My students need hands-on measurement tools. All of the tools listed will be used in different ways. Multiples are needed so that students can work in smaller groups.
STEM is an up and coming important curriculum facing our students today. We need to prepare our future scientist. They need to be able to read measurements and record data correctly. Hands-on materials is what will give them that opportunity. Just reading about measurements won't cut it.
My students are from a low economic area.
Our district was also hit hard by the May 20th tornado in Oklahoma. They have little experience with measurement at home. They are often from single parent homes or they are being raised by their grandparents. Many of my students wake themselves up and get themselves to school. My students are only 9 or 10 years old so this is a big task for them. They will need to work hard and keep their grades up in order to go to college. Most of them won't have the funds themselves to do it. I feel that providing them with knowledge is a way of giving them the funds to pay for it. They need to see that there is a future past high school. The students I teach are often the first generation to go to college. They are hard working, bright eyed students who are eager to soak in all they can learn. The sooner I can get them hooked on science and seeing a future in it the less likely they are to stop school after high school.
My Project
My students do a great deal of science experiments. Spring scales would be used to help measure force in motion. Meter sticks would be used to measure distance that catapults go and to build ramps for race cars or ball races. Timers would be used to figure the speed that each of these go. The digital scales would help us measure the mass of the different balls for the ball races. Graduated cylinders will be used to measure the volume of the ball in the ball races. Trundle wheels would be used to measure distance that rockets go using bottle launchers. Meter tapes would be used to measure the perimeter of "crime" scenes. Mass sets would help my students understand hands-on the difference between a gram and a kilogram. We improvise with make shift measurement tools and all wait our turn in the long line to use what little we have to measure with. It would be nice to have my students work in small groups to use measurement tools and not have to wait in line and waste valuable time.
These tools will not only be used in my science lab but also in the math class next door to mine.
We work closely together to help the students realize the connection between science and math. Your donation will help prepare our students to become future scientist and mathematicians. Our country is short employees in these two areas. Your donation would be helping close that gap and possibly creating our future inventors. It would also help reduce the amount of high school drop outs.
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