Past projects 12
Robot Invasion 10: Attack of the Drones!
Funded Feb 14, 2024Thank you so much for making this dream a reality! For years I've been hoping to introduce drones to make our technology class more exciting than ever, and now this is the year that it finally happens! With your help, our children will have an unforgettable STEM experience to help their imaginations soar!
Your gift of drones does far more than teach kids valuable problem-solving and analytical skills. It also helps them to develop the "soft skills" of communication, cooperation and collaboration. Knowing that our kids will have the chance to truly build lasting friendships, or at least positive relationships, with peers is an important part of why this project was created.
Your efforts will benefit our children in many ways. I cannot help but be awed by your generosity and kindness, and I look forward to watching the wonderful things that our children will accomplish with the amazing gift that you've given them.”
With gratitude,
Mr. H
Robot Invasion 8: Happy indi-pendence Day!
Funded Aug 9, 2023Thank you so much for your fabulous generosity! You've helped make robotics and exciting, hands-on experience for grades one through five! With our new robots, every class that I teach has had loads of fun learning the fundamentals of coding in an engaging way that they will never forget!
It's been a delight to see our kids not only have fun, but to collaborate with each other and to develop their social skills in the process. Our children are learning so more than computer science whenever we bring out these robots, and you have made this all possible.
Our children thank you, and I thank you. Seeing the smiles on our students' faces as they continue to grow and learn with our new robots will help me to always remember your remarkable kindness in getting this project funded.”
With gratitude,
Mr. H
Robot Invasion 7: Dash Toward STEM!
Funded Mar 30, 2023Thanks to you, we've expanded the reach of robots in our school so that every student from Kindergarten to fifth grade gets an incredible, hands-on learning experience that will hopefully inspire a lifelong interest in technology!
Whenever we bring the robots out in our technology lab, it's truly amazing to hear the cheers of our students. It's all the more gratifying to watch them collaborate together while solving problems and writing code. Our children continue to astonish me with their creativity, their ingeniousness and their enthusiasm.
All of this could never have happened without your generous support. Just saying thank you is not enough, but I hope that you will please accept my expression of heartfelt thanks all the same. Our children likewise greatly appreciate all that you have done for them, and we promise to continue learning with these robots for years to come.”
With gratitude,
Mr. H
Lighting Up STEM Learning With ICharms!
Funded Aug 31, 2022Thank you so much yet again for all of your kindness and generosity! This latest project is going to take our coding classes to a bold new level!
Where past coding projects have focused on working solely on a computer or with robots, the iCharms devices will show our kids how coding can have real-world applications and can help them exercise their creativity. These devices allow our students to create pixel art displays, animations and written messages on a Mac to then instal on the iCharms themselves Coding will taken on a tangible new dimension for our kids, who will have fur learning Python in the process.
I can't tell you enough how amazing it is to know that I can always depend on all of the wonderful people whom I've contacted through DonorsChoose to help make learning more exciting and fun each year! May you be truly blessed this holiday season!”
With gratitude,
Mr. H
Make America Magic Again!
Funded Apr 4, 2022Thanks to you, our children can have a school experience that magically transforms from mundane to magical! We've already begun with our group of peerless prestidigitators learning some basic tricks to add to what will soon be their growing repertoire of incredible illusions!
Each child in our forthcoming magic club will not only receive a deck of their own as part of a small homemade kit of magic tricks, but also several specially-altered cards to help them further amaze their families and friends. Our fledgling band of wannabe wizards are psyched to begin their magical journey!
Without you, none of this would have been possible. My students and I thank you immensely. Have a magical day!”
With gratitude,
Mr. H
Robot Invasion 6: The STEM Force Awakens!
Funded Oct 21, 2021I cannot thank you enough for your spectacular generosity and response to my latest DonorsChoose project! Amazingly enough, just when I thought that the project might fail, someone stepped up and donated the remaining amount to further expand our robotics program! I can still recall staring at my computer screen the first thing in the morning in disbelief.
Thanks to all of you, we're going to bring excitement and joy to kids from grades one through five at a time when we need it most. So many of our students are traumatized by the pandemic and need something special to make their school day fun and memorable. Your gift of Dash robots will help this technology teacher ensure that every child gets a hands-on STEM education while also learning social-emotional skills such as teamwork and cooperation.
These are not easy times, which is obvious, but by sponsoring my project you have greatly helped me to make school that much more memorable and engaging amidst so much turbulence and uncertainty. I thank you profusely and am thrilled with what we might do next.”
With gratitude,
Mr. H
This classroom project was brought to life by Bill Gates and 7 other donors.Robot Invasion 5: A New Hope!
Funded Sep 7, 2019Learning transcends standardized tests and memorizing facts. It's an active process of discovery, wherein our children learn by play, experience and experimentation. Thanks to your generosity, the robots that our students will work with will offer all of them a hands-on lesson in problem-solving, teamwork and creative thinking! Our kids will program the robots and learn computer science, but the purpose of this project goes beyond that. Each child will have a chance to create their own unique robot designs by building Lego constructions on each robot limited only by their growing imaginations. They will work as a team to make their robots run specific programs. When they fail, they will band together to achieve success. When they succeed, they will celebrate together. The character lessons of goodwill and resilience shall also be learned, all because you have seen fit to make this project come to light.
