My students need two COBY Kyros Internet tablets to complete research for the NASA project. SKYPEing with Thomas Werne @JPL NASA in Pasadena, Calif. learning Polarimetry.
Even though a vast amount of youth today are already more tech savvy than many adults, they will inevitably control our future!
My students come from a variety of economical classes.
With parents dealing with loss of jobs or lack of job incomes not increasing with the cost of living, as well as school materials funding being completely eliminated, purchases of technology devices have come to halt. Not all families are capable of having the privilege of having Internet devices to complete research required to allow those students to become more educated citizens. In order to allow them to climb out of the economical class currently part of, having the learning tools in the classroom is imperative. With a class size larger then the amount of classroom computers avaliabe, other options must be incorporated into my classroom to allow "ALL" students the needed technology tools to achieve at a higher educational level.
My Project
During this past summer I realized that other students in the American school systems have been moving ahead of the average student. These students have been given the opportunity of using tech to improve their research abilities. Since the beginning of the school year,I have been using different areas of tech to improve my students educational knowledge. On a weekly basis we are SKYPEing Dominican Republic discussing language Arts areas as well as learning about each others culture. Students use tech to create and research the items needed for this session. We also SKYPE weekly with Immaculate Conception Catholic School located in Florida about Current Events in S.S./ Science. Here too, Internet research is needed. We recently completed a technology test pilot with Purdue University for the science Zip-Trip "hot seat".Being the only elementary to pilot this tech. Our next learning project is NASA Polarimetry,ER-2,NPP/M-Cubed/COVE,Interference Patterns,and Space Interferometry.
The vital knowledge that my students will learn with JPL/NASA in Pasadena, California cannot be achieved within the classroom alone.
Technology must be a vehicle through which the knowledge can be acquired for this project. Laptops as well as working desktop computers have become a roadblock in allowing future growth of my students' education levels. By your generous donation, the JPL/NASA project, as well as future tech lessons,can be successful for "ALL" sixth grade students.
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 Mrs. Stenftenagel Price and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.