Imagine never traveling to communities outside of the one in which you live. That is exactly the reality many of the students in my classroom face. As part of our life science unit of study, students need be able to have a better understanding of the ecosystems and outside of our community.
There are 24 students in my suburban classroom.
There is a relatively high percentage of families who are economically disadvantaged and with close to 40% of our students receiving free and reduced lunches. My kids are creative, curious, intelligent, and hard-working. They are intrigued with technology and the knowledge they are capable of finding when it is incorporated into lessons. Currently, we do not have ample technology within our classroom to incorporate technology frequently enough.
My Project
My kids like to use the phrases, "Smarter, Together" and "Better Together" when we are working. Structures are in place during every lesson to embed cooperative learning into every lesson. Science is a subject area in which students need to feel, see, tough, create, observe, hypothesize, plan, and talk about the concepts being presented in order to have a full understanding. Technology and science also go hand in hand. My students will be seeing to answer the following questions: Which ecosystems support specific animals and plants? What types of habitats exist and what living things live there? What would happen if one animal was permanently removed from a food web? My students will be able to research habitats and ecosystems, view images and video clips to familiarize themselves with those they haven't previously been exposed. They will then be able to work cooperatively to use Keynote, Prezi, PowerPoint or Haiku Deck to present what they have learned. My students need 3 iPad mini's to do this.
At this time, we have one desktop computer and one Chromebook for all 24 of my students to share for scientific research purposes.
We have access to the computer lab one day per week for 45 minutes. By having these additional iPads in our classroom, there will be more technology accessible for my students. Being able to consistently incorporate technology in 21st century classrooms in pivotal for their future academic success.
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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. Martin and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
