Past projects 4
CSI Investigators in 6th Grade
Funded Aug 8, 2023Thank you so much for supporting my students and their drive to become more proficient problem solvers, critical thinkers, and communicators. I had about a third of these students in a gifted group last year and they craved mysteries and dilemmas that required teamwork and deep thinking skills. Now that I have the entire class, I am thrilled to see how they will work with the rest of their class on these forensic mysteries.”
With gratitude,
Mr. Young
STEM Makers Need A 3D Printer
Funded Mar 27, 2018This generous donation was such an exciting and invigorating way to not only end last school year, but to start this year with. The students have been thrilled and ask nearly every day if we can design or print on the 3D printer.
Last year, we did design challenges where students created balloon powered boats. They were able to see near instant results when they printed and tested their creations. They then went back to Tinkercad to redesign their boats. What an awesome way to teach the STEM design process!”
With gratitude,
Mr. Young
This classroom project was brought to life by Ripple.Maker Space For Twenty-First Century Learners
Funded Mar 29, 2017My students have been thrilled with the items you funded. I am floored by your generosity and apologize for the length at which it took me to write this note. I had taken some time off due to my second son's birth and have recently gotten back into the swing of things.
I digress, the tinkering and creative thought has been significantly impacted in the twelve weeks.
My 'Bridge Unit' was a huge hit when it was introduced and culminated by building bridges with the 3D pens. It was a great way to "hook" the students and to see the level of understanding through a hands on assessment. We also re-created the Golden Gate Bridge with the K-NEX.
One student group read about a famous architecture structure and creating a prezi about it. They then used the Lego Architecture Kit to create their building.
Another group read "Donovan's Word Jar" and made their own Vocabulary Jars decorated using symbols and pictures important to them using the 3D pens to draw them.
We are sincerely grateful for the opportunity to increase our creative ability and thoughtful tinkering.”
With gratitude,
Mr. Young
This classroom project was brought to life by Aspect Ventures and 2 other donors.Tablets to Inspire 21st Century Learners
Funded Aug 24, 2016Dear Donor,
Thank you for your incredibly thoughtful and timely gift. These tablets have given me an incredible opportunity to deepen the learning in a remote location. We have been able to connect with students in other schools, participate in webquests, and find meaningful apps (or platforms as we call them) with the Amazon Fire tablets.
One of our first activities that we used the tablets for was connecting students in two different remote locations. Both of my groups were working on the same project at the same time, but were limited to their small groups within their school. We connected students to other students and allowed those students to work together and collaborate along the way.
We have also found great webquests, which are basically online scavenger hunts. We use them as an introduction to new novels we are reading. One we used it for this quarter was "True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle". Students learned more about ships, the 1800s, slavery and race, and social hierarchy- all at their own pace and with some great flexibility.
Finally, the apps that we have loaded onto the Fire tablets have been incredibly useful for students to learn more about coding, ancient Greece, Egypt, and higher level math.
Thank you again for such a generous and thoughtful donation. You can be assured you have made a meaningful impact on many students lives.”
With gratitude,
Mr. Young