Past projects 13
Amplifying Student Voices, Part III
Funded Apr 7, 2021Thank you very much for the kind and generous contribution of USB headsets with microphones. In a COVID world, education is a little different from normally. My computer classes are now no longer taught in a computer lab, with desktops computers, headsets, printers, etc., for everyone. Instead, my students are learning computer science in a variety of classrooms, including a repurposed Teacher's Cafeteria! The headsets will allow my students to focus their attention on their work, whether it is instructional videos or on the sounds created in their programs.
Thank you once again for your generosity!”
With gratitude,
Mr. Larkin
Please Help Make Our Reams Come True! (Part 2)
Funded Oct 24, 2019Thank you again for your generous contributions! Each morning, the computer lab is abuzz with activity- students printing homework, notes, lab reports, essays, projects, sometimes even their own student-created study guides and tests.
Just this week, I have seen students producing work on enzymes, women's suffrage, the impeachment of President Trump, To Kill a Mockingbird, and many more topics. I have also created visual word walls for my units on Lego Robotics and programming in Python at Codesters.com.
Thank you again for making this possible for the students in my school!”
With gratitude,
Mr. Larkin
This classroom project was brought to life by An anonymous classroom supporter and 2 other donors.Make Learning Audible: Amplifying Student Voices (Part II)
Funded Aug 13, 2019Thank you for your generous contribution to our computer classroom! The students love using the headphones (even if some are too shy to use the microphones). My students have used them to watch educational videos at Brainpop, to watch the videos I post at vimeo.com of the work we do in class, and to do coding activities at code.org, Google grasshopper, codecombat.com and other sites.
In a week, we will be hosting an open house for prospective students and their families. Due to my own family commitments, I cannot attend. But, thanks to your generous contributions, my students have been able to record their programming work, and prospective students and their parents will be able to see and hear what my students are learning in class. One student even recorded her screencast in Korean for the benefit of the ESL students who will be joining us next year!
This experience provides my students with a chance to document their learning while having fun. I am especially grateful that your contribution allowed us to purchase supplies that we can use again next year. Thank you for helping my students!”
With gratitude,
Mr. Larkin
This classroom project was brought to life by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and 7 other donors.Role-Playing for Social Emotional Learning
Funded Apr 28, 2019Thank you for your generous contribution to our Dungeons and Dragons Club! It has been a big hit with my students. The first day, we had 6 students- within weeks, nearly 30! Dungeons and Dragons lets my students develop problem solving and social skills in the context of a game.
Playing Dungeons and Dragons sparked great discussions about ethics. For example, the students captured a goblin who had attacked civilians. Students had to discuss what to do with their captive. Some kids were ready to kill the goblin, but they discussed it until they agreed it was better to arrest him and turn him over to the authorities. Later, the students encountered wolves chained in a cave. Rather than fight the wolves, my middle school adventurers decided to try feeding the wolves as the first step towards taming them and befriending them.
This experience provides my students with a chance to work on social emotional skills while having fun. I am especially grateful that your contribution allowed us to purchase supplies that we can use again next year. Thank you for helping my students!”
With gratitude,
Mr. Larkin
Make Learning Audible: Amplifying Student Voices
Funded Mar 5, 2019The USB headsets are helping my students record their answers and reflections to our digital work, in addition to allowing them to listen to recordings I make or video demonstrations on the websites we use.
The students are especially excited about making recordings of their voices to use as sound files in our Scratch programs. In our Game Design event next month, the students will also be able to record sound effects for their games. Next year, my students will be able to create their own educational films at Brainpop.com.
Thank you once again for you generous contribution!”
With gratitude,
Mr. Larkin
Please Help Make Our Reams Come True!
Funded Feb 16, 2019Thank you again for your generous contributions! Each morning, the computer lab is abuzz with activity- students printing homework, notes, lab reports, essays, projects, sometimes even their own student-created study guides and tests.
