Imagine being a middle school student, during some of the most difficult years in your development, and having to walk into a new school in a new country with no friends, little to no language skills and unsure of what each day to come will hold. Imagine sitting in your science class, and while you may not even yet be proficient in the language, you are now being asked to learn and understand difficult to visualize scientific ideas and concepts. These are the issues many of my students face each day as English language learners and students with educational and other disabilities.
Though my students face adversities and challenges of all kinds, they come into the science classroom each day excited to learn, ready to challenge themselves, rise to the occasion, and do their best to meet my expectations.
I do my best each day to differentiate to meet the needs of this diverse group of special young people, but it is imperative to have the tools in the classroom that will help move them forward to achieve their goals for success.
My Project
Having laptops in my classroom for student use will allow us to do more project-based learning, where students can collaborate on PowerPoint presentations complete virtual science labs, and interact with my google classroom. Students will also be able to complete STEM research and virtual design in science topics. Students with language deficits will easily be able to translate and now match an image with a concept.
Learning the human body units are always a highlight of the year for students; they love to delve deeper into the inner workings of their bodies.
I have found several virtual dissection labs that would truly give students an in-depth understanding of human anatomy without the controversy of doing in class animal dissections.
Laptops would be incredibly useful in our Earth Science units to track weather conditions in various parts of the country and earthquake activity for our plate tectonics unit.
Laptops are also imperative to use when learning genetics and DNA code in the Regents Living Environment classroom! With so many genome applications and programs students can visualize the actual building of DNA molecules rather than imagine it!
Please help me bring this invaluable technology to my sixth, seventh and eighth grade students who are working so hard toward success. These are the doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and research scientists of our next generation. Help me support them as they take steps along the path to building their dreams!
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