My students need a class trip of four lab sessions for 128 students to participate in a mitochondrial DNA investigation at the Harlem DNA Learning Center.
FULLY FUNDED! Ms. R.'s classroom raised $1,321
This project is fully funded
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.
Students can look at their own DNA sequence and compare it with their classmates? I thought this only happened in science fiction novels!
It’s true. With your help, 128 enthusiastic students from The Brooklyn International High School will take a trip to the Harlem DNA Learning Center to test their DNA. Sounds a little scary? Not at all! The students use cheek cells from a saliva sample to purify and sequence their DNA. With their results, they can then find out how closely related they are to the other students in the class. They can even compare their DNA sequence with a database to see how similar they are to prehistoric humans, bananas, and even jellyfish.
What makes this experiment even more exciting is the fact that our students are all recent immigrants to the United States and represent over thirty different countries. So, when they compare their DNA, they may find that a student from Haiti is actually closely related to a student from China or Poland. The fact that we all are very similar in spite of our external differences helps to fight discrimination and to promote a feeling of unity in our ethnically diverse population of students.
At the laboratory, students will use state of the art technology and meet real scientists. Having this advanced experience at such a young age inspires many of our students to pursue careers in health and sciences. I have taken my students to this lab for the past three years, and each year they say that this trip is the highlight of their 11th grade year. Your donation will help to expose these young scientists to the world of biotechnology!
This project will directly impact historically underfunded classrooms.
Nearly all 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 Ms. R. and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
