My students need glassware, chemicals, scales, etc. to fulfill lab requirements. We are a brand new school, and the science lab has absolutely no equipment to start.
My classroom is a blank canvas in a brand new charter school. My biggest challenges are not filling my science classroom with lab materials, but getting my students excited about entering a world with endless scientific opportunities that they can choose from.
We are a brand new public charter school offering K-12 and our upper school students are starting out with an honors biology science class.
These are students who left public schools, private schools, or home school environments to come get a better education. Teaching is happening in an open environment, where the students are encouraged to work together. They are not tested based on how much work they do, but on whether they have mastered the concept that is being taught.
While a new school is an exciting opportunity for our students, we do not have enough funds to supply science lab materials. Until local and state funds arrive to help purchase necessary items such as projectors, whiteboards, furniture, and necessary classroom items, we rely on donations for lab supplies.
My Project
We are in need of microscopes and slides, glassware such as beakers, flasks and stirring rods, scales for accurate measuring, safety equipment like eye goggles, chemicals and litmus paper, scientific posters, molecular modeling sets, hot plates and thermometers.
Our classroom will not be filled with unnecessary clutter. We plan to have a few posters, such as the periodic table and SI measurements, as classroom decoration until student projects find their way to the countertops. The materials we are requesting are necessary in even the simplest biological experiments.
Our students are expected to master the science concepts that we teach, but so many students learn visually, or with a hands-on approach. Labs, experiments, and projects are needed to demonstrate concepts in science. The possibilities of what a student can see in a lab would not be possible without laboratory equipment!
Coming from a professional environment as a microbiologist, I know firsthand how important scientific equipment is in a lab.
Information can easily be found online, but having a hands-on experiment that students can observe, touch, smell, hear, and even sometimes taste is imperative to science and can help a student really grasp and understand a concept. Thomas Dolby wrote a song titled, "She blinded me with science!". I plan to do the same.
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