Past projects 147
Help Us Engineer Robots!
Funded Dec 30, 2013It's been a long school year. Now that the weather is getting nicer and days are getting longer, both the students and I are in a reflective mood. As we've been looking back on the year, one of the highlights that comes up again and again is how this has been the year of the robot. Your donation was a highlight for some of my students most in need of something to help them get comfortable with English, and with those students further along in their development, but needing a challenge.
We've been tinkering at all times of the day, which was one of my goals when I requested this resource. Before school many students are here early but aren't willing to do do school work. By giving them a robotics kit to build and program its been a low pressure, low stakes way for them and I to talk, and for them to forge friendships with one another. Others prefer to tinker during study halls and lunch periods, and still others have come to my after-school club to learn the ins and outs of how to make something with these kits. What they've been learning is how to use English with me and one another. They've learned how to use their hands to build something they've imagined. They've learned how to bounce back from setbacks when they put it together incorrectly or when their vision doesn't represent the reality of what they've made. A few have even started to ask, "Now what?" and begun to build and program completely original designs.
This robotics kit is the ultimate tool for beginners and experts, providing opportunities for growth to everyone, including me. Now that I've started to see the challenges students have and the interests they express, I am already planning for how to use these kits next year.
Thank you for providing us with such a wonderful tool that will inspire my students and I for years to come.”
With gratitude,
Mr. Wolf
Help Us Engineer Robots!
Funded Dec 26, 2013It's been a long school year. Now that the weather is getting nicer and days are getting longer, both the students and I are in a reflective mood. As we've been looking back on the year, one of the highlights that comes up again and again is how this has been the year of the robot. Your donation was a highlight for some of my students most in need of something to help them get comfortable with English, and with those students further along in their development, but needing a challenge.
We've been tinkering at all times of the day, which was one of my goals when I requested this resource. Before school many students are here early but aren't willing to do do school work. By giving them a robotics kit to build and program its been a low pressure, low stakes way for them and I to talk, and for them to forge friendships with one another. Others prefer to tinker during study halls and lunch periods, and still others have come to my after-school club to learn the ins and outs of how to make something with these kits. What they've been learning is how to use English with me and one another. They've learned how to use their hands to build something they've imagined. They've learned how to bounce back from setbacks when they put it together incorrectly or when their vision doesn't represent the reality of what they've made. A few have even started to ask, "Now what?" and begun to build and program completely original designs.
This robotics kit is the ultimate tool for beginners and experts, providing opportunities for growth to everyone, including me. Now that I've started to see the challenges students have and the interests they express, I am already planning for how to use these kits next year.
Thank you for providing us with such a wonderful tool that will inspire my students and I for years to come.”
With gratitude,
Mr. Wolf
All A-Board! Science Fair Presenters Need Boards!
Funded Dec 30, 2013How does one know there is excitement in the air? To me, there is a sight, a sound, and and even a smell (mostly marker and glue stick) that tells me students are excited. This past week, my room was a hive of activity of students designing and cutting the pieces to be mounted on the presentation boards you provided. When all was said and done, they brought these slick new boards, now transformed, and showed them off to educators, administrators, scientists, and importantly, other students at our annual network-wide science fair.
After practicing presentations earlier this year on some very used and very worn old poster boards, I introduced the new boards to them last week . To my surprise I got quite a few "Ooohs" and "Aaaahs" and in one class a brief round of applause. I get excited about little stuff like this, but I was surprised how much my students appreciate having brand new boards on which to show off their work.
After conducting their own experiments a couple of months ago and presenting them within the school on the old boards, kids were extremely excited that now they got to travel to a local science fair, not only to show off what they can do, but look good doing it, as well! They were nervous from the attention, but once they warmed up, were beaming that they were showing off work that was not only hard-won, but also looked great. I'm extremely proud that they had the confidence to prepare and the courage to follow through with what can be a nerve-wracking experience.
This can only be a stepping stone for these budding scientists as they conduct more original research and practice putting themselves and their work out there for all the world to see. Your contribution led to the confidence they needed to do it. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts.”
