Past projects 9
Rubik's Cube Mania: Part 3
Funded Aug 13, 2021This has been a tough couple of years in education. Last spring during state testing, after a year of COVID restrictions, I borrowed some Rubik's Cubes for my students to play with after spending all morning in testing mode. My goal was to teach most students how to solve one side after practicing for a few weeks. I was absolutely shocked by their response: they LOVED the cube! Being given time and permission to play in class, while still being challenged to achieve a goal, was the right formula at the right time. I have never seen an entire group of students get this excited about an activity, pushing themselves to solve more sides faster, and cheering each other on when they got stuck. Every single student learned how to completely solve a 3x3 Rubik's cube! I almost cried when it was time to return my borrowed set of cubes, so I made Donors Choose my next step.
I already have students asking about doing the cube this year. My students who looped with me can't wait to tackle the 4x4 "Master" cube. I am creating an "Early Finishers" station with the 2x2 "Mini" cube where students can apply different problem solving techniques before we learn the algorithms for the 3x3 cube later in the year. Having my own class set of 2x2, 3x3, and 4x4 speed cubes means we can benefit from more time with the cube and more ways of approaching its super enticing but oh-so-challenging puzzles!
Thank you for making this game-changer unit become a reality in our gifted classroom! I never would have imagined that an old toy from the 1980s would have such an impact on students in the 2020s but it is the right challenge at the right time. After all of the challenges my students have already faced during yet another pandemic school year, they are eagerly looking forward to the challenges provided by the cube. Thank you for your generous donation!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Barefoot
This classroom project was brought to life by Bill Gates and 4 other donors.Rubik's Cube Mania: Part 2
Funded Jun 5, 2021This has been a tough couple of years in education. Last spring during state testing, after a year of COVID restrictions, I borrowed some Rubik's Cubes for my students to play with after spending all morning in testing mode. My goal was to teach most students how to solve one side after practicing for a few weeks. I was absolutely shocked by their response: they LOVED the cube! Being given time and permission to play in class, while still being challenged to achieve a goal, was the right formula at the right time. I have never seen an entire group of students get this excited about an activity, pushing themselves to solve more sides faster, and cheering each other on when they got stuck. Every single student learned how to completely solve a 3x3 Rubik's cube! I almost cried when it was time to return my borrowed set of cubes, so I made Donors Choose my next step.
I loop with many of my students and they started this school year by asking "When are we going to do the cube?" Since my 5th graders learned how to solve the 3x3 cube last year, the GAN Robot is the perfect next step to develop their problem solving skills. My students will take what they learned last year (all of the algorithms for solving different layers of the cube) and apply them to programming the robot. The smart cube and robot are synced together and operate via an app that lets students program the robot to scramble or solve the cube, learn new algorithms, and even practice for competitions!
When I introduced the robot and smart cube to students, there was a collective gasp and then cries of "That's so cool!" "How did it do that?" "Look! The picture of the cube on the app is mirroring the robot!" "It's so fast, but I think I can beat its time if I practice really hard!" We've got a lot to learn about all of the functions on the app, but students are chomping at the bit to figure it out and even teach their teacher a thing or two!
I can't wait to see all the ways my 5th graders discover how to program the robot and my 4th graders can't wait to learn how to solve the cube. They're even more eager to learn so they can experiment with the GAN robot and smart cube! Thank you so much for giving my students the opportunity to be creative problem solvers!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Barefoot
This classroom project was brought to life by SONIC Drive-In and 7 other donors.Challenge Accepted!
Funded Apr 5, 2021Thank you so much for supporting our classroom! Your generosity makes it possible to reward my students when they achieve a goal they set for themselves. In our gifted classroom, students are working above grade level so I like to celebrate their achievements with a certificate of recognition and a prize in honor of all of their hard work. My students really look forward to report card time because they know they will get to celebrate each other's accomplishments as Challenge Masters. They are always so proud to have their picture taken for this milestone and the prize means that much more to them because they really earned it. You can see the pride in their eyes and the masks can't hide their grins. Thank you for helping me honor my students' hard work with these really cool games and prizes!
