Past projects 11
We're Going Live!
Funded Mar 21, 2025Thank you so much for funding my students and their livestream project.
They love running the livestreams during concerts and performances. The new Ifwater cameras will give them the ability to pan and zoom! The new Atem board will allow us to livestream announcements and podcast episodes!
We’re looking forward to upgrading our media hub and producing even greater livestreams. And it’s all thanks to your generosity.
Thank you once again!”
With gratitude,
Mr. DeMeno
Full STEAM Ahead Into the Natural World
Funded Sep 20, 2023Thank you for supporting my students in their outdoor learning and the formation of their outdoor classroom.
Students have been using their digital binoculars both in our school's outdoor learning space and on nature field trips! They chose a tall tree to hang their bat box from. We are keeping an eye on it for guests.
Students also love the large tank that they keep their red eared slider and painted turtle in. The lid you provided helps stop little hands from getting in the tank as well as holds the heat emitter for the turtles to bask under. The turtles live in the school library so they get lots of visitors every day. students have learned about native and invasive species with our school turtles as the starting point.
We have refurbished our media hub and the next step is to set up our weather system as well as our trail cameras in front of the window bird feeder and bat box. Students love all the resources that you provided and are learning so much from them.”
With gratitude,
Mr. DeMeno
This classroom project was brought to life by The DonorsChoose Community and 2 other donors.You Got Game
Funded Mar 25, 2024Thank you for supporting my students and their E-Sports Gaming Room. The addition of a Meta Quest 3 has been great for the learners.
Students now have 3 VR stations that they are able to set up for one another. They help one another adjust the pro-head strap that you donated. This allows for easy switching of users and comfort while playing. They are able to maintain the headsets by disinfecting the straps between use. Some of these games are sweaty work! Students have learned to take turns with the devices and guide one another in proper usage of the headsets.
By far the most popular game has been VR boxing, which gives the students a great physical workout. They have also tried engineering games, cart racing, escape rooms, fishing, kayaking, and virtual photography. All of this is giving them great learning experiences combined with 21st century skills! They are also getting reinforcement of the need to try again when they fail.
Students also helped decorate the Game Lab with the stickers you provided. There is a nice Super Mario theme running across our storage cabinets that were placed by the video game club. Thank you again for the generous donations that gave my students these awesome resources!”
With gratitude,
Mr. DeMeno
I Choo-Choo Choose You
Funded Feb 17, 2024Thank you for your generous support of my students and their codeable-train project. The students love working with the Intelino trains!
We started with simple track designs and creating a loop for the trains to run. Some students opened their loop immediately to see if they could code a stop command correctly. We had a few fun "crashes" but quickly debugged the code and tried again.
After the loop we added tunnels as train stations. The students were able to code a stop and go command to pick up "passengers". Next we added speed up commands on straight-aways and slow down for the curves. By this time all students were able to correctly place the correct code. We were also able to use the track adapters that connected the Intelino tracks to our wooden train tracks that we keep in the makerspace. This gives the students a lot more tracks to work with for even more complex designs.
The students really enjoy working with our Intelino trains! Thank you for generously supplying them with these great resources.”
With gratitude,
Mr. DeMeno
Ninten-Don't Miss out on E-Sports
Funded Nov 15, 2024Thank you for supporting my students in their E-Sports Game Room. Thanks to your generosity, more students able to participate in the game room. Students are working together to problem solve, having friendly competitions, and using the technology to learn (even though they may not even realize it at the time).
Recently, we used our new Nintendo Switches and controllers to do go on virtual fishing trips and explore nature. My school also hosted a Community STEM night in which all of our STEM clubs were amongst STEM professionals. Students set up a few Nintendo on our monitors and one on a large SMART Board. They helped members of the public build in Minecraft, play Super Smash Brothers, and race in Mario Kart.
Our gaming club is a huge success and filled to capacity!
Thank you for all your support in making it happen.”
With gratitude,
Mr. DeMeno
This classroom project was brought to life by Young Sheldon and 10 other donors.We Re"Quest' VR!
Funded Feb 20, 2025Thank you for supporting my students and their Gaming E-Sports room! The kids are very excited to dive into virtual reality. The additional Meta Quest 3 will allow more students time on VR where we can play digital sports, take virtual tours, participate in virtual experiments, and of course game. I look forward to sharing their experience with you. Thank you once again for your generosity.”
With gratitude,
Mr. DeMeno
3D Printing Station
Funded Sep 12, 2023Thank you for supporting my classroom's new 3D print station. Last year the technology lab was updated, but I had no where to store our 3D printers.
The new shelves that you provided hold our printers, extra filament, and tools. The shelves fit nicely behind a row of work stations which keeps the printers out of reach from my curious younger learners. Our printers are still a noticeable aspect of the technology lab which touring parents are always impressed by. We were able to print thumb sticks and holders for our E-sports game room to help make games more accessible and easier to play for some students.
We are about to start this year's 3d print unit this term which my students have been looking forward to all year. Thank you for your support which allows my students access to cutting edge technology!”
With gratitude,
Mr. DeMeno
This classroom project was brought to life by Young Sheldon on CBS and 5 other donors.Moving with Speedometry!
Funded Oct 2, 2024Thank you for supporting my students' Hot Wheels Project. Students in my Kindergarten through 2nd autistic support class have used the new resources and loved the experience!
My learners worked together to build courses for their cars using the new clamps to hold their tracks to their tables. They released the cars with their new race gate and successfully got their cars to run through loops. They also used one of their new suspension bridge and were able to build enough momentum to get their cars from one table to another.
Other students who observed the lesson from the hallway expressed their interest and are excited to start learning using Hot Wheels. Thanks to your generosity, energy and motion became much more exciting things to learn about for my students.”
With gratitude,
Mr. DeMeno
Lets Make Music Vidiyos!
Funded Aug 22, 2022Thank you for supporting our STEAM program with the donations of LEGO VIDIYO sets, tripods, and iPad adapters.
Our STEM Music Club students loved building the sets. Students worked individually on small sets and as partners on the larger sets. We still have a few more sets to complete. The students were anxious to film the music videos and tested the app using the tripods and iPad adapters that you so generously gave them.
Our club has grown since we started using the LEGO kits! Once the word got out that students were using LEGO and doing augmented reality music videos, students asked to join.
Not only did your donations excite our students it helped expose more students to STEM learning and art integration!
Thank you once again!”
With gratitude,
Mr. DeMeno
This classroom project was brought to life by Spotify and 2 other donors.Learning About Energy With Hot Wheels
Funded Aug 3, 2021Thank you for supporting our Hot Wheels homemade "Speedometry" kits. My students love learning about force and motion, but the addition of Hot Wheels has really elevated their interest and excitement!
So far our school K-5 morning Makerspace club has experimented with the new equipment. They were able to construct loops and make predictions about which cars would shoot the loop and roll the farthest.
I also took our 3rd-5th grade autistic support classroom to the Makerspace to work with the Hot Wheels. These special needs students were able to work on their social skills of sharing, communication, and collaboration as they built their courses. Working with familiar and exciting toys allowed them to be comfortable using social skills that some of them otherwise struggle with. They learned about potential energy as they set their launchers up and kinetic energy as they watched their cars roll. We then added some curved pieces to our courses to expend the energy and watch the cars roll to a safe stop.
The fourth grade classes will begin their energy unit soon and the Hot Wheels kits will be there for their experimentation and education. The students have been eyeing the kits since we received them and now that they have seen some clubs and classes work with them they are all the more excited to learn. Thank you for providing them with this great opportunity!”
With gratitude,
Mr. DeMeno