Past projects 40
Read, Relax, And Rejuvenate
Funded Nov 29, 2016Thank you so much for donating to our class. The students love the yoga mats. For the second semester we have been learning and practicing yoga. This has been a great opportunity because it helps students focus. We do yoga now in the morning and I have seen the students get to work faster and with better attitudes. A secondary benefit has been that it is a wonderful indoor physical activity. We have been getting so much rain and the students are stuck inside all day and practicing yoga has been a life saver for all.
Lastly, we use the yoga mats as "mini-islands" The students get their mats and take it to a private space in the class and read. The mats provide boundaries and the students feel that they are on their own reading islands!
Thank you so much.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Taylor
Girls and the Maker Movement
Funded Sep 15, 2016Thank you so much for supporting our all girls Maker Class. Every day we meet and make fun stuff. We are working with circuits, led lighting, 3D Printing, and chemistry. We make everything three times! The first time is to just try and get introduced to any new ideas. We then reflect on the process, how it went and how we would improve the next time and discuss any other changes. The second time we try to refine our product and the third time is to go above and beyond. The girls will be familiar with the concepts and then figure out how to tweak and make changes that might really improve the final product.
Some days it is hard because the girls are tired or just confused but once they get their hands dirty (sometimes literally) they are so into the work, laughing and having fun. They love having something to take home too. Whether it is a 3D printed cookie cutter, homemade bubble gum, a car, or their own perfume. They love sharing and showing off. There is one particular girl that just lights up when we start making. In other classes she is checked out and then when making and trying new ideas she is a blur of energy. It is very inspiring.
Thank you for your generosity and support and keep an eye out for these girls. They will make our future brighter!!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Taylor
Community of Learners through Reading
Funded May 23, 2016A relationship with a caring adult can have a significant positive impact on students. This project aims to create relationships using great books. In the beginning of this school year, I book talked the books I received from this Donors Choose project and each staff member chose a book to read. After they read the book the teachers will give the book to a student that might find it interesting. Teachers has to know the student a little in order to recommend the reading. Later the teacher can talk to the student about what they thought of the book, favorite parts and other insights. Hopefully they will continue this relationship in class and with more books.
You can see from the pictures the students are reading! They love getting free books and talking about with others. We have had tea parties, cookies and milk parties and soon we will have pj party as ways to celebrate reading.
The next step is to get the students to pass the book on to a friend and to expand the reading circle. The goal is to get every student a book recommendation and a good book!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Taylor
Personalized Learning using 3D Printers
Funded Apr 15, 2016Dear Mr. Lance,
Most of us had no idea what was a 3D Printer. Some of us had a STEM class and we made designs on Tinkercad but did nothing with them because we did not have a printer in that class. Now in our Maker Group we have one and we can actually see the point of it all. There was a big GASP when it first turned on and we saw the plastic melt and come out of the protruder (now we even know the names of stuff). We all made keychains with our names. I showed my keychain to everyone and now they want to do one.
The first day of the club some of us want to make drones and some want bots and some jewelry. It is cool that this printer can help us make all of the things we want to do. One of the problems at first was even thinking up ideas and now with this 3D Printer we can stop with the ideas.
Thank you for your help in making this true. So many of come from homes without the Internet so this is a big thing for us. It gives us the chance to dream bigger. Some of the club members want to go to college to study computers and technology and last year that was not true.
We really really appreciate all your support and generosity.
Sincerely,
The Kids of the Age of Makers Club (Last year known as the Coding Club).”
With gratitude,
Ms. Taylor
Electrifying Our Education through Electronics
Funded Feb 10, 2016There has been a lot of attention to coding and STEM. Everyone is talking about it but we really never understood what it all meant. There were days where we did "coding" but it felt little kiddish and we did not understand how it connected to programing a computer. In the library at lunch we spent the first semester exploring projects on the web, talking to mentors, figuring out what we wanted to make, and planning. For example, one student wanted to make a lamp so he could read at night but thought it would be cool if the lights could also moved. Another student wanted to make a BB-8 Robot and another wanted to code some LED lights for the library. None of us, including our teacher librarian, have any clue what we were doing but it was fun.
This semester we are building. We are teaching ourselves how to use the 3D Printer to make the robot shell or lamp. We are learning what is an Arduino or Raspberry Pi, how to put it together and then code them for our projects. It has been frustrating and fun. At first most of us spent Thursdays at lunch working on the projects and now more and more of us are in there everyday working and tinkering.
Ms. Taylor, says this is learning in context- we are learning how to really code by working on real projects that we designed. We are learning how to design objects in 3D based on what we need to do for our work. We have learned so much including what makes a good tutorial!