With gratitude,
Mr. Wolf
This classroom project was brought to life by Quill.com and one other donor.GPS for Mapping our New Home
Funded Sep 4, 2013Thank you so much for your generous donation of the GPS receiver. As you can see from our photos, we've used the GPS to do field work around our school, sampling soil invertebrates. Whereas before we would have engaged in a bit of guesswork as to exactly where our samples came from, now we have a pinpoint accurate data point we can enter on a map.
The students you see using the receiver are a special group, all part of an elective class on surveying and preserving biodiversity. The experience they have in this class will hopefully lead them to consider careers in conservation and biology. Having the real tools of the trade make the experience more meaningful and more memorable. Your generosity helped make this possible. I hope you will continue supporting students in pursuing their potential by continuing to be part of wonderful organizations like Donorschoose.org.”
With gratitude,
Mr. Wolf
This classroom project was brought to life by Kia Motors America and one other donor.Inspire Brainstorms with Mindstorms
Funded Jun 25, 2013A few months ago, a group of students doing homework after school noticed a new box on my desk. It was the robotics kit you provided for us, arrived only a few hours earlier. Before I could explain what it was, they had taken it out of the box, and started asking if they could put it together. I said, sure, why not? Within 45 minutes, this small group had a working robotic car zooming around my classroom asking me question after question - "Can we make it go faster?" "Can it turn around?" "Does it go back and forth?" From here it's only gotten more interesting.
My after-school club is a revolving cast of students, some come for a few weeks, others I can count on week after week. What they've all got in common is that they are really excited about what new thing they can add or tweak to our creations. So, it's hard to say which one student or students are responsible for the programmed vehicles we pull out every Thursday afternoon. "Who put that tire on front?" "How did she make it back away from the wall?" The overall result is far beyond my expectations - kids are really excited about working with this tool.
As my students are learning about robotics and engineering, so am I. And, as more students gain interest thanks to your donation, I am encountering questions that I am not yet equipped to teach. Here's where it gets fun for the students and for me! My next goal now is to continue building capacity at our school - acquiring a few more kits so a growing number of students can build and program their own creations. I'm not exactly sure where this will all take us, but I am certain it looks to be a fun trip.
Thank you for your incredible generosity and for jumpstarting our foray into robotics and programming. I hope you will continue supporting kids through Donorschoose. Please enjoy the photos of our hard (and fun) work. My students and I all wish you a happy holiday and new year!”
With gratitude,
Mr. Wolf
Save Our Work! USBs Drives for College-Bound English Learners
Funded Aug 2, 2012Happy holidays to everyone at your organizations who helped bring these USB drives to our school. I want to start by expressing my sincere thanks for all that this means for my students and our classes. When I first opened the box of these drives in class, it was met with a lot of "oohs" and "aahs". Part of the reason for this is that my students are, for the most part, technology obsessed, and these are another thing to "have" along with a cell phone or an Xbox. This is an important starting point, but where I really got the important reactions came soon after when we started using these drives in class.
As my students were planning online presentations of their bean-plant experiments last month, the groups realized the power of these tiny tools for driving academic success. In the past I have had a headache of everyone needing to do work in class, and ONLY in class. For instance, if their images are on my camera, they needed to download, sort, and upload all in the one hour a day I have for teaching. If they were writing a lab report, it only took place on the classroom computer during class because that is where they saved it.
These USBs extended the school day and allowed me to teach more. Groups were downloading their images from the classroom camera in a minute or two, then incorporating them during study halls, at lunch, after school, and even 1 or 2 students at 2:00 AM (I had a talk with those students about the importance of sleep). Instead of 3 or 4 days of typing reports in class, the same thing happened, and we only needed 2 days. My students learned an incredible lesson about how learning doesn't stop when the bell rings, or even at the door of the school. At this stage of their academic careers, this was a revelation for many.
I am excited that with the new year will come new challenges for my students, as well as new opportunities. As they plan their semester portfolio presentations in the next few weeks, they will find it easier to do since so much of their work is backed up on their USB. They will only need to cut and copy relevant pieces into the larger masterwork they are creating for their presentations. It will be easier, now, as well as 3 years from now as they plan graduation portfolios and send samples of their work to internship opportunities and even colleges.
