My students need 1 Solar House, 1 Powerhouse Renewable Energy Kit, 1 Solar Oven, 2 Basic Solar Kits, 1 Discovery School Earth's Energy DVD, and 1 Energy Essentials Book Series.
FULLY FUNDED! Mr. Kovach's classroom raised $560
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.
"You see that pale, blue dot? That's us. Everything that has ever happened in all of human history, has happened on that pixel. All the triumphs and all the tragedies, all the wars all the famines, all the major advances... it's our only home. And that is what is at stake, our ability to live on planet Earth, to have a future as a civilization. I believe this is a moral issue, it is your time to seize this issue, it is our time to rise again to secure our future." This is a quote from Al Gore's book/movie, "An Inconvenient Truth."
I teach over 100 sixth-eighth grade students Science at a low-income inner-city school. My students and I have begun to rise up and secure our future through inquiry based experiments and projects involving alternative energy sources. We were very appreciate and fortunate last year when we received several solar car kits through a generous donation through a previous DonorsChoose.org proposal. The level of excitement in conducting last year's experiments with those solar cars has reaffirmed my commitment of continuing to work through DonorsChoose.org. We have since received a Hydrogen Fuel-Cell Car Kit and Solar Physics Set with Part I of this proposal. Due to the overwhelming interests in this area of inquiry by both female and male students, I have been able to create a before-school alternative energy engineering club for several of my students. In this Part II we are seeking additional alternative energy resources for inquiry-based, highly meaningful science projects in the same manner as students from more affluent suburban schools.
Besides continuing to learn with the solar cars that we received last year, these kits that we are seeking will allow us to cooperatively expand our knowledge of alternative energy principles and technologies in general. My students will understand more in depth how light travels; how energy is transferred; how photons of light convert into electricity with Photovoltaic cells; what kind of housing construction materials absorb and reflect solar energy the best; how solar ovens can be used for cooking things such as hot-dogs; and more ideas for their own designs of alternative energy technologies. The Renewable Energy Powerhouse kit that we are seeking will allow my students to: "Take an adventure in sustainable living. Postulating life on a hypothetical island, they discover how to transform and use energy from the sun, wind, electrochemical reactions, and plants by building models that include a solar house, windmill, greenhouse, electric train, sail car, and desalination system."
Your help in funding this project will help quench my students' continued thirst for hands-on inquiry-based learning experiences, thus giving them an equal playing field with more affluent suburban school children who receive more funding and resources from their school districts. This proposal is also aligned to our State Science Learning Standard that requires students to "HAVE A WORKING KNOWLEDGE OF THE PROCESSES OF SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY AND TECHNOLOGICAL DESIGN TO INVESTIGATE QUESTIONS, CONDUCT EXPERIMENTS AND SOLVE PROBLEMS." Last but not least, as Al Gore's leadership reminds us in this age of increased awareness of the alarming effects of global warming, the problem of finding alternative sources of energy and technology may be the most urgent problem that my students will face as our society's future leaders.
For the sake of the reasons mentioned above, please help ensure these learning experiences for my students continue and I thank you in advance for considering this proposal!
Nearly all 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 Mr. Kovach and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
