What would a scientist be without his or her tools? Help us get our hands on the tools we need to be the most exact and accurate scientists we can be!
The students who will benefit from the funding of this project are a group of wonderful fifth graders.
They are from a small town located in central Illinois. Although they come from various socioeconomic backgrounds, not many of them have left our small town. They love to learn through self-discovery and absorb information best when they are able to take learning into their own hands!
My Project
In our district, we have a science curriculum that was published in the early 80's. Although the textbook information is usable, the lab kits that accompany the textbook units are just not usable anymore. Most of them are very depleted. If we were rewarded just six electronic scales for our classroom, we could complete many of the labs that go along with the fifth grade curriculum. For instance, we do a gravity project where students weigh objects they find around the classroom and make calculations in an attempt to figure out how much these things weigh on different planets with different gravitational pulls. This, obviously, would be much simpler to do with some up-to-date scales. It would also give these students a fabulous opportunity to practice using scientific tools in order to be comfortable doing so by the time they reach the middle school level. Middle school science teachers continuously tell me that students are coming unprepared to use simple scientific instruments.
Experimental science education and project-based science education is oftentimes not taught at the elementary level.
Because teachers face constant pressures to keep their math and reading test scores levels high, they brush science under the rug. I fully disagree with this practice and work to make science a priority in my classroom. Students need time to manipulate these tools because science is a real life and these skills are practical ones to have.
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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. Holisky and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.