To introduce you to my students, you need to know where they come from. My students range from 9th to 12th grade with the majority of them being in 9th grade. They come from all walks of life and are all in my class for different reasons. Some students take my class because they want to get into welding, some want to be in the FFA organization, and some are just interested in future careers in fields that are related to agriculture.
What you should also know about my students is that over half of them are still rebuilding their homes from the flooding that occurred after Hurricane Harvey two years year, and Tropical Storm Imelda last year.
Students are still displaced, living in travel trailers, or living in damaged homes while repairs are being made. This significantly impacts my students' ability to complete work at home or to have the supplies needed to work in class.
My Project
I teach a Small Animal Management class in a small, low-income community. In my class, we learn what it takes to be a responsible pet parent by planning for a future with your pet. Most of the students in my class are very familiar with dogs and cats, but seldom have experience with other animals.
I would like to give my students the opportunity to learn about and care for other types of animals that they may not get to have experience with at home.
After carefully researching a variety of options, I determined that a low-maintenance class pet is the Leopard Gecko. Having a gecko as a classroom pet project will give students the opportunity to learn about aquarium set up, humidity, various substrate materials, and how to care for an animal that they are not familiar with. As a bonus, we can also learn about raising mealworms, as this is what the Leopard Geckos diet will consist of.
In addition, a lot of the students that I teach are Special Needs, meaning that they have some type of learning disability. These kids learn best in hands-on teaching models. I feel like this project will greatly benefit these students with being able to care for and see with their own eyes how the animal is growing.
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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. Whisenant and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.