STEM Advancement and Modernization in the Classroom

Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month

This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.

My Students

Can you imagine students begging for more work? My students are always asking me to give them more labs. It is amazing how excited and motivated they are to work when they have hands-on activities. Please help me give them access to more activities.

My students are a diverse group of 7th and 8th graders in California coming from a wide variety of cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds.

This wide array of students have backgrounds from almost every continent with large ethnic subgroups. About 50% of the population is on the free and reduced lunch program, while a good number come from affluent surrounding neighborhoods. Our school is medium sized and has an equally diverse staff. The general curriculum is arts-centered and focuses on fostering creativity. Our staff, faculty and students have a great enthusiasm for learning, especially when asked to be creative or be hands-on. This year, our school theme is "Chart Your Course," as students metaphorically imagine themselves as sailors finding their path to success across uncharted waters.

My Project

I am asking for a class set of safety glasses and one iPad 2. I currently do not have a set of safety glasses, which severely limits what kinds of labs we can do in class. Since I teach 8th grade, the students must learn about chemical reactions. This is very hard to do without being able to carry out experiments that may pose the slightest amount of danger to the students' vision. For instance there is a series of labs called "Solution and Pollution" from which students learn about how chemicals affect the environment. Also, my students will be building water rockets which require protective eye wear to launch. This will allow students to get up close to their creations in action. We will be using the iPad for research purposes in labs stations with science apps that will provide background information about our labs. Also, students will use it to research how to modify their engineering projects.

Although my students are very diverse, one thing that they almost universally have in common is their enthusiasm for science.

Often, emphasizing the "pencil and paper" aspect of science in junior high drives them away from STEM fields. My students are yearning for exciting hands-on activities. This is especially true of at-risk students and students who have had trouble succeeding in a highly regimented learning environment. By showing them real science, perhaps we can inspire the next Einstein.