Our next challenge is learning how to solve a Rubik's Cube. My students are OBSESSED and I'm working on getting them a set of speed cubes, competition timers, and a special robot that can solve the cube!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Barefoot
Healthy Bodies, Healthy Minds!
Funded Aug 11, 2020Thank you so much for helping to make this unusual year a little safer for those of us in the classrooms. Elementary school students don't fully grasp the concept of social distancing and these clear plastic dividers are a great visual reminder to stay in their safe space. Each student has their own clearly marked workspace and I can see them from wherever I am in the room. As you can tell from their pictures, masks and screens can't dampen my students' enthusiasm for learning!
One of my major concerns for how Covid-19 would affect the gifted classroom was how to promote collaboration while enforcing social distancing. We do a lot of teamwork in our gifted classes and the clear screens allow students to sit at the same table to share ideas without sharing germs. Because I serve a different group of students each day of the week, having clearly marked workspaces for students that I can easily clean is crucial.
So many teachers have stopped by my room to ask where the screens came from and I am happy to tell them that they came from the generosity of Donors Choose contributors. Now that we can safely pursue team challenges, my students and I will embark on a series of "Cooper-titions" (cooperative competitions) with Rubik's cube tournaments, digital escape room challenges, and Team STEAM challenges. Thank you for making this year of learning safer for us!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Barefoot
This classroom project was brought to life by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and 5 other donors.Make Virtual Reality a Reality
Funded Sep 23, 2019I have to share a story with you. While writing thank you cards for this project, one of my students wrote, "Thank you for making my teacher less of a mess." !!! When I asked her to explain what she meant, the full impact of this project hit me. While my class is lucky to have a class set of state-of-the-art Virtual Reality headsets, we had none of the oh-so-important accessories, like a place to store and charge the rather bulky headsets. I had been keeping them in the original packaging on the top shelf of my closet and charging them one at a time for hours after school. In order to run a VR session with my students, I had to climb on a chair to reach the shelf, pull out multiple boxes, rearrange chairs and tables, and get students situated. It was an ordeal! On top of all that, I was constantly asking students what number they were, because each headset has a remote that corresponds to it -- and they all look exactly alike! The VR sessions were exciting for my students, but they were stressful for me. Not anymore!
Thanks to your generosity, I am no longer a hot mess! The VR headsets are proudly displayed on a shelf in my classroom where they are easily accessible. Each mannequin head sports headphones and a headset, which are so easy to put on and take off. The multi-port USB charger cuts my charging time down from hours to minutes. While the storage and charging components have made the biggest difference for me, my students' favorite part is the protective skins that now decorate the headsets and remotes. Each skin is unique, making it easy to pair headsets and remotes. Even better, they look awesome and each student has their favorite look -- from cat eyes to shark teeth, there's something for everyone.
My students and I can now experience the full benefits of Virtual Reality: we've traveled to the Australian Outback, compared ancient Egypt to modern Egypt with Google Expeditions, ridden a roller coaster while being chased by a T-Rex, and studied the threatened ocean ecosystem of the California coast. Where are we going next? Thanks to you, there's no limit to where we can go now!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Barefoot
This classroom project was brought to life by An Anonymous Funder and 11 other donors.Windows to the World
Funded Jan 1, 2018Do you remember that time in elementary school when you got to wear pajamas for a classroom party? What about the time your teacher demonstrated a baking soda and vinegar volcano in science class? And what about the time you walked into your gifted classroom and saw birds, hot air balloons -- and a sea turtle?!?! -- looking down on you from above? There are a few memories that stick with us because they capture a moment in time that was filled with wonder and joy. When my students walked into our classroom the morning after our Skypanels were installed, their normal boisterousness and chit chat stopped suddenly, followed by gasps and exclamations: "How did you do that?!" "When did we get windows?" " Uh, Ms. Barefoot, are we underwater?" Our gifted classroom may not be a literal portal to other worlds, but that's the feeling I wanted to evoke with this project and I think it succeeded!
