The cost of an incubator, thermometers, glass aquarium, and heat lamp (from Frey Scientific, Inc.) is $254, including shipping and <a target="new" href="http://www.donorschoose.org/html/fulfillment.htm" onclick="g_openWindow('http://www.donorschoose.org/html/fulfillment.htm', 300, 800, 'fulfillwindow');return false;">fulfillment</a>.
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.
I teach a self-contained Special Education class of second through fourth graders at Melody Elementary School. The students at Melody are 99 percent African American, and 96 percent of them receive free or reduced priced lunches. The students in my classroom have a range of disabilities including learning, behavioral, and cognitive disabilities.
Last year, with the help of the school science teacher, we raised baby chicks in my classroom. The science teacher had all of the materials, and for three weeks, we raised 24 eggs. My students took full responsibility for the eggs, turning them three times a day and making sure that the incubator was the right temperature. I had never seen my students so careful and so caring. It was amazing to see my rough and tough fourth grade boys gently turning the eggs over every day and coming up with names for their "babies". My students completely loved their experience of raising the eggs, and were equally as crazy about their baby chicks when they finally hatched. They would have spent every day holding and playing with their chicks if I would have let them. However, I feel that my students' greatest experience came from them inviting other classes into our room to see our eggs and then our chicks. My students gave presentations about our baby chicks to several kindergarten and first grade classes, and I had never seen them so proud of themselves. My students were taking what they had learned about raising baby chicks and teaching other students. I was as proud of them as they were of themselves. Suddenly, my students were no longer known as the "LD class," but as the class with the baby chicks. For the four weeks that we had the chicks, my kids felt like the smartest kids in the school. They still talk about that experience.
This year, I would like to give my new class that same experience. However, the science teacher from last year who had all of the materials has left the school, so I do not have any materials to raise baby chicks. We need an incubator for the eggs, thermometers to measure the temperature, a glass aquarium for a home for the chicks after they hatch, and a heat lamp to keep the chicks warm in the aquarium. I know that this will be as wonderful of an experience for my students this year as it was for my students last year. Please help me give my students not only the wonderful experience of raising baby chicks, but also the opportunity to share their knowledge and gain confidence by sharing our baby chick experience with the other classes in our school.
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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. Weber and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.