My students need to meet and be inspired by the people featured in the recent release "Underwater Dreams!"
FULLY FUNDED! Mr. Carlson's classroom raised $1,230
This project is fully funded
Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month
This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because
it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.
My Students
I strongly believe in connecting what is done in the classroom to outside applications. "When are we going to need this?" is a valid question that deserves a valid answer. When content is taught in class, I work to show students people who use the concepts we are talking about.
We are a rural school district in central Washington.
All three schools are on a single campus, with about four hundred students at the high school. A lot of the students' parents are field laborers with limited proficiency in English. The percentage of students who qualify for free lunch is so high that it is cheaper to give all students free lunch than track the money from the ones who do not qualify. Approximately 80% of our students are Mexican.
The vast majority of the students appreciate the value of a good education and work to take advantage of what is being offered to them. They benefit immensely from hands-on activities.
My Project
In 2004, a group of four high school students entered a college level underwater robotics contest. All four were Mexican without legal status. They entered at the college level because taking last place wouldn't be as embarrassing that way--especially since the event included MIT as a competitor. To the surprise of all involved, they ended up winning the contest.
In July of 2014, a movie called "Underwater Dreams" was created to tell the story of their victory and the legacy it has left. I showed this movie to my science students, and many were deeply affected by this story and could relate to the circumstances and background the team members came from.
My goal is to screen the movie to the community at large and to bring one or more of the featured team members to our town to help inspire both students and parents to see options that they might not have realized were there for them and strive for academic excellence.
This project will promote awareness and interest in engineering and robotics, and it will also inspire students to realize their potential.
It's much easier to believe you can do something when you see that it has already been done. This project will help students see that doors are open to them, if they are willing to put in the time and effort to get to those doors.
More than three‑quarters 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
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Mr. Carlson and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
