Ms. Child's Classroom Edit display name

Past projects 7

• Here Comes the Sun (and Water!)

  Funded Apr 23, 2025

  I hope this message finds you well. I want to extend my gratitude for your generous contributions to our class’s science fair project. Your support has made a significant impact on our students' learning experiences as they design and build solar fountains.

  Thanks to your donations, we were able to purchase essential materials, including small water pumps, fountain parts, and decorations. This project has not only sparked creativity and teamwork among the students but has also deepened their understanding of renewable energy and environmental science.

  We are excited to showcase their hard work at the science fair, and it wouldn’t have been possible without your kindness and support. Thank you once again for believing in our students and their innovative ideas.”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Child

• Refresh My Science Classroom

  Funded Aug 26, 2024

  I wanted to take a moment to express my heartfelt gratitude for your generous donation to my classroom. Your support has made such a significant impact on my students, and I am excited to share some of the experiences that your contribution has helped bring to life. This fall, my students had the incredible opportunity to raise butterflies in the classroom, observing their metamorphosis firsthand. It was an unforgettable hands-on learning experience, sparking curiosity and wonder about the natural world. The students were engaged and excited as they cared for the caterpillars, and they were absolutely thrilled when the butterflies emerged, marking the culmination of their hard work and learning.

  Additionally, your donations allowed us to dive into two dynamic science projects that brought concepts to life in a meaningful way. In our kinetic energy project, students tested the effects of mass on kinetic energy by designing and conducting their own experiments, which not only reinforced core scientific principles but also encouraged teamwork and problem-solving. In another project, my students worked collaboratively to build and test model homes for Ukrainian refugees, applying their understanding of thermal energy. This project provided a valuable opportunity for them to connect their learning to real-world challenges, and they took great pride in knowing their work could potentially make a difference in others' lives.

  Beyond the projects themselves, your contributions have helped create a classroom environment where students are excited to come in every day. The warm, light, and welcoming atmosphere you've helped foster has made my classroom a space where students feel safe, inspired, and eager to learn. Former students often tell me they're jealous they didn't get to experience my classroom decorations when they were in 6th grade, and that's a testament to the positive, creative space we've cultivated together. Thank you again for making such a lasting impact on my students and their education. Your generosity truly makes a difference in their lives.”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Child

• Classroom Makeover!

  Funded Aug 22, 2023

  Thank you so much for your generous donations to my classroom. All of the new materials and resources have helped make my room a warm and friendly environment in which to learn and grow. Just this afternoon some of my former students stopped by to say hello, and they all admired the room! One student said, "I wish we had those chairs in my room!" Another student asked, "How come the room didn't look like this when I was in your class?" A third student remarked, "Wow, Ms. Child, your room looks WAY better!"

  Spending time in nature is very important to me, and I think the new plants, lights, and pastel decor provide some of that green energy to an otherwise urban environment. The students appreciate having new decorations and materials, and thus take on a sense of ownership over the classroom. They all volunteer to help clean the room, water the plants, and replace the lights when necessary.

  Thank you again from both myself and my students.”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Child

• Ecology for Everyone!

  Funded May 1, 2023

  Thank you so much for contributing to my project, "Ecology for Everyone!" Thanks to your generous donations, my students were able to put all of the scientific inquiry skills they'd been learning all year towards planning, implementing, and sharing their very own projects. Not only that, each project contained a component related to climate change and human impact on the environment. Our sustainability coordinator attended the science fair, and shared our project with district leadership, who were very impressed with the scope and rigor of the project!

  I think the biggest impact this project made was on my students' joy for learning and pride in their work. You can see this in some of the photos attached to this letter. As we all know, students learn differently, and take interest in different subjects. Sadly, many elementary schools in New York City leave out science in favor of extra math and English instruction, due to the pressures of state tests and school ratings. So for the first time, many of my students found their love of learning in science. Finally, they were excited to come to class and see the progress their plants made, or add more information to their presentations. Science was where they found joy in the day, in no small part thanks to your donations. I look forward to watching them continue to grow in science throughout the rest of their middle school career.”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Child

  This classroom project was brought to life by General Motors and 8 other donors.

• BrainPop for Differentiated Learning

  Funded Nov 12, 2021

  Thank you so much for helping me bring BrainPop to my classroom! It has been a huge hit with all my students! I have students on many different levels, some of whom don't speak a lot of English, and BrainPop has helped them all. I've been able to use the videos to enhance my lessons, providing very clear visuals of the information I'm teaching. Even more useful, I can assign videos and activities to individual students, so that they can work at their own pace and practice skills and content that they specifically need.

