This project is entitled, "Labs, labs, and more labs!" to provide labs for both freshman-level and AP-level biology labs. These include prepared microscope slides, established AP labs, manipulatives, and visuals.
I have not yet met my students at this time of the year-- so I provide basic statistics to help you get an idea of the school.
The racial demographic of the school is 43% White, 32% Black/African American, 15.4% Hispanic/Latino, 3.8% Asian, and 5% of students are two or more races. Additionally our school works with 40.8% of students considered low-income (designated by free/reduced lunch) and 10% of students receive special education services. Our class of 2012 had an 86.7% graduation rate.
If my students are anything like they have been in past years (which seems like a reasonable assumption)-- they are creative, insightful, curious, eager to learn, and willing to jump into science. They make me laugh, cry (in a good way), and give me confidence in our future generations. In short, my students are amazing.
My Project
The list of materials I have requested for this project is quite long and I summarize here:
1) Microscope slides: The "basic e" helps orient students to use of microscopes; the blood smears ("normal" and sickled) are for use with three labs-- genetics, membrane receptors and tonicity; and the karyotype slide is to bring chromosomes to life (beyond the computer simulation we do).
2) DNA model is used to help visualize the structure of DNA when students create their paper models and to help evaluate strengths and weaknesses of different models.
3) Transcription: it is so difficult to visualize- manipulatives help!
4) Animal Behavior Lab-- strong lab for teaching scientific thinking
5) Bacterial Transformation Lab-- shows how DNA can move from one organism to the next and "glow"
6) Poster- this atom poster is one of the best to help remind students that the Bohr model is a good model-- but not completely accurate
7) Tape dispenser is for me to make lab set-up faster.
We know that people of color and women are highly underrepresented in STEM fields and one way to remedy this is strong high school preparation.
Specifically, this includes building lab skills, conceptual understandings, and reinforcing student confidence in the sciences. The emphasis on labs and skills in my classroom over time has resulted in more and more of my students entering the sciences. I am proud of this fact-- but know that I can still do 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. Slaton and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.