Welcome to my Giving Page! Please support my efforts in Science Bloggers for Students challenge, a friendly (maybe) month-long competition (10/10/10 through 11/9/10) between science blogs to see which can do the most to help low-income classrooms on DonorsChoose.org. Pick a classroom project from the list to support. And let’s beat the other bloggers! (By the way, DonorsChoose.org is a 501(c)3 charity. See below for approvals from Charity Navigator and the Better Business Bureau.)
Your help has ensured that my students will have the opportunity to become part of the STEM based world that is all around us. You have made it possible for my students to become twenty-first century thinkers. Thanks to your your help I can give my students an opportunity that they've never had before in school. Your contribution will eventually inspire an innovation in engineering that may benefit mankind. Have the materials to teach hands-on inquiry has made a major difference in the learning of my students. Thank you so much for caring! ”
With gratitude,
Mr. Taylor
This classroom project was brought to life by Arts & Science Council and 10 other donors.
I would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart for the donation you made to our classroom. The class set of books A Short History of Nearly Everything have been a huge asset to me this year. I have used them in all of my classes so far and the students have really picked up on Bryson's writing style.
Now at the end of the year they are starting to pick up on the humor in some of the passages and we have had some great discussions about why the author might be mocking some of the famous scientists from the past. I have had a few student reference the book in lab reports and papers and a few kids have checked out a copy to read through on their own!
I have been so happy with using these books in my classroom they have been a great supplement to the curriculum. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR MAKING THIS DREAM A REALITY!!!! ”
Thank you so much for your generous and gracious donations to our Montessori classroom. The children have been working with all of the animal classification materials. They can't get enough of them! Our books are being constantly read. Some children have even chosen to create their own books and have painted renditions of their favorite animals. You can find an example of this on our picture page. Our animal cards and specimen kits have also been a hit and have provided a great starting point for exploration and class discussion. Of course, the newts are probably the favorite addition to the classroom. The children have chosen to name them Carly and Freddy and help to look after them every day. Our butterflies are scheduled to arrive in May (so that they can be released at an appropriate time) and I know that they will be loved as well.
I am most proud to share with you that your donations are not just creating a rich classroom environment, but have also helped to provide direct instruction for the children. With our continued study and use of your donated materials, the third year students of the classroom entered the school science fair and presented a project about animal classification. Each child had a chance to explain each classification of vertebrates, show the characteristics of each type of vertebrate and sorted the animal cards (donated by you!) to show their understanding. Their presentation was so eloquent and showed such deep understanding that they won first place in the Early Childhood division!
This is all thanks to you and your donations. Once again, we cannot thank you enough! Please continue to support Donors Choose and the wonderful projects of other teachers as well. Our whole class is very grateful. ”
Thank you all for your kindness and generosity of spirit in providing the human skeleton for our 7th grade classroom. We are truly grateful to have such a bold new addition to our team! The classes suggested names and had a vote to finalize his name as "Grim" that will forever be inked on him with the year given. The class kicked off our study of the human body with Grim as our guide to get to know about bone names, classification of bones, and bone structure. Grim is considered a celebrity in our classroom and every week students who earn the highest quiz grades are dubbed "Anatomist of the week" which entitles them to have a special photo session taken with Grim.
Again thank you for all of your donations to impact not only learning about the human body, but to add to the culture of our classroom!”
Thank you so much for your donation to my "Binders for Biology" project through donorschoose.org. The semester is about half way over and the impact that these seemingly simple supplies have had on my students is remarkable. The class for which I requested these binders is composed of students who have historically struggled in all of their classes. This is due to a variety of reasons, but one common thread is that they lack the basic foundations and organizational skills that make students successful in school. One goal of this class is to help these students pass the New York State biology test at the end of the year, but this could never be accomplished if I did not first work to instill in them good study habits.
