Zip, Zing, Zoom! Grooming young scientists is so easy. The smallest effort to conduct scientific observations, demonstrations, and experiments electrify the classroom. Students become energized by their discoveries and proofs of common events in nature.
My students are a vivacious and inquisitive group of Third Graders.
Students come from mostly rural, working class neighborhoods. They are quickly engaged in learning through science and math projects that prick their curiosity and sense of adventure. Our curriculum guides us through the study of plant and animal life cycles. The grounds in and around our school provide a perfect place to grow milkweed to attract the monarch butterfly. Students can then observe this habitat and record the development of the monarch from egg to adult. The school also has an inner courtyard currently being developed as an outdoor classroom. All 650 students would benefit from watching this project develop.
My Project
My students need a GrowLab lighted plant stand to germinate milkweed seeds. Mature milkweed plants will entice monarch butterflies to our schoolyard. The purchase of this plant stand permits my students to plant, germinate, and grow milkweed seedlings to be transplanted around the school's perimeter and inside the courtyard for close observation. A lighted stand allows the plants to develop quickly enough to plant in early spring and watch the plants mature. Growing plants in the classroom makes it easy to conduct experiments related to plant development and to use math tools to document and measure growth. Students will come to understand challenging concepts like photosynthesis as it is demonstrated in real time. They will discover basic concepts of life science like parts of a plant, what plants need to grow and how new plants develop. But more complex ideas can be cultivated; like interdependency of plant and animal life, the importance of habitat and how ecosystems support life. Not only will my students benefit from this project but so will the other 650 students watching this monarch habitat grow.
My Third Grade children will watch their textbook come to life.
They will learn how to conduct experiments and observations and behave like true scientists. This project can be perpetuated year after year with the use of the lighted plant stand. Other plant projects can grow from this one. We can assist in the upkeep and replanting of our outdoor classroom. Once the milkweed is established students can watch monarch butterflies mature from egg to adult.
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. W. and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.