Teaching a marine biology class in the middle of the city is not the easiest thing to do. Since I cannot bring my students to many marine environments, I am trying to bring the marine environments to my classroom!
My students are mostly 12th graders in a high-needs high school in New York.
All of my students are fantastic and are passionate to learn more. From watching movies like Finding Nemo, my students crave to learn more about the marine world. Many of my students are just waiting to be inspired and go on to study science next year in college.
I am also ordering frogs to dissect with my students who are repeating the 9th grade Living Environment course. These students have all failed the course at least one time. I am hoping that by performing frog dissections at the end of our anatomy unit, these students will understand the parts of the body better and become more interested in science.
My Project
I can guarantee that the lives of my students will change with the donation of these materials. My students will get a unique chance to dissect a wide variety of marine organisms that we will learn about in class such as the squid and shark. We all know that the best way to learn is by performing hands-on experiments and these dissections will provide my students with a once in a lifetime opportunity to examine a wide variety of marine organisms and learn all about them. We will also be able to use the water testing kits to go out into the field and test the waters of the estuaries around New York City.
In the past, the dissections have literally made the class! In an end-of-the-year survey I gave to the students, almost all of the students said that the dissections performed in class were the highlights of the year!
I feel that this project is extremely important because my goal as a science teacher is to get my students excited about science.
I have a chance to change my students' lives by making science fun and exciting. By utilizing these materials, I can guarantee that my classroom will be more engaging and the students will learn more through all of the experiential learning that will occur.
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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 Mr. Itzkowitz and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.