We need microscopes to MAGNIFY our learning! I teach 4th grade Science, Health, and Math, as well as Title 1 Reading and Math to K - 5th grade. This is my first year in the Health and Science subjects, and to my astonishment, we do not have one microscope in our whole elementary! Our school is progressive in grant writing to get equipment for technology, but it seems that Science is an area that is lacking for grants.
I have so many awesome labs and experiment ideas to do with the students to magnify their understanding and learning through hands on, but absolutely no equipment. So, with schools tightening their belts on spending, I felt the need to go outside of requisitioning the equipment that we likely won't get. The students will benefit greatly. Of the experiments and activities that I do with my students they are so excited to learn, their interest in Science is budding, but I am limited without any use of slides and microscopes to magnify items for them to get a closer look. One such example is we want to put petri dishes around different areas to observe daily accumulations on them and what is growing there. Such as, place them in a bathroom, near a candle, near a garbage can, in a smoker's house. Then, collect them and make observations. Something so simple, so enriching, but it can't be done without equipment to magnify the samples. I do believe that if I can get the microscopes, the school will provide the less expensive items needed as the slides and petri dishes.
To do this experiment of learning and so many more where magnification is needed, I need microscopes that are student friendly. I can get by with 2 microscopes in center driven learning atmospheres. We could do so much more with rock studies, cell studies, it seems endless, but at this point, we can do none of those. Currently, I use the Internet for photos of magnified items, so that the students have a slight feel for what they could see if we really had a microscope.
Your help will ensure, without a doubt, that my students will get the maximum benefits in science through magnification. We have a level of interest amongst the students at this age, and we are losing it as they get older, due to lack of necessary exposure. Please make it possible for the students in our school to be enriched.
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