  Many students have told me their favorite BrainPop assignment was when they used it to conduct research for a science investigation of their choice. Each student conducted a research project about an energy resource they were most interested in. For each energy resource, I could put together virtual packets of relevant BrainPop videos, articles, and activities to build their background knowledge in highly engaging ways.

  Your support is invaluable to me and my students, thank you again! At Evergreen Middle School we strive to provide a safe, inclusive environment where students engage in an authentic, cultural, and inquiry-based exploration of the world in order to become agents of change. Your donation has brought us closer to accomplishing this mission.”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Child

  This classroom project was brought to life by Con Edison and 4 other donors.

• Natural Learning

  Funded Sep 7, 2015

  Thank you so much for your generous donations to my project "Natural Learning." The butterfly and plant kits have made a huge impact on my students' education, both in terms of their enjoyment of learning and how much they learned in such a short period of time. I wish you could have seen their faces when they first saw the caterpillars this fall- they were so excited! I was probably just as excited, because I've never experienced such authentic engagement with the scientific inquiry process. Unless you work with children a lot, it's easy to forget that developing your own research questions and experiment ideas actually takes quite a high level of thinking. Observing the caterpillars and butterflies clearly got their creative juices flowing. For the first time ever, the student idea board in my classroom quickly filled up with smart and interesting ideas to take their learning to the next level. We did far more with the butterflies than I even imagined, including raising a whole new generation of caterpillars in November! (Those ones had to be indoor pets, of course.)

  We just completed our long-term investigation with the plant kits. Because they had learned so much with the butterflies, the students were able to develop their own research questions and variables that they wanted to test. After planning their experiments and planting the seeds, the students measured the plants and made observations once a week for five weeks. At the end of that time, they analyzed their data, drew conclusions, and assessed the potential limitations of their projects. Last week they typed up their findings and made posters using a high school science fair template. Our district superintendent happened to come to our school the day they presented their posters, and she was very impressed with the quality of their work and passion for their projects. Without any additional preparation, the students were able to answer her challenging questions, including making predictions about what would happen to their plants if they introduced new variables into the environment.

  All of this experience has made them very excited for the upcoming science fair, where they get to create and carry out their own experiments. Thanks again for providing my students with such wonderful educational experiences, and making school a place they actually look forward to every day.”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Child

• "Hear" to Learn!

  Funded Jul 31, 2015

  Thank you so much for your generous donations to my "Hear to Learn" project this summer. Now that we have been in school for several months, I have been able to watch my students grow and blossom with the help of the headphones you provided us. There are dozens of ways I have seen the headphones enhance their education. For example, I have been able to target their learning based on individual needs. I have seen them become enthusiastic about learning even the most mundane topics. They feel pride every time they use the headphones because they know people out there care enough about them to think of them and give them those headphones.

  However, to me the most important impact the headphones have had is that they have helped the students know who they are as learners and take ownership of their education. Because of the headphones, I have been able to give them options in class for how they learn. For instance, in a recent project about ecosystems, students were able to conduct research using both videos and articles. The headphones allowed them to choose the resources they used and move at their own paces without disrupting each other. We've moved on to a unit about energy, but students still come to me on their own asking if they can watch a particular video (that they found on their own time) because it will help them learn the information better. Other students have asked if they can listen to music while they type their essays because it helps them to concentrate since they are musical learners. I even had a student create a PowerPoint presentation on his own time to reteach some information about energy that the students didn't understand the day before. He included both pictures and videos in the presentation because he said he understood that some students need more than just seeing the words.

  Another way in which the students have taken ownership of their learning is that one of my classes has started writing down ideas they find particularly interesting from the lessons. Then the next day they ask me if they can use the computers to research their ideas if they finish their work early. I don't know if you remember what it was like to be in middle school, but I consider a great feat when students ask if they can do extra work on their own, without even the offer of extra credit! And I don't think so many students would be this enthusiastic if they didn't get to experience using a variety of media to conduct research in the past, thanks to the headphones. I have to say, every year I do teach a brief lesson on learning styles to help students develop better study habits and tolerance for people who learn differently. But this is the first time I've ever seen that concept so deeply ingrained in them. I believe that the opportunities provided by using the headphones have given them a new understanding of what education can be. I look forward to seeing this type of growth and engagement for years to come as my students continue to benefit from your donation.”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Child