My students need these hands-on science materials, such as an ecosystem system kit and plant grow house, to see the relationships between living (butterflies, caterpillars, and plants) organisms.
I teach third grade at a diverse, Title One school in southwest Florida. Sixty-three percent of our students receive free or reduced-price lunch. Our students come from numerous cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds. Through a lot of hard work, our school continues to help our students succeed. In fact, we have been an "A" school for all but one year of our existence! My students come from a wide variety of family dynamics and diverse households as well.
Using hands-on experiences increases long-term memory, promotes learning as a fun activity, and helps connect relationships among different subjects.
My Project
My students LOVE science! They are at our classroom science table every minute of the day! There they find experiments, books, critters, models, and examples of science concepts. With science hands-on activities and observations, all students can participate even if other subject areas might be a bit of a challenge for them.
In third grade, our science standards cover the understanding of how living and nonliving things interact with each other in certain ecosystems.
We are fortunate at our school to have a pond area, a pine flat woods area, and a Florida scrub area nearby. Bringing a bit of these habitats into the classroom helps to ensure that our future generations will become good stewards of our Earth.
I am requesting the ecosystem system kit and plant grow house so we can observe and raise butterflies and plants, together, in our classroom. When students can touch, see, smell, and hear living things up close, their understanding is enhanced. This understanding can be related to other subjects through literature, math, and other science topics.
These materials include lessons for adaptations and camouflage as well. What a bonus!
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