It's a Bird! Getting Closer to Nature with Binoculars
My students need a solid, serious and professional pair of binoculars to experience and understand quality optics (compared to our current cheap few) for bird watching.
FULLY FUNDED! Mr. Arsenie's classroom raised $1,230
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 students' greatest moments of scientific "aha" usually happen during our trips to our adopted river site to perform water chemistry and habitat assessments. Many students experience the sounds and sights of nature for the very first time- something magical I aim to foster and extend even more.
My students are natural born scientists and explorers.
They just don't know it yet! They ask questions constantly, they want to learn, they crave new learning experiences, want to search for meaning, share their own experiences, and it is my job to facilitate and give them access to that knowledge and the skills they need to get the answers they seek. Over 90% of my students (and the students of our academic institution), receive free lunch and 95% of them are Latino. Virtually all of them live in a dense, complex urban setting and most have never been on a plane, outside our city, even the neighborhood on school field trips or on vacation with family- amazingly most have never sat on grass or experienced nature or a setting other than the one they currently live in. However, my students thrive in practical settings. They're visual/ kinesthetic/auditory learners, and do best with hands-on projects, where the theory learned is put in practice, especially outside of the classroom.
My Project
As my advanced AP and IB Environmental Science students enter their junior/senior years, their thirst for knowledge and practical applications of concepts learned in the classroom will eventually lead to field trips. We start local (aiming for a Costa Rica trip next year) with an adopted river site at which we perform water quality testing, invasive species removal and an overall habitat assessment (including birds and other fauna). This is the aspect of the trip to focus on. I recently was able to gain access to a very small number of cheap binoculars through which students can locate and identify local birds and other fauna. Coupled with classroom guides to local birds we have, I envision the students using this quality, professional binocular, along with our cheaper models (and they are cheap!) to identify birds and other animals. They will utilize their analytical skills, use and create dichotomous keys all while experiencing a closer look at nature through quality optics.
Thanks to your generous donations for this incredible piece of optical technology, students will literally get to see in incredible detail and clarity the wildlife, flowers, animals, birds and other aspects of our urban ecosystem that we so desperately try to preserve.
They will explore, visualize and develop analytical skills as they identify species of birds and other fauna, as well as learn to utilize and create species identification keys and guides for our prairie/woodlands and riverbanks.
More than three‑quarters 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
DonorsChoose is the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.
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 Mr. Arsenie and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
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