CE's Kids 'n Classroom Challenge

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We are all so grateful for your donation to our project! It was a huge success! We spent 3 days on the dissection, and we hated to put them away, but the weekend and a teacher inservice day put a halt on our investigation. The students were amazed by the experience and will never forget it.

On the first day, we prepared for the dissection by rinsing the rats, placing them in the trays, discussing lab safety, and discussing the ethics and value of dissection. We also observed the external anatomy of the rat and talked about its adaptations for survival. The students learned how to tell if they were male or female, which led to many interesting conversations. The second day we worked on opening the rats, practicing a few forensic pathologist techniques, and then located all of the organs while comparing them to diagrams. The third day students removed the organs, measured them, described or sketched them, stated the function of the organs, and told which body system(s) they were a part of. Some students discovered that their rats were pregnant, and the WHOLE class got up to watch as they delivered the babies by "C-section." :)

One of my students has Addison's Disease, which involves the adrenal glands, and he was very excited to see that a rat has adrenal glands also. Another student whose mother is pregnant was amazed at how the rats organs were all smashed together to make room for the 13 babies that the mama rat was carrying, and he wondered if his mother's organs were like that too. They were all shocked to find out how big the liver was and how long the small intestines were. They thought the name should be LONG intestines. There is no way that I can tell you all of the wonderful things they learned and got to observe by doing this project! I hope you enjoy the pictures! This activity would not have been possible without your help!”

With gratitude,

Mrs. Terrell

Our students did an outreach to the kindergarten last Friday. Students from the WET club at our school practiced the experiments, prepped all of the solutions and traveled together on the bus. I set up the experiments the night before so that the students could hit the ground running. The kids had spent time two weeks prior preparing; a home-school family came in the week before as guinea pigs. Last Friday, Mr. K's and Ms. Debby's kids (who have special needs), my WET club (students from my Chemistry classes), two volunteers,and the home-school family spent the morning doing over a dozen fun science experiments together with the kindergarteners. It was fantastic! The group set up in the multi-purpose room; as the children entered, they received a t-shirt as an art smock, donated from another teacher at our school. The little ones loved all of the experiments: goofy glow, flubber, etc. The WET club sponsor, GSCNC, funded the bus trip and our local state representative helped purchase vinegar, baking soda, vortex tubes,etc. Ms. Debby supplied bottles. Additionally, our groups left instructions with the kindergarten teachers regarding all of the experiments. All morning the children were beaming about how much they loved science. This program is terrific for all of the students. The little ones learn to love science; the students with special needs get an opportunity to teach. Most of all the Chemistry students perform authentic community service. After the program, our group stopped to eat together at Burger King. All of us are deeply grateful for your help to allow us to celebrate Apple-ka-dabra together.”

With gratitude,

Mrs. Stevens

Thank you so much for donating to my Engineering Is Elementary Donors Choose project. My students have really enjoyed the challenges they have encountered while building the different types of bridges with the K'Nex Bridge Buidling Set we received through your generous donations. They have followed the diagrams and built, taken apart, and rebuilt their bridges until they were accurate. Quite a challenge for second and third graders, but in our class we don't give up and believe to achieve. I have five different groups that only meet twice a week and 55 students now, so it has taken quite some time to get them all done. We also missed school due to snow days which put us behind.

I wish I could have posted a picture of all of the bridges when they are complete. Twelve are finished now and three more are almost complete. We have the Brooklyn Bridge, Golden Gate Bridge, Sydney Harbour Bridge, Tower Bridge of London, Firth of Forth Bridge, Dames Point Suspension Bridge, Bay Bridge, Arch Bridge, several Post and Beam bridges, Span , and Truss bridges. The students have learned all about the physics involved in bridge building and what a civil engineer does. They are preparing presentations of the bridges mentioned above now in class. They are also completing their paintings of the famous bridges represented in watercolors, with materials I received from an art grant through Donors Choose this fall. Their bridges are on display in our school foyer for other students and staff and parents to view. We will hang their artwork with them when finished. I don't know what we would do without you wonderful donors who support our students through your generous grant donations.

I think offering learning experiences like these to my 55 students really sparked an interest in the various careers in the engineering field. I hope to see many of them choose engineering as a major A civil engineer is also coming to talk to my classes, which should be a great motivation. We learned so many different disciplines in this project. We learned about civil engineering, forces, tension, compression, loads, strength of triangles and arches,how to follow blueprints and diagrams, researching the famous bridges,how to draw and paint bridges, journal writing and note taking,and how to present their project findings to an audience.

Once again, I would like to thank you so very much from the bottom of my heart for giving my students such a wonderful opportunity this year, as well as my future students who will use them too.”

With gratitude,

Mrs. Dimino

Thank you so much for your donation to my classroom. We're finished our cell unit and the models of the cells increased their understanding and increased the level of engagement in the content. I was able to pass the models of the cells around the room during my lesson and really show the students how each organelle works together.

We're currently in the heart of our genetics unit and the model of DNA was an essential piece for the success we've had so far. I held the model up in the air and showed them what was meant by a double helix, nucleotides, and a sugar phosphate backbone.

I just had my students complete an evaluation of the class and they all noted that the model cells and model DNA that we had in our class (we made our own too!) were extremely helpful.

Thank you for your support. My students are one step closer to being scientists in the real world!”

With gratitude,

Ms. Niewald