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This teacher needs your help!

Ms. Courtney from Los Angeles, CA is requesting lab equipment through DonorsChoose, the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.

See what Ms. Courtney is requesting

STEM and Problem-Solving: Educating Future Thinkers

Help me give my students engineering tools to support their construction of knowledge through problem-solving.

  • $317 goal

Hooray! This project is fully funded

Hooray! This project is fully funded

Ms. Courtney has another project! Donate to Bringing the Summer into School! to help her classroom.

$178 - complete this project and be a hero
Help Ms. Courtney

Ms. Courtney has another project! Donate to Bringing the Summer into School! to help her classroom.

$178 - complete this project and be a hero

My Students

My students are creative thinkers, problem-solvers, dreamers, and achievers. They are curious about learning, and they show incredible wonder about everyday experiences that we take for granted. They are eager to learn and to explore the world around them.

In our classroom, we work to show each child a deep respect for them as an individual.

My students have their own ideas, concerns, questions, thoughts, dreams, beliefs, and more. Children at this age are learning about who they are as people, and how they as people fit into larger systems such as family, school, community, and humanity. Each child comes from an individual family, with individual belief systems, customs, and values. My students come from a variety of diverse backgrounds, bringing their traditions, cultures, and values into our classroom, teaching all of us about themselves.

My students are teachers. I am constantly learning through them. They teach me about the names of a variety of bugs, the height of the tallest building in the world, and how the planets revolve around the sun due to gravity. They will continue to teach me even after they have left my classroom. I'm so lucky I get to be their teacher!

My Project

In my classroom, we believe that children are able to solve highly complex problems and offer innovative solutions. When a problem arises in our classroom, the children develop and debate their own theories, design and implement solutions, evaluate the effectiveness of these solutions, and continue this process until they feel comfortable in where they have landed. I, as the teacher, intentionally search for and highlight these problems, and this is how we design our curriculum.

When the children have worked hard to come up with a creative and effective solution to a problem, they deserve to be the ones to solve the problem.

When a chair breaks in the classroom, and they decide to form a new back to the chair, they should be the ones to combine the wood pieces and attach it to the chair. They cannot accomplish this without tools. These tools will give the children the gift of solving their own problems, and discovering for themselves just how capable they truly are.

Traditionally, children who identify as female have less experience using woodworking tools or other tools to build with. By having these tools available for all children to use, the children who identify as female (including BIPOC children) will be able to see themselves as capable of using tools, and the children who identify as male will see that tools are for anyone to use. We want all children to feel empowered to use the tools in the classroom to solve complex problems. When approaching these topics, we will use the materials in the IF/THEN collection and diverse children's books to show that people that identify as female and people of color are fully capable to solve complex problems using complex and intimidating tools.

Ms. Courtney Elysian Heights Elementary School Grades PreK-2

Equity Focus

This project directly supports students at a historically underfunded school. Learn more about our Equity Focus.

This project will directly impact historically underfunded classrooms.

More about Ms. Courtney

Los Angeles, CA View local requests

More than half of students from low‑income households Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education. Learn more

24 students impacted 4donors

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Expand the "Where your donation goes" section below to see exactly what Ms. Courtney is requesting.

See our finances

Where Your Donation Goes

Materials Cost Quantity Total
REXBETI 15pcs Young Builder's Tool Set with Real Hand Tools, Reinforced Kids Tool Belt, Waist 20"-32", Kids Learning Tool Kit for Home DIY and Woodworking • Amazon Business $32.98 4 $131.92
SumBlox Starter Set of 27 Math Building Blocks - STEM Solid Wood Educational Number Blocks, Set of 3 Activity Cards & Math Guide. • Amazon Business $74.95 1 $74.95
The Carpenter • Amazon Business $9.49 1 $9.49

Materials cost

$216.36

Vendor shipping charges

FREE

Sales tax

$19.80

3rd party payment processing fee

$3.25

Fulfillment labor & materials

$30.00

Total project cost

$269.41

Suggested donation to help DonorsChoose reach more classrooms

$47.54

Total project goal

$316.95

How we calculate what's needed

Total project goal

$316.95

2 Donors

-$142.20

Donations toward project cost

-$134.70

Donations to help DonorsChoose reach more classrooms

-$7.50

match offer

-$158.48

Match offer toward project cost

-$134.71

Match offer to help DonorsChoose reach more classrooms

-$23.77

Excluded support for DonorsChoose

-$16.27

Still needed View calculationHide calculation

$0.00

Our team works hard to negotiate the best pricing and selections available.

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Project Activity

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