The students of my classroom are a cohort of diverse, intelligent, and hardworking students from around the New York City Metropolitan area. Many of my students receive free lunch and free fare to school. Our school is a selective, public, college-preparatory school with a focus on science, math, and engineering that provides a challenging academic experience that prepares students for careers in science, math, and engineering.
My students are curious thinkers eager to know what experiments and discoveries we will make each day.
Due to budget cuts and outdated equipment, however, our classroom struggles to fully experiment to its potential. Despite these challenges, students are still enthusiastic and classroom attendance is very high. In addition, many of my middle school students have learning differences but despite the odds against them, they still manage to finish their middle school careers with two or three high school credits! As an educator, I hope to continue to help foster their learning and growth as scientists!
My Project
My students need Chromebooks for online research, laboratory and presentation creation, and extended classroom activities. These Chromebooks will give my students the opportunity to use online programs that will simultaneously teach them about science while having fun.
They will also provide students access to databases with scientific papers and first-hand research in order to aid their studies and research.
In my class, students conduct several long-term science investigations throughout the year (Determining the Best Soil to Grow Lima Beans (chemistry), Looking at the Effect of Soda on Chicken Bones (chemistry); Designing the optimal Straw Rocket (physics). When conducting these experiments, students must design and carry out these experiments. With the Chromebooks, students will be able to do in-depth research in order to design optimal environments, create effective protocols, and work collaboratively, like scientists. Furthermore, once these projects are completed, the students will create research presentations that will be used to share with our school community and represented at local and national exhibitions. These presentations can be enhanced with Chromebooks by giving them access to a plethora of resources.
In addition to the science, these chromebooks will give the students the computer skills to help them be successful in highschool, college, and eventually the job market. Being able to operate programs like Microsoft word, excel, power point, google docs, etc. will increase their ability to be successful.
As you can see, our classroom is not yet up to par technologically, but with this grant, we will get closer to closing that gap!
Half of students from low‑income households
Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education. Learn more
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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 Mrs. Crawford and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.