Past projects 24
The Housing Crisis: Class Pet Addition
Funded Mar 23, 2018Woo-Hoo! I am so excited that this project was fully funded with the help of your generous donation! My students were so ecstatic when I told them we'd be getting a delivery in the next couple of weeks with some new class pets (they don't know what's coming just yet, but are starting to put together some great guesses as they watch our GIANT habitat slowly get assembled near the window).
Our caterpillars/butterflies will not only liven up our classroom for the spring season (and make us the talk of the school!), but will also help my students better understand life cycles, metamorphosis, and other concepts we will touch on in our diversity unit like natural selection and evolution. They will be able to observe not only the physical features of these beautiful specimen (like their coloration, wing patterns, proboscis, etc.), but also their behaviors. They will visibly see how those physical characteristics contribute to higher fitness and the process of natural selection (such as the straw-like mouth-parts making it easier for them to suck up nectar from flowers).
I hope my students will be able to catch a glimpse of the caterpillars wiggling about during pupation when they form their chrysalis, or perhaps emerging from their chrysalis into a butterfly! I remember watching this process myself as a child with my own butterfly kits I would get every birthday from my parents, and my fascination with it is what lead me to major in Entomology as a college undergrad. I hope having these live organisms in our classroom with ignite a similar spark in my budding young scientists. All of this is only possible, though, because of your generosity. So again, I thank you, and I hope you will continue to support classroom projects and make a difference in the education of our future workforce!
Stay tuned for pictures!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Carcione
This classroom project was brought to life by Orkin and one other donor.In Case the Unimaginable Happens...
Funded Mar 4, 2018I cannot thank you enough for your generous donation to my project. My students mean the world to me, and as a teacher my greatest fear is that I would not be able to protect them if, God forbid, someone entered our school with intent to harm them.
It's sad that this is something I have to actively think about, but it seems these days all teachers share the same thought. Each year, many of us imagine where we would hide our students in the event a mass-shooter entered our building (how many students could I fit in the closet? Behind my desk? Behind a bookshelf?) Currently, I teach in five different classrooms on a typical day, all located next to the front entrance of our building, and if am assigned coverages for teachers who are absent, that number increases. Unfortunately, I am not provided keys to all of the rooms I teach in and being that we are the first classrooms you would pass when entering, we would also be the first targets. This is always something that has concerned me, especially due to the heart-wrenching slew of mass shootings our country seems to constantly be facing, particularly inside schools. My students should feel safe in their school. The only thing they should fear is failing their tests or forgetting their homework, not being gunned down or watching their friends get murdered. But for thousands of students in our country, that is exactly what they have had to fear.
Your donation will allow me to secure our doors and potentially save lives using our new Addalocks. My students deserve this gift. They deserve to go home to their parents each day. They deserve to become adults. You have given my students the gift of safety and security inside their school, which is invaluable. I cannot thank you enough.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Carcione
But First... Let Me Take A Cell-fie!
Funded Jan 30, 2018I wanted to take this time to thank you once again for your generosity and contribution to my "Let Me Take a CELL-fie" Project. My students get so excited whenever lessons become hands- on. Many of my students are very tactile learners and having manipulatives to work with enhances their understanding like nothing else. The magnetic cells and cell organelles allowed my students to visually see and work with these otherwise invisible-to-the-eye structures.
As a health and science teacher, a big focus in my class in cancer. It is my goal to introduce cellular biology to students at an earlier age, so that they may truly understand the inner workings of the cell and its complexities. They are, after all, our future doctors, lab technicians, biologists, and oncologists.
My students loved working with these materials, and having the visuals to "play" with embedded the content into their minds more than a textbook ever could have. Thank you so much for making this lesson come to life. I hope you will continue to support classroom projects and make a difference in the education of our future workforce!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Carcione
Buggin' Out in the Lab!
Funded Jan 25, 2018I wanted to take this opportunity to once again thank you for your generosity. Your contribution to my "Buggin' Out in the Lab!" project has given my students an exciting opportunity to get up close and personal with real organisms during our labs. Your donation is inspiring and supporting the hands-on learning and instruction I feel is crucial in a generation growing to be increasingly sedentary and glued to computer screens.
My goal is to design lessons that will give my students completely new experiences and perspectives, with activities they will remember for years after leaving middle school. As one of the few females in my own college major (entomology), and then later one of the few females working in a lab before beginning my career here at my school, I feel it is my duty now, as a teacher, to try to inspire the next generation of female scientists. I was ecstatic to see my girls' reactions to the insects and watch their eyes light up. They were observing specimens they had never seen before, and possibly will never see again. I was so proud at how willing they were to work with these insects, since years ago, when I was their age, many of the girls found insects "gross". The tides truly are turning, and I'm hopeful at the wave of prospective females that may one day enter these fields where they are currently so underrepresented. But it all starts here, in the classroom!
Your caring and giving has helped to effectively ignite a spark in many of my students toward careers as biologists, entomologists, lab technicians, taxonomists, ecologists, and environmental scientists. I hope you will continue to fan those flames.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Carcione
This classroom project was brought to life by The First Million Fund and 6 other donors.