Thank you for bringing this tool for opportunity to my students. While this year's crop of kids is now prepared for the road ahead, I am already thinking about next year. With new students will come a new need for these tools again. I hope you will consider donating to my classroom again next year when I once again ask for these incredibly powerful little drives. Regardless of whether you continue to support my class and Donorschoose, though, I wish you and your families all of the best for the coming new year.”
With gratitude,
Mr. Wolf
This classroom project was brought to life by Wells Fargo and one other donor.Planning for Success...With Planners!
Funded Jul 19, 2012First of all, Happy Holidays to all of you. This week, after a few days of solid sleep, food, and merriment with family, I am a refreshed teacher who is finally catching up on all of the things I neglect during the rush of the school year. The irony of this is that I am not taking care of priorities like this letter sooner because I am not better planned!
My students on the other hand certainly are. The planners you donated this summer have been a key part of our routines from the first day students received them. Now, when I say "get your permission slips in by Tuesday," about 40% of the class opens their planner to write it down. When I then say, "Write it down," another 45-50% do so. I would like to say that every student is keeping track of every event in their planners, but the reality is never perfect. I have 2 or 3 students in each class who still don't remember where they put their planner (arrgh!). Peer pressure and my always handy stack of post-its gets these few to catch up and write it down someplace they will remember. Some even remembered to bring their planner in the next day.
Compared to where we used to be, keeping track of assignments has never been better. I still get my fair share of late work and "what homework?" but it is far less frequent than the days before these planners came into our classes. I have used it as a tool to teach my English Language learners days of the week, months, and numbers. Students who never had a planner before are using it as their record of what they have done and what is coming up. It is tangible proof of the work they have done and the things they have accomplished. I even plan on students using it as an artifact in the coming weeks as they compile their semester portfolio presentations - a comprehensive record of their learning these last 4 months. The best part is, other teachers have seen the power of this tool and are also asking students to utilize it in their classes. Now it is the norm that we keep a plan of our days and weeks, and not merely the territory of a few well-organized students.
I know I said in my proposal that this is not the most exciting thing teachers are asking for on Donorschoose. It is, however a foundation from which to build the more exciting stuff - big projects, group presentations, applying for the art program at the local museum, and eventually graduation and college. I hope I can convey that sense of how fundamental and profound this donation was for my students and their futures. You are now a part of something big - the future (and not just the homework due next week!). From my students and I, have a wonderful remaining holiday and a wonderful new year.”
With gratitude,
Mr. Wolf
This classroom project was brought to life by Wells Fargo and 2 other donors.This Solar Event Truly Is Once In A Lifetime
Funded Apr 22, 2012The history surrounding the transit of Venus is astounding. In 1760, Guillaume Le Gentil, a French astronomer set out by ship to observe and measure the transit of Venus from India. Due to the breakout of war between Britain and France, his ship was turned back, and he did not make it in time for the June, 1761 transit. Instead of enduring the long journey back to France he stayed in the Philippines, then returned to India to observe the 1769 transit, the last until 1874. Prepared with telescopes and a newly established observatory, Le Gentil had clear skies the night before, but thick, heavy clouds all during the transit. Twice in 9 years he missed his only chances to see this event, first due to politics, next due to weather. Thankfully, my students had no international conflicts as they moved down to the school yard on June 5th. When we got there however, Le Gentil's second nemesis, clouds, awaited them.
To say the least, my students and I were disappointed that the weather here in the northeast prevented our view of the transit. It was however exciting and encouraging to see what they did with the day, both in the preparation and in the time we did have outside. All week and all day students would excitedly ask me about the announcements posted around school. I even had many volunteers to put together the solarscopes purchased through your donation - students who normally don't have much engagement with textbooks and homework really shone, taking the lead in some cases with constructing these sun viewers.
We tried viewing the sun for a few hours before the event was slated to happen at 6:00 PM, and several students stuck around for a while after that. Each time we waited for a peek of sun to come through the heavy cloud cover. In a day and age where instant gratification is the norm - TV, video games, ipods - it is sometimes difficult to keep students focused on a task for long. That they not only persisted through the difficulties of doing science, but had a good time doing it was affirming for me the power of informal science and citizen science. We had a few peaks of the sun - 1 minute here, 10 minutes there - and each time they stared at the sun with their glasses or ran to the solarscopes to make a clear projection. When the clouds reigned, or rained at some points, we all stuck it out, talking, chasing my 20 month old daughter around the yard, and using the iPad to view parts of the heavens invisible to us. Without the pressure of tests and school, science was just...fun!
