My class is a group of intelligent students that are thirsty for learning. My students have the ability and interest to be engineers and my goal is to provide them activities that will strengthen their mechanical/programming design knowledge and potentially steer them into careers in this field.
I teach gifted students in a school in a rural community with a high level of poverty.
My curious, intelligent students have a strong desire to put their hands on technology and try it out. My goal is to put technology based items into their hands so that they can gain actual hands on experience.
My Project
Throughout the year, my students have the opportunity to do Independent Projects. Since gaining our robot from Donor's Choose last year, it has been a popular project. Now that the students have been able to complete some of the projects that are suggested with the basic set, I would love to have additional materials to expand the potential of our kit.
The materials that I am requesting are a Mindstorm Expansion Kit, Lego Mindstorm idea books, a large Servo motor that helps propel the bot, and a sound sensor. The items will allow students to not just follow preset directions, but to have more flexibility to design their own projects.
One common misconception with gifted students is learning always comes easy.
Much of the school work that my students experience does make them learn, but it doesn't always challenge them deeply. Because of this, many of my gifted students have a hard time persevering when faced with a strong challenge. My students will tell anyone that listens that when they say something is hard to do, I say, "Good." I want them to experience a great challenge and work through it.
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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. Pennington and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.