Help me give my students recyclable items that can help them build their science, technology, engineering and math skills (along with a little art).
FULLY FUNDED! Mrs. Hudson's classroom raised $237
This project is fully funded
My Students
My students are the best in the world! We live in a very small, rural town in mid-west Indiana. Over 60% of our students are eligible for free and reduced-price lunch. Our state standards changed last year, and I find myself lacking durable items to teach these standards.
My school doesn't have much money for up-to-date equipment, so I write grants to purchase items to help my students work with a variety of tools to which they would not otherwise have access.
I teach all levels of students and believe each and every one should have the same experiences! All of them are eager to learn by understanding that all subjects must be integrated to have a complete learning experience. I have convinced each and every one that they can win a Nobel Prize for thinking outside the box. It is my job to give them the tools to think critically in every situation.
My Project
Tinker trays, a small part of Makers Spaces, allow students of all ages to tinker with science and engineering skills. A Maker Space, in its purest form, is an area that is reserved for creative exploration, engineering, and inventing. Maker Spaces and tinker trays can contain, but are not limited to, arts and crafts materials, robotics, technology, and engineering materials allowing students of all ages to discover, construct, test, and explore using divergent thinking practices with specific tasks or exploration and inventing.
While our middle school does not have room for a dedicated space for a huge Maker Space, we do have room for traveling tinker trays.
These simple creations will provide materials for dedicated STE(A)M lesson plans, activities for early finishers, potential rewards for students to finish their work correctly, and a motivation for those students who need a bit more incentive to stay focused if they know they will get to interact with a traveling tinker tray. Teachers will be able to borrow these trays, just as they would check out a library book.
Creating the trays involves three components; a container, items to place inside, and a removable task card. Using durable pencil cases for the trays, I will fill each with inexpensive items such as craft sticks with Velcro circles on each end to build structures, Qtips and Playdough to build towers, Legos to recreate items in nature, Dixie cups to practice balance, aluminum foil to build boats, sliced pool noodles and toothpicks to create a gravity run for marbles, index cards to balance and build tall structures, gloves, wet cotton balls and seeds to make a mobile garden to hang on a window, craft sticks and bottle caps to build catapults.
We have already had many donations of many products.
More than 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. Hudson and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
