Motherboard, Can You Hear Me? Coding, Programming, Inventing, Making!
We need Raspberry Pie 3 Model B motherboards, Makey Makey Invention kits and a teacher's guide to learn to program, code, and create our very own arcade game.
This project is part of the Black History Month celebration because it supports a Black teacher or a school where the majority of the students are Black.
About My Students
This urban school district consists of unique and talented individuals. They aspire to make a difference in the world, and have a hunger for learning. Bhupesh desires to be an astronomer to extend space travel, Janay, a physical therapist in hopes of helping people to complete activities of daily living more comfortably, Layla wants to find a way to stop soil, air and water pollution- each student has a problem they would like to solve, or a dream they wish to fulfill.
Many students have not traveled beyond the city limits, while others have traveled within the city limits from other countries. Diversity is part of our culture, our pride, and our strength. Along with the desire to learn and many strengths, these students face some large struggles, one of which is the lack of resources and technology within the classroom. Their biggest desire is to "have the opportunities other kids have, so we can learn, connect with others, and compete as adults."
Through this engaging introduction of programming and coding skills within the classroom, students will create an arcade game, which will be donated to the welcome center of the school . Creativity, collaboration, critical thinking skills and communication will be the focus for social growth and a deeper development of twenty-first century learning skills, which are essential to any career. Using the knowledge and skills from this project, students will go on to create student-choice apps in order to solve a problem for others on a global scale. Some examples may include a mathematics tutorial, an audio assistant for students with hearing impairments, or an app to donate to a specific cause.
In Their Own Words
"Having this technology will help us to learn about coding and programming. If any of us (students) want to have a career with computers, we need to learn it, and this would be a fun way to learn, and give us a chance to help other people in the process."
"I see other kids our age learning all types of things that have to do with computers and technology. We don't even have computers to use every day. Having this opportunity would help us to catch up to other students."
"We can each use what we know from outside the classroom, and be leaders. Because we are all so different and have different backgrounds, this project would be a great way for us to teach each other, and for all of us to have a chance to be a leader."
"We have a lot of problems within our community. If we learn how to code and program with this project, we can gain basic knowledge, and apply it to real problems, and help to solve them. The possibilities of what we could do are infinite!"
"The first problem it will solve, is that we ( the students) have never been exposed to coding or programming. Secondly, we want to serve our community affordably. If we can learn the basics (of programming and coding) we can create affordable apps to solve community issues, like providing homework help when our parents are at work, or helping the kids that don't speak English as a first language read their homework assignments. We could help other people in the community as well, like the elderly and the refugee children."
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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 Ms. Kutz and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
