an ongoing benefit for many years within my gifted classroom and my school. It requires only replacement cartridges of filament in order to continue the learning and excitement within the classroom.
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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. Harwood and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.