My school is a transfer high school in an urban city. My students are all experiencing high school for at least the second time in their educational experiences. The students here have all experienced previous educational settings that were not beneficial to them. They come to our school with various needs and we use an alternate approach to learning to help them re-engage with our school community and its values and norms.
My students prefer to be directly engaged in the learning process.
Hands-on learning is important in both traditional education and alternative education, with a heavy reliance on direct engagement to encourage richer learning and deeper retainment. There is a social justice issue in lack of access to computer science courses, especially in urban schools. Having experience in coding, debugging, and opportunities to express themselves creatively are all essential to closing the technology gap between our students and those who have more privilege than they know. We are not a school that already requires computer science classes that will better prepare students for the modern workforce, but this a part of our goal to get there. As well as designing curriculums that will always meet their needs.
My Project
The 2 Oculus Go Stand-Alone Virtual Reality Headsets will be essential to allowing my students to be directly engaged in computer science. These devices are easily compatible with smartphones and will be used with a curriculum of the same capabilities. In conjunction with these headsets, I will use the web-based curriculum, Introduction to Virtual Reality, from CodeHS, a comprehensive teaching platform. These devices will help our students dive deep into the curriculum in a way they never have before.
I would like to infuse geography into this course as it is not offered as a stand alone course in my school or most schools.
It is important in our global society to have increasing knowledge, not decreasing knowledge, in geography. Our students have less access to this content without it as a core requirement in our educational system. Along with the fun of creation and interaction with virtual reality, I would like to offer them the unforgettable hands-on experience to see the world and learn about it right here in the classroom.
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
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 Teacher Henry and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
