Teaching a marine biology class in the middle of the city is not the easiest thing to do. In my school, I try to bring the marine world to my classroom! Performing dissections helps my students learn about marine organisms and their unique adaptations that they utilize for survival.
My students are mostly 11th and 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 have also started to collect materials in order to do local water testing in the estuaries around our school. I want my students to learn more about the health of our local waterways and the biodiversity that flourishes in these bodies of water.
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 turbidity tube and my 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 understand more through all of the experiential learning that will occur.
DonorsChoose is the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.
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.