Welcome! You have found the super-awesome Giving Page of Gerty-Z, from LabSpaces! Please chose a classroom project to support, and help bring some Awesome Science to these youngsters! Thanks in advance for supporting my efforts in Science Bloggers for Students challenge, a friendly 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.
(By the way, DonorsChoose.org is a 501(c)3 charity. See ... more
Welcome! You have found the super-awesome Giving Page of Gerty-Z, from LabSpaces! Please chose a classroom project to support, and help bring some Awesome Science to these youngsters! Thanks in advance for supporting my efforts in Science Bloggers for Students challenge, a friendly 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.
(By the way, DonorsChoose.org is a 501(c)3 charity. See below for approvals from Charity Navigator and the Better Business Bureau.) hide
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!”
It is an amazing thing to watch kids react to have kids light up with excitement over something undeniably educational. To see excitement in their eyes usually reserved for field trips, parties, and holidays is wonderful. Those who donated to my project have brought that light to their eyes.
We received our skeleton in a large nondescript box during the school day. Even my students who struggle with science on occasion could not wait until I assembled it. They all wanted to take turns showing me specific bones and tell me the names of them. We had been coming to the end of a long unit on the human body and they were ready to move on. It was obvious just how much seeing and interacting with this skeleton reawakened their curiosity and drives to learn.
They could not believe that people would take the time and money to buy something so "cool" for our classroom. To see them so obviously inspired by such a great gift is a amazing. My students and I cannot thank you enough.”
We have just finished our two day starfish dissection lab and I want to let you know what a motivating force it has been for my students interest in Science! They all dressed up in home made trash- bag lab coats donned gloves and goggles as the waited for the unveiling of the starfish specimens. The room was a buzz with "oh they are so hard" and "look at those bumps" not to mention "Whats that smell?".Using the donated materials along with an instructional power point my students performed on level far above their expected grade norm. They focused on procedures , made many observations of both internal and external anatomy while drawing detailed diagrams in their lab journals. They were amazed to learn about the water vascular system, as they expected a circulatory system similar to ours instead. The eyespot's were another source of discovery , we had discussions, as to how starfish could locate food than use their tube feet along with rays to pull apart clams.After observering the mouth spines my students were concerned if starfish might like to bite people as well. Again please accept my thanks, without you this project would not have been possible.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Nova
This classroom project was brought to life by KnowHow2GO and 5 other donors.
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