Our school's science classes are somewhat unique when compared to standard science classes. As our school is an arts-integrated school, students are often asked to use their artistic abilities to demonstrate their understandings of scientific concepts in addition to traditional methods.
Our student body is very unique, arriving from every background imaginable, yet eager not to let their socioeconomic backgrounds hold them back from succeeding.
Seventy percent of our students qualify for free or reduced-price lunches. However, they are motivated to learn and are effective in coping with our rigorous class and department standards. Most are not afraid to seek help when needed, and many of our top-performing students actively participate in our after-school tutoring programs. They are also excited to learn science through hands-on labs and will take advantage of opportunities to discover beyond traditional lab assignments.
My Project
The Chromebooks requested in this DonorsChoose.org project will greatly expand the educational experience for students taking my science classes. For example, publicly available scientific reference materials and scientific modeling applications are now ubiquitous online. A few examples include PubMed, Gene, and PubChem. Teaching students how to navigate and utilize such databases and modeling programs expand students’ access to credible and current information that students can use to answer many scientific questions.
Obtaining the Chromebooks will also give students access to a plethora of exciting interactive digital tutorials and learning games that connect with all students’ learning styles.
For example, there are many animated tutorials available online that can bring to life complex processes such as DNA replication, transcription, and translation. Games accessible online like Kahoot and Anatomy Arcade make the monotony of memorizing scientific content fun and exciting. Thus, in conjunction with expert teacher instruction and hands-on labs, the Chromebooks will further brighten the learning experience.
The examples above are just a few of the many ways that obtaining Chromebooks will facilitate learning science in my classroom. Just as important as the Chromebooks will be to the science learning process is the realization that the world is increasingly going digital. The digital age requires student computer literacy to compete for jobs. As such, having classroom sets of Chromebooks for my classroom and other classrooms in our science department will give our students early experience with applications used regularly in the collegiate and business world. Such experience will allow our students a greater chance to thrive in life.
This project will fund Chromebooks 67 to 69 of a goal of 80 for our classrooms.
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 Dr. Schuerch and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.