Thank you so much for helping us get materials so we can even do this kind of learning. We often do not get a chance to decide what we want to learn and then learn it. It has been the best kind of learning. Thank you.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Taylor
This classroom project was brought to life by ExxonMobil & Think It Up Supporters and 4 other donors.3D-Printing: Imagine it! Build it!
Funded Nov 16, 2015Thank you for the 3D Printer and the opportunity to learn what is a 3D Printer, what it does, and how to design a project for the printer. The students were mesmerized the first day we used it. We all kind of knew what it did but could not conceptualize what it did until we took it out of the box, set it up and tried to print a T-Rex head. Many of the students were inspired after watching the printer work and I think we even recruited some new students when they saw the 3D Printer at work.
Thank you for your support in helping the students. The level of commitment from the community is outstanding and encouraging. We are so appreciative of your belief in us and your generosity.
Feel free to email back through Donors Choose to find out what the students are up to with the 3D Printer.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Taylor
Build it! Code it!
Funded Oct 16, 2015It is so exciting to have our own 3D Printer. We have been working on projects to build on the printer but do not have a printer. We had to take a bus, then the train and then walk to the Main Library to print and only one of us could print. Now we can build and print in the same place. It is really exciting! We want to make toys, covers for phones, and things for Minecraft. The club wants to get more advanced in their designs and this can happen now that we have our own printer.
We are learning about imagination. For example, I think about things and what I would like to see happen. I talk about it with my mentors and friends and how to make it happen. So if I want to print out an iphone cover we discuss what programs can help, sizing and dimensions. I then design my cover and personalize but I had to learn how to do this correctly and with my own style. I then have run it by the mentors to see if it will work and then I print. It is fun to have an idea, make a plan, and then watch it happen. The students in my club and I think we can use these skills for anything because we are learning to problem solve.
The biggest obstacle was not having a printer of our own. We were really excited to start the project but without knowing the end project we were often confused. The field trip to the library was fun but it took a long time to get there and we could only print one project. Writing this proposal helped us think about what we needed and how to ask for it. Now it is funded and we are getting a printer and we can ALL print. Our teacher-librarian said we should feel empowered because we got something done ourselves instead of waiting for others to do it for us. Now we are planning more projects and proposals now that we know how. This is just the beginning.
The Coding Club”
With gratitude,
Ms. Taylor
This classroom project was brought to life by ExxonMobil & Think It Up Supporters and 8 other donors.Reading Together
Funded Oct 19, 2014Thank you for your generous support in funding Book Clubs for the students. First they were surprised that someone even thought of them, much less donate money so they could read books! I think this is very important for them to understand- that many people want them to succeed and want to help make it happen. They are not alone in their educational journey! Thanks.
We have had three Book Clubs so far and they have been a lot of fun. They are usually a mixed group of students ranging from sixth to eighth grades and of boys and girls. I bring snacks and serve tea on a tea set and they love it. For one of the books, "47 Ronin" we had Japanese food because the book was set in Japan and the students had a great time discussing the novel and what it means today (it is based on an old Japanese legend). Other interesting questions came from the book that I think they may want to ask in class but get nervous, either because of the larger setting or just not knowing if it is appropriate to ask. In a book club the setting is more intimate and they asked so many questions about what they read and about connections to life. It was a lot of fun. We still have so many more books to read for Book Club too. Other students walk by and see what is going on and want to participate and that is very exciting too.
I want students to think of them as readers and to participate in a literacy activities. I tell them that people often participate in many community activities that are based on books- whether that those include book talks, book clubs, reading in cafes, going to hear authors speak, writing. I want them to feel like they are apart of this community and I think this Book Club is a great start.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Taylor
Home Language Books
Funded Mar 26, 2014Thank you for helping our library create a wonderful and engaging home language fiction collection. Your generous donations bought popular middle reader titles in Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, and French. These are the languages of our newcomers and they were thrilled to have books in their home language to read. Newcomers are recent immigrants and often within a week of arriving to the country they are attending school. They know very little English and very eager to learn. The new collection of Home Language Books encourage literacy in their home language which will help literacy in English. The students' teacher brought the students down monthly to check out books and they were very eager to read the new books. The students came to the library at lunch each day to read and see the new books.
Thank you for your generosity and help in creating bilingual and literate youth.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Taylor
Lets Read Together
Funded Dec 7, 2013Thank you for your generous donation for the books for our two book clubs, Cinnamon Boy and Flora and Ulysses. The sixth and eighth grade book clubs met two weeks ago to receive their books. We had an ice breaker, drank tea and read a few pages together of the books. We are going to meet next week to discuss the book. It is really exciting to get the book club started at the school and there has been a wonderful response from teachers and students alike. Thank you for your support for our school, our kids and literacy.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Taylor