Past projects 2
A Second Screen For Better Science
Funded Feb 24, 2021I cannot adequately express my gratitude for your support in providing a second computer monitor scree to our classroom at the height of the pandemic. As the whole country, the whole world rather, of students and teachers was grappling with how to provide the best possible online experience, you stepped up and helped us.
A science classroom, when done right, is all about experiencing phenomena and working towards understanding what is happening. In our virtual world, we needed to use available technology to best convey those experiences. Thanks to your donation, I was able to more effectively provide a first person perspective of a variety of chemical reactions including combustion of magnesium ribbon, detection of alkaline substances with bromothymol blue, and precipitating silver from a solution. I would always feel like it was short of the mark, but being able to see my demonstration on one screen and the expressions and chat of the students on the other made it clear that the "Wow factor" can occur in a virtual environment.
Please allow me again to thank you on behalf of myself and my students. Your generosity impresses me greatly, and definitely benefited this group of students in our corner of the world.”
With gratitude,
Mr. Griffin
Raising Trout In A Bilingual Spanish Classroom
Funded Sep 18, 2015I cannot thank you all enough for your support for this project. Of all of the activities and learning opportunities that occurred in our class, raising the brook trout and releasing them into the Pocantico River was by far the most exciting for our students. Not only did they learn about animal development and the importance of a maintaining a healthy environment, but experience generated numerable other other questions that drove their learning in ways I did not expect. They are already looking forward to next year ( the 6th and 7th graders) and having another opportunity to care for brook trout in the classroom.
The tank and the brook trout you supported were exciting not only for our students but for many other students in the school. On a regular basis, teachers and students would stop by to either find out what that big aquarium was doing in the school, or to check on the fish themselves. We are a school of 1,200 students, and the bilingual students often feel apart, a little separate from the other students. However my students became the holders of information, the explainers, to many of the people who would stop by to learn about the brook trout. In a school where students are expected to be receivers of knowledge, and especially for dominant Spanish speaking children working hard to learn another language as well as all of the other necessary curriculum, this was extremely empowering.
Certain things can only be understood, deeply, through direct observation and participation. Our students came to a deeper understanding of development and the cycle of life by living with and caring for these brook trout for seven months. From the understanding that the fish would not have their parents with them when born, but that they would have food for their first week or so ( the orange sac which they absorb) to the variety in growth and even to predation, the students did not have to imaging how the natural world functions, they watched it happen live. Perhaps the most exciting learning was at the actual release. Only six of my students had ever been outside of NYC, and we took them to the wilds of Westchester County and each student was able to release at least one fish, including fish named Fabio, Susan, Shino, John, Maggie and Charles. As each child stepped down to the rivers edge, they said goodbye to their brook trout, some giving kisses through the plastic container, then bent low and slowly allowed the fish to enter the flow. As soon as the fingerling hit the bottom the seemed to disappear, so well did they match their surroundings. "But Mr. Griffin," one student said, "it's like it's invisible. How can that be?" Now would be the time to talk about camouflage, but instead I only asked, "Why might that be?" The child smiled and said, "I guess she knows she's home."”
With gratitude,
Mr. Griffin