Having taught robotics for over a decade, I've seen the smiles of every child whom I've ever had successfully write a program or discover a new feature of a robot that they haven't seen before. By financing this project, you've bought our students a world of joy and play that will enrich their lives.
May we go forward together with the presupposition that technology can enhance our lives and bring us closer together, that our children can learn and grow in a changing world and use the new tools available to them to act as creators in the years ahead. Donors, looking upon what you have offered our children, I can only say thank you...”
With gratitude,
Mr. H
Robot Invasion IV: The End of the Trilogy!
Funded Dec 31, 2015Dear Donors,
Thanks to your generosity, we are now able to expand the depth and breadth of our existing robotics program at our underfunded public school not only to children in multiple grades, but also to other children throughout New York State as well! The Dash and Dot Educator Pack that you purchased for us includes programmable robots that help teach coding and logical thinking, and they will be used in several different ways.
I already run a robotics club at my school for 4th and 5th graders, and these robots will now become a prominent part of our club. Students from every class in these grades will have the chance to learn programming and to assemble robots using Lego parts, so that they can learn design thinking and engineering as well. I also intend to lend these robots out to classrooms and to train other teachers how to use them, so that anyone who wants to introduce a robotics program for their classroom will have that option.
These robots will also enable our school to return to robotics competitions. For many years, our school participated in the FIRST Lego League tournaments. This sadly came to an end a few years back when my co-teacher who ran the event had health issues, and I became a new dad with scant time to devote to running our FIRST team. Luckily Wonder Workshop, the manufacturer of the robots that you purchased for us, has its own competition and is encouraging schools to form their own robot teams. Since schools can participate by submitting videos of their work with the robots, it is now much easier for my co-teacher and I to resurrect robotics competitions at our school!
In addition to my work at my school, I also work part-time at a Challenger Center for space education upstate near my home. I plan on working summer camps there, and the director of the camp agreed that incorporating robotics into our camps would be a good idea. This means that the robots we now have, thanks to you, will also benefit young kids across varying counties in New York. Since many of these schools are also underfunded, and since I'm working with a young group, it's entirely possible that this will be the first exposure to robotics that these particular kids will get, making for an unforgettable STEM learning experience that they'll love.
No letter can convey how grateful I am to everyone who made this project a reality, but it will have to suffice. I hope that you will accept my heartfelt appreciation as some payment for your generosity.”
With gratitude,
Mr. H
Learning Takes Flight With Paper Planes!
Funded Nov 5, 2012Wow! I can't thank you enough for your generosity and your kindness! Thanks to you, math class has come alive with the glory of flight! Our kids are doing so much more than memorizing facts from books and filling in ovals with a #2 pencil on a test form... they're actively engaged in learning math with an exciting hands-on project!
With the paper airplane books that you've brought to our entire 5th grade class, our kids are testing various designs of their "aircraft," measuring the distance that each plane flies, keeping a detailed flight log for each of their "flights," and comparing their designs with those made by children in other classrooms. Not only are they learning math fundamentals such as measurement in standard and metric units and basic operations, they're also learning to be active problem-solvers by testing and improving on various airplane designs. On top of everything else, they're also learning teamwork by collaborating with children across the entire grade.
All of this was made possible by your care and effort! I thank you again, my DonorsChoose friends, for all the good that you've done for us!”
With gratitude,
Mr. H
Robot Invasion 3: The Final Invasion!
Funded Jul 18, 2012It it because of your generosity that our Lego Robotics team can make this year their best year ever! Although we've consistently made the finals in every Lego tournament, we've always wanted a second Lego Mindstorms kit so that we could introduce even more children to robot construction and programming. Now that we have it at last, we're accomplishing more than we ever thought possible.
Prior to your kind donation, one group of children on the team would handle programming and robot design duties while another group would focus on writing the research paper presentation about a given theme that is required of contestants at every Lego Mindstorms tournament. Now we have two simultaneous groups of children working on robots while a third group handles research responsibilities, making it far easier to ensure that every child has the opportunity for hands-on robotics experience.
But the benefits of having a second Lego Mindstorms robot doesn't end there. We also plan on sharing the wealth by allowing students who aren't on our school's official robotics team to build and program their Lego robot. We intend to use it in our science, special education, general education and gifted classrooms to enhance our STEM curriculum.
Your kindness has made it possible for us as teachers to provide a memorable learning experience to so many deserving children. A thank you letter alone is not sufficient to convey my gratitude, nor is it enough to convey how great a service you have all performed by making your donations. You have truly done a wonderful thing, and I thank you.”
With gratitude,
Mr. H
This classroom project was brought to life by Wells Fargo and 7 other donors.