I have seen real evidence that having a new, sturdy binder to keep all their materials together in one place in the classroom has helped my students feel successful. In the past, if asked to produce notes from the previous day, these students might have felt embarrassed or inadequate if they had misplaced their papers. My students seem to get a real sense of confidence and accomplishment from seeing their notes and classwork accumulate in these binders. Reviewing for the state test, a daunting task for any student, is now a matter of reviewing the work that they have done over the semester. The binders make this uniquely possible for my students.
It is my hope that these materials have helped my students not only to learn biology and prepare for their test but also to take with them the skills and practices that will make them more successful in all their classes as they work towards graduation next year.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Tozier
This classroom project was brought to life by American Express Members Project and 7 other donors.
This is such a valuable resource, and I cannot thank you enough for your assistance. We are currently in the process of making this project a real in-depth idea, with the students really taking on the role of active scientists working in genetics. With your assistance, you have helped students in a high need area get exposure to technology they might otherwise not be able to gain access to. Those of us here say THANK YOU for making this project a reality! The students are so excited about starting this project!”
Wow! Your generous gift benefited my students more than I expected. I had planned on using the hot plates to show how a solid can change into a liquid and then a gas, but also have used them in other demonstrations.
Students learn more when they can make their own observations though hands on lab investigations. My students were able to use the hot plates to see how matter changes from one phase to another and how temperature remains constant during some stages.
In addition, some of the 6th grade and 7th grade teachers have borrowed the hotplates to use with their students in biological and earth science demonstrators.
Thank you again for your kind and generous donation. It has made for a happy and dynamic learning experience for my students. ”
With gratitude,
Ms. Generaux
This classroom project was brought to life by KnowHow2GO and 25 other donors.
I would like to take the time to thank you for your generous donation towards my project. My class was so excited to receive our art supplies. We have already put these items to good use. We have used them for science lessons and even with some of our writing. It is such a help when we are able to make learning fun.
My school district consists primarily of low income families. These families sometimes can't even provide basic necessities. Because of people like you we are able to provide these students with the best education possible.
Thank you again for your generosity and interest in my student's lives!!!”
Thank you so much for this amazing donation! My students are thrilled by all the new science materials we have received for our classroom. They love using the Can Do! science kits, because it allows them the opportunity to practice and investigate on their own. I have noticed that my students are more inquisitive now and are asking more questions as a result of these new materials.
Additionally, my students love using the new safety goggles when we do investigations. It helps them feel more like real scientists and I can see that they are taking their work much more seriously now. They love that we have enough materials for all of them to be able to use, and now they are all able to investigate at the same time.
Your donation has made a huge difference during our science time each day. I am able to perform many more experiments and investigations with my students because I have the materials that we need. Thank you so much for your support!”
Principles of the Biomedical Sciences, the first course in the Medical Sciences Academy, involves a unit that reviews chromosomal structure and function. Students prepare chromosomal spreads in the lab using living human tumor cells known as HeLa Cells. Interdisciplinary studies of HeLa is important to the bioethics and history of medicine. The topics of HeLa Cells are studied coherently in English, History, as well as Principles of the Biomedical Sciences. An interdisciplinary unit using the book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks allowed students to see a broader picture of not only what HeLa cells are but also who HeLa was, the medical interventions used throughout history and what is used today, and the background history within the story. Thanks to your donations, students gained a better understanding that as health care professionals there are accepted ethical practices with respect to cultural, social, and ethnic differences within the health care environment. Students also differentiated between ethical and legal issues impacting health care in the past and today by developing a detailed timeline and keeping a medical dialectical journal. Keeping a dialectical journal allowed the students to compare personal, professional, and organizational ethics and recognize ethical issues and their implications related to health care throughout history.
I hope you know, just from what I described above, how much your donations impacted my students educational experience. My students came back to class with multiple discussions and really enjoyed the story behind HeLa. Throughout our class discussions they were amazed the way people were treated differently in the field of medicine throughout history. Again, thank you for everything. This is a valuable project that will be able to continue and impact our future students the way it impacted my students this year”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Gurule-Leyba
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