My students get to choose where to sit for certain activities, and since our Skypanels were installed many students have exchanged their favorite spots for a new location that lets them gaze at their preferred world: hot air balloons for my dreamers, birds for my animal lovers, and sea turtles for my creative kids who enjoy humorous juxtapositions. Sometimes we turn off all of the other lights in the room and just bask in the warm glow of the "outdoors." The Skypanels are one of the first things visitors to our classroom notice, and everyone leaves with a smile because who wouldn't love a room that reflects the creativity and sky-high dreams of its students?
We're currently using our creativity and computer coding skills to learn how to program the Ozobot robots we earned through a previous Donors Choose project. Students are using both static and flash color codes to navigate their team's robot through a series of maze challenges. Once we master the basics, we're going to unleash our creativity to teach our robots how to dance! And if we ever feel stuck or need inspiration, all we have to do is look up!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Barefoot
Computer Coding Comes to Life with Robots!
Funded May 5, 2017My students LOVE computer coding. Learning a new language (it really is!) and a new skill was intimidating to me as a teacher, but I had to meet my students' passion and interests. It didn't make sense to teach them the traditional way when all around me was evidence of their digital life: smart phones, apps, computer games, video games, Minecraft. Luckily, Code.org and Google CS First sponsored free coding curriculum for K-12 students and I was able to dive in and learn along with them. Of course, just when I was getting comfortable with the new technology, my students surpassed me and were ready to take their coding skills to the next level: real world applications. What's a teacher with highly intelligent and super passionate students to do? Robots!
The Ozobot robots are the perfect next step for my students because they use the same programming language my students have become familiar with. But rather than testing out their code on a screen, students can watch their robots perform their commands in real life -- successfully or otherwise. The great thing about programming robots is that when a student's program "fails" (the robot runs into a wall, for example) the students don't see it as a failure. They laugh at their mistakes (who wouldn't laugh at a robot doing something silly?) and eagerly search for the bug to correct it. When they see someone else's robot execute a cool move, they cheer their classmates on and then want to top it themselves. Robots are a great way to teach problem solving, team work, and perseverance in addition to coding. Even the few students who didn't love computer coding as much as their classmates are excited about the robots -- the reward is more immediate and tangible and they're eager to master the skills they need to make their robot do cool stuff, like flash colors, or solve a maze, or race another robot to the finish line.
And so, thank you. Thank you for your generosity, for donating money to my classroom so that my students can experiment with robots and take their computer programming skills to the next level with real world applications. And thank you for your kindness, because the most important lesson my students will learn from this project is not how to program robots -- it's that people care about them and are invested in their education. I hope they grow up and remember playing with robots in elementary school and will want to pay that kindness forward to the next generation.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Barefoot
Hour of Code - Lifetime of Learning
Funded Dec 29, 2015As adults, we are constantly plugged into the world around us: we check our emails, news apps, social apps, and productivity apps as soon as we wake up until we go to sleep at night. Our children are being raised in this world but until recently they had to endure an 8-hour blackout period every day at school where they were supposed to learn what they needed to be successful in life. Of course this doesn't make sense; we live in a digital, connected world and this is how our students learn best. With Chromebooks and Google Apps for Education (GAFE), educators and students can engage with the wider world: with more current information than outdated and expensive textbooks can provide, with more ways to connect with peers and experts outside of the school building, and with more ways to show what they have learned.
For example, I use the Google Classroom online platform to present assignments to students. This assignment could take the form of a hyperdoc with text, images, and links to interactive websites. Students read, listen, and click their way through this information presented in different learning formats. Students then pick a subtopic of particular interest to them and get into groups. Group members do not have to be in the same class because they can collaborate online. Student groups synthesize the information I've shared with them and conduct further research if necessary. Then they pick a presentation method: infographic, slideshow, virtual bulletin board, video, podcast, the options are limited only their willingness to try something new. No longer do students stand up in front of their bored peers reading from a sheet of paper; their work is published to the class website and shared with the world. There is a growing community of students and educators around the world who are looking to collaborate with other schools to work together on projects. Having access to technology was the only thing preventing us from joining this brave new world of learning and creating.
