Past projects 3
Bringing Nature Into Our Classroom
Funded Jan 11, 2025Thank you so much for supporting my students! Bringing nature into our classroom will enable the students to explore plants and animals in spite of the fact that we cannot go outside. I cannot wait to start up the Life Science unit in the spring. Again, thank you for your generous donation!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Nina
Science Fair & Parent Engagement Day
Funded Apr 15, 2024In May of 2024, the parents and guardians of students at the P10X@67 public elementary school in the Bronx, New York, were invited to a combined Science Fair and Parent Engagement Day. The Science Fair and Parent Engagement Day was organized to strengthen the relationship between parents, students, and the school, foster community spirit, and encourage parental involvement in their children's education.
In order to achieve these goals, we wanted to offer hands-on activities that the students and their parents and/or guardians could engage in together. As many of our special education students are nonverbal, and thus often are limited in their ability to talk about their school days, the parents appreciate being invited to the school to learn about what their children do at school.
We decided to build on another successful project also funded by generous donors through DonorsChoose: building simple electrical circuits. In January and February of 2024, the students in second through fourth grades studied Energy Conversions in their physics unit. We followed the Amplify Science curriculum for fourth grade, and the students learned about how energy is converted from one form to another (chemical energy, electrical energy, and light- and heat energy), and how it can be transferred from place to place. The donated electrical circuit kits were tremendously helpful in that they allowed the students the hands-on experience of building their own circuits. At the end of the unit all of the students were able to build a simple electrical circuit to start a fan or light up a lightbulb. About half of the students needed prompting (mostly verbal) to complete the circuit, but half of the students could do so independently. The more advanced students used their conceptual understanding of the principles of electrical circuits to independently build a simple electrical circuit (i.e., no trial and error; instead they used their theoretical knowledge to right away connect the parts into a loop where electricity could flow). As a result of this learning experience eight students improved their grade, and six students earned the highest marking period grade (which, in comparison, none of the students did for the previous marking period).
We wanted to build on this to show the parents and guardians the skills that their children had learned and mastered! However, in order to accommodate the approximately 120 students of our school and their invited parents and guardians, we needed more materials, such as wires with alligator clips, diodes, batteries, and battery holders.
All supplemental materials we needed for the Science Fair and Parent Engagement Day were generously donated by you! On behalf of the P10X community, I would like to extend our deepest gratitude for your generous donation of these materials. Your contribution allowed us to invite the families to, not only fun and engaging but also academically highly relevant, activities that have strengthened the relationship between parents, students, and the school. Thank you so much for ultimately supporting my students! Not only were lightbulbs lit up in our classroom, but so were the students' and parents' faces when they together had connected the various parts of the electrical circuit to turn on the lightbulbs. Again, thank you!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Nina
Power Up Students!
Funded Dec 29, 2023In January and February 2024, the 16 students in second through fourth grade studied Energy Conversions in their physics unit. We followed the Amplify science curriculum for fourth grade, and the students learned about how energy is converted from one form to another, and how it can be transferred from place to place.
The electrical circuit kits that you so generously donated were tremendously helpful in that they allowed the students the hands-on experience of building their own circuits. At the end of the unit all of the students were able to build a simple electrical circuit to start a fan or light up a lightbulb. About half of the students needed prompting (mostly verbal) to complete the circuit, but half of the students could do so independently. The more advanced students used their conceptual understanding of the principles of electrical circuits to independently build a simple electrical circuit (i.e., no trial and error; instead they used their theoretical knowledge to right away connect the parts into a loop where electricity could flow).
As a result of this learning experience eight students improved their grade, and six students earned the highest marking period grade (which none of the students did for the previous marking period).
Thank you so much for supporting my students! The materials that you donated helped the students master the content. Not only were lightbulbs lit up in our classroom, but so were the students' faces when they had connected the various parts of the electrical circuit, starting fans and lightbulbs. Again, thank you!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Nina