Just this week, I have seen students producing 7-page reviews of Elie Wiesel's NIGHT, poems (some they had written themselves), diagrams of the endocrine system, lab reports on strawberries, and an autobiography.
Thank you again for making this possible for the students in my school!”
With gratitude,
Mr. Larkin
Gamestar Mechanics- Building Tomorrow's Engineers
Funded Oct 1, 2018Thank you for your generous contribution to our Game Star Mechanic licenses! It has been a big hit with my students. Everyone from my most advanced students to the beginner ELLs who speak and read little English have been thoroughly engaged from the 1st moment! Game Star Mechanic lets my children take their passion for video gaming and turn it into something constructive and academically rigorous.
The first day my most difficult class logged into their accounts, the students were too busy with their work to get into any mischief! Students who struggle to concentrate or stay focused were locked in immediately, and some of my most challenging students were even able to flex their problem-solving muscles and work ahead of my class pacing schedule. Children whom I have to speak to about behavior issues every day stay at their workstation, thoroughly engaged. Some students even went ahead of my schedule by working at home on their own!
This experience provides my students with a chance to learn while having fun. Students who are reluctant to work or have trouble working show no trouble digging right into Game Star Mechanic. I am especially grateful that your contribution allowed us to purchase lifetime licenses for my students, so that they continue their work when class is over. Thank you for helping my students choose to become lifelong learners!”
With gratitude,
Mr. Larkin
Real-World Technology Application for a Gifted and Talented Class
Funded Mar 17, 2017Thank you very much for your generous donation! My students are extremely grateful for the opportunity you have given them. They have taken to Python coding so enthusiastically and quickly that I am having trouble keeping up with them myself.
Your generosity has made it possible for my students to go beyond the traditional middle school computer science curriculum. As 7th grade Gifted and Talented students in a high-poverty district, they are now working on high-school level computer science. They are no longer dragging-and-dropping pictures that represent code, but are creating the code themselves.
I have uploaded some photos of their code (and how the code is rendered on-screen) as they created digital thank-you notes to you.
Thank you again for your generosity!”
With gratitude,
Mr. Larkin
Building a Future: Training the Architects of Tomorrow
Funded Dec 8, 2009Thank you very much for your generous gift. My classes enjoyed working with the architects' tools and produced wonderful scale models of buildings, such as Yahkchals, Zoroastrian Fire Temples and Wind-catchers from Yazd, Iran.
Through your generosity, my wonderful 6th graders had the opportunity to do hands-on work across the curriculum. Our scale models of architecture from medieval Persia tapped into their knowledge in social studies (geography of Iran, religions of Iran), math (proportion, measuring), ELA (non-fiction research, written presentations) and science (convection- some of our buildings are based on icehouses and medieval air-conditioning systems).My students loved rolling up their sleeves and working hands-on, putting together the beautiful models displayed on this project page, in an activity they will remember for years, developing skills they will use for years.
Thank you once again for your very generous support of my 6th grade classes and future architects!”
With gratitude,
Mr. Larkin
Having a Ball With Geography - Inflatable Globes
Funded Sep 25, 2009Thank you very much for your generosity! The beach-ball globes were a big hit with all of my classes. They thoroughly enjoy any activity that is hands-on, and this was an opportunity to let everyone have their own globe for activities such as reading latitude and longitude, understanding climate zones, and locating continents and oceans. There are plenty of textbook passages and questions on these topics, but I know the children appreciated being able to do real hands-on work, rather than memorizing facts.
Because every child had their own globe to use, I was also to plan special enrichment activities that would have been impossible otherwise, such as how to use a globe to plan flightpaths- airline flightpath make no sense on a flat map, but do on a 3D globe. It was a fun activity that was also very challenging, and in the end they were able to understand something that would never have made sense otherwise.
Their eyes light up every time I take the beach-ball globes out of the closet, and since they are inflatable, I don't have to worry about where to store 30 globes!
Thank you again for your very generous gift!”
With gratitude,
Mr. Larkin