With the purchase of 45 Chromebooks, teachers at my school are able to check out carts of laptops for their students to use in class. Students are excited to use technology in school because it's how they think and interact in real life and it's how they learn best. More and more teachers are redesigning their lesson plans and activities now that they have more access to technology. Any time students walk into a class and see the Chromebook cart is a good day.
I began this school year by taking my students on once-a-week 40-minute visits to the computer lab to introduce computer coding to them. It was never enough time: it took us 18 weeks to complete an 8-day coding unit and even then they wanted more. Now that my students have Chromebooks in class, they are creating their own computer games, slideshow presentations, and research projects. This is the first year my 4th and 5th grade students were exposed to computer science. With the Hour of Code event in December, all of the students in my school in grades K-5 were introduced to coding. This spring my school district joined a pilot program to incorporate computer science into the elementary school curriculum. Things are changing quickly and I am so excited that my students are not being left behind; they are leading the way with technology.
I am really excited for several of my female students. They aren't into dance or clothes or the other popular pastimes of many girls and seemed to hang back quietly on the fringes. They came alive when they started creating computer programs using the Scratch platform. Vivi's unique sense of humor really started to shine; quiet Sophie stepped up as a leader helping classmates fix their programming bugs; and Camrynn became so engaged that she spearheaded a weeklong visit from a computer scientist to teach advanced coding skills. I can truly envision several of my students successfully becoming computer programmers. Most of these students would never have realized their skills in this area without the exposure to technology in elementary school.
I'm also encouraged when I see the younger students using Chromebooks. Several of our students come from families where reading isn't emphasized. They're not used to books and come to school at a disadvantage. Using technology is more familiar to them because their parents have smartphones or tablets. In fact, most of our students already know how to use these devices before they come to school to learn how to read and write with pencil and paper. Using Chromebooks in the classroom is helping Kindergarten, first and second grade teachers meet students with a wide variety of backgrounds where they're at and pull them up to where they need to be. Using Chromebooks feels like playing to the students and makes the hard work of learning easier.
I cannot thank you enough for supporting me, my students, and my school as we work together to develop 21st century skills.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Barefoot
This classroom project was brought to life by Disney and 4 other donors.STEM Magazines for Gifted Students
Funded Jun 1, 2015"The students reading this magazine could be the first Mars explorers." That sentence in the first article we read in our new class subscription to Super Science and Dyna Math magazines sparked something in my students. For the first time they could see themselves as promising future scientists with the talent and skills to achieve something truly historic. As we delved deeper into both magazines' articles on space exploration, students asked more and more questions. What is it like on Mars? Where is Mars in relation to Earth? When will humans be able to travel to Mars? Why would people want to leave the safety of Earth to take such a risk? But most importantly, they asked Who: Who will be remembered as a visionary explorer like Christopher Columbus or Neil Armstrong?
The Super Science article made them realize the need for educated people with strong skills in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and math) and some of the career possibilities waiting for them outside of school. The Dyna Math article helped them connect what they are currently learning in school (place value and exponents) with how it can be used in the real world. We spent hours discussing, imagining, and problem solving -- all from two articles in our first two issues. I am pairing the magazines with hands-on STEM challenges for my students to design and build models as they learn to become critical thinkers and creative problem solvers. I truly believe next month's magazines will open up yet another topic of inquiry for my students and get them excited about their futures.
Thank you for your generosity in funding my classroom project. With our class subscriptions to Super Science and Dyna Math magazines, we are able to dive deeply into engaging and challenging topics that are ignored or glossed over in the regular education classroom. I have the best and brightest students in my gifted classes and to see them excited about learning gives me hope for the future.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Barefoot