We left the day disappointed not to see the event, but with the shared experience of having faced difficult conditions together. I told my students to eat well, exercise, and go to the doctor regularly so they might be around for the next transit in 2117, which is all they can do if they want to see this particular event in their lifetimes. Hopefully though this whets their appetite for more astronomy, and more days outside looking for more of the wonderful phenomena around us. We will certainly use the solarscopes and glasses for more observations, and the iPad for all of the wonderful simulations, ebooks, and other possibilities it holds. We may not have endured the trials of Le Gentil, but we certainly have a story and an experience to share thanks to your generosity. ”
With gratitude,
Mr. Wolf
Cameras for Learning English and Science
Funded Dec 28, 2011I always love writing these thank you letters. In my career and on a day to day basis, I have a long list of people - students, parents, colleagues, family - to thank for getting me to where I am today. Thanks to your donations to my classroom, my list has just gotten a bit longer.
Already these additional cameras have had an impact on my classes. Earlier this month, as part of a college readiness program, we were able to create 10 teams of students, each armed with their own camera for our scavenger hunt on college life at a nearby university. Upon arrival back at school, students spent the next advisory classes combing through a library of over 450 photos taken by themselves, to help create a visual portfolio of college. Many of my students are the first in their families to make it this far in their basic education, so researching college like this is essential to getting them educated and interested in what lies beyond graduation.
In Biology, we have used these cameras to document all of the many steps of our recent "Race...Is it Real?" DNA labs. We are using DNA to answer the question of race, and every student is writing their own scientific paper about their own DNA and their relatedness to others from our class and around the world. Doing the experiments only took a few days, but writing in depth about the experience required much more time. Photos of what they had done were the perfect way to use and reuse new vocabulary. There is also that extra bit of interest because these photos are not of strangers, but themselves and their own experiences. I can assure you that many of my students now have the same level of understanding of how to extract and amplify DNA that many students don't receive until they are well into their undergraduate education.
Your donations make a real and lasting impact on what and how I can teach. Please give yourself a pat on the back for making so many students' educations that much richer. With the crises in education we face today, it sometimes feels as if nothing is going right. Using these cameras to improve our work had and will continue to have an impact for years to come. Please enjoy the photos, all taken by my students with your cameras”
With gratitude,
Mr. Wolf
Cameras for Learning Science and English
Funded Dec 4, 2011I always love writing these thank you letters. In my career and on a day to day basis, I have a long list of people - students, parents, colleagues, family - to thank for getting me to where I am today. Thanks to your donations to my classroom, my list has just gotten a bit longer.
Already these additional cameras have had an impact on my classes. Earlier this month, as part of a college readiness program, we were able to create 10 teams of students, each armed with their own camera for our scavenger hunt on college life at a nearby university. Upon arrival back at school, students spent the next advisory classes combing through a library of over 450 photos taken by themselves, to help create a visual portfolio of college. Many of my students are the first in their families to make it this far in their basic education, so researching college like this is essential to getting them educated and interested in what lies beyond graduation.
In Biology, we have used these cameras to document all of the many steps of our recent "Race...Is it Real?" DNA labs. We are using DNA to answer the question of race, and every student is writing their own scientific paper about their own DNA and their relatedness to others from our class and around the world. Doing the experiments only took a few days, but writing in depth about the experience required much more time. Photos of what they had done were the perfect way to use and reuse new vocabulary. There is also that extra bit of interest because these photos are not of strangers, but themselves and their own experiences. I can assure you that many of my students now have the same level of understanding of how to extract and amplify DNA that many students don't receive until they are well into their undergraduate education.
Your donations make a real and lasting impact on what and how I can teach. Please give your self a pat on the back for making so many students' educations that much richer. With the crises in education we face today, it sometimes feels as if nothing is going right. Using these cameras to improve our work had and will continue to have an impact for years to come. Please enjoy the photos, all taken my my students with your cameras.”
With gratitude,
Mr. Wolf