Past projects 10
Innovative Technology for a Rural School
Funded Sep 18, 2023Thank you so much for your generosity. My students and other teachers will be so excited to learn that we will have these new tools available soon. We have been planning projects since the beginning of the school year and will be very happy to be able to build them! Thanks again!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Nicolaus
Another iPad to Go Round
Funded May 8, 2023Thank you so much for the support of my students. They will be very excited to hear that they will soon be able to use all of the Sphero robots and not have to rely on their personal devices. Thank you for making my classroom more equitable and interactive for all students.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Nicolaus
This classroom project was brought to life by General Motors Corporation and one other donor.Hands-on Mathematics
Funded Dec 1, 2021Thank you so much for your generous support. My students will be very excited to hear that there will be soon more projects that get them out of their desks and doing hands-on activities to help them learn the material. We really appreciate your donations and look forward to using the supplies.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Nicolaus
This classroom project was brought to life by The DonorsChoose Community and 3 other donors.Robotics and Coding to Explore Technology
Funded Feb 9, 2021My students have really enjoyed using the robotics kits to explore this new field that many of them did not have access to before your donation. When we first opened up the kits, the students were excited to see all of the different pieces they could use to create robots. (Many of them were also surprised to see most pieces do not look like the LEGOs they have at home.) Because they were so new to us, the students began by working through the lessons and tutorials available online. After completing these, they moved on to building several of the plans offered by LEGO.
Once they built some of the robots, they then discovered they needed to have a little more practice with coding before being able to understand some of the more complicated coding used for the robots. Many of the students have been using the CS First program offered by Google to become more comfortable with reading and writing code. Then they were able to change some of the coding and know what more of the coding does to control the robots.
We were able to obtain some additional kits from another Donors Choose project, and we have been able to work on multiple projects at once. The kids are very excited to be making and coding their own robots now from scratch and look forward to building an obstacle course that their robots will try to navigate. Thank you again for all of your generous support!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Nicolaus
More Students Exploring Robotics and Coding
Funded Apr 10, 2021My students are really grateful for the additional robotics kits. They are excited to be working on multiple projects at once and have access to more pieces to expand their projects. Several students are working on building the plans for the EV3 robotics that LEGO has provided online. They have finished several of these plans and were then working on changing the programming to do different things. (This has led to several mistakes and good teamwork when the students have helped each other find and correct their errors.)
Other students have been able to start working on building their own robots from scratch. Many have gotten their models built but need to incorporate the motors and main control unit into their design to automate them. Once this is accomplished, they will begin writing their own code to control the robots.
Now that more students have had experience building and coding the robots, we are going to begin looking into designing and building robots to do specific tasks. For instance, we are going to build our own obstacle course similar to those used in some competitions and see who can build a robot that will complete all of the tasks included in the course.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Nicolaus
This classroom project was brought to life by IF/THEN, an initiative of Lyda Hill Philanthropies and 6 other donors.Making Math Fun With Reading
Funded Oct 21, 2021Thank you so much for your donations. My students will be so excited that the resources they chose will soon be on their way so that they can create more amazing math kits to send home with young students. They will be so excited to have new kits they can use! Thank you for your generosity and for supporting our project.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Nicolaus
This classroom project was brought to life by Dollar General Literacy Foundation and one other donor.We Can't Do This Without You(ke)!
Funded Aug 12, 2021Thank you so much for your donations to this project! My students will be so excited to hear next week that more of them will be able to learn to play the ukulele. I really appreciate this opportunity for my students without having to worry about sharing restrictions due to COVID.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Nicolaus
This classroom project was brought to life by Bill Gates and 6 other donors.Take-Home Math Kits Service Learning Project
Funded Jul 29, 2021Thank you so much for your donations! The supplies should arrive just in time for my middle school students to make into kits that will be ready to be checked out within the first few weeks of school. These kits will reach students in Kindergarten through fifth grade at a point during the year when they are most ready to learn. They will continue to remain in circulation throughout the rest of the school year and future school years. My returning and new math club students will be very excited to hear about the new supplies they will receive when they return to school!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Nicolaus
Service Learning Through Math Take-Home Kits
Funded Dec 24, 2020Thank you so much for your support! My math club students have loved putting the kits together for younger students to borrow. I have been amazed by their creativity and how well they plan ahead. They really enjoyed finalizing ideas they already had, determining how to adapt activities to other grade levels, and search for new ideas online. They did struggle with writing instructions at first, but after a few attempts, they were able to come up with a process to make this easier in the future. I am very excited for continuing this opportunity with them as we grow our library of activities.
We have only been able to share the activities with a few elementary students, but the excitement is spreading quickly. When a student checks out a kit, they get to spend one week with it at home. We have had good luck with students returning their kits so far and the reviews have been very positive. Some of the classroom teachers have shared that their students look forward to math more and cannot wait until it will be their turn to take the kits home.
We send home a feedback form with each kit so that we can improve our activities. Several parents have expressed that they really enjoyed working with their children and are excited to see more kits. A few have even suggested new ideas my students are excited to try in new kits. Thank you so much for giving my math club students and our elementary students this opportunity!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Nicolaus
Let's Make Beautiful Music in My Classroom!
Funded Mar 13, 2020Thank you so much for your support. Due to Covid, I have not been able to use the materials with as many students as planned, but we are still using them as often as we can! The additional ukuleles have allowed me to share ukuleles with two grades this year (my two smallest classes where we do not have to share them). My students love to play them, especially the second graders. It is amazing how much more progress we can make when they can spend the whole class time playing instead of just a portion of it! I cannot wait to see the growth in my other classes as well when our social distancing restrictions lift.
The drum sticks continue to be a big hit with my students. It was great to be able to replace some of our old pairs that had been taped together. The tip covers on the new pairs also help keep the volume a little bit more in check, something that will be very useful when we begin our bucket drumming units.
We also greatly appreciate the boomwhackers. I am able to share those with all of my classes despite the pandemic because we no longer have to share, even in my largest classes. Thank you so much for your support! My students have really enjoyed playing the instruments. It is great to still be able to play them when many of the activities we would normally do are no longer an option because of the pandemic.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Nicolaus