The Gross, The Cool, and the Squishy

Another Donors Choose project has been fully funded, just under the wire, with the help of my readers. From the teacher:

Thank you so much for your donations. This is my very first project on Donors Choose.

I cannot wait to start using these magazines to use current events in our Reading and ELA classes. Most of my students know the latest pop stars or the current sports phenom. With these magazines we will be able to increase their literacy skills while we expand each students knowledge of what is going on in the world.

Thank you again for your support.

With gratitude,
Mr. L

Thank you from me as well.

Now, time to get a few more of these funded.

From Kipp Delta Collegiate High School in Helena, AR:

Delta Wishes

Everyone knows that they have eyes to see and a central processing center for sight and other daily activities. With the sheep brain and eye, each student will be able to get an inside view of how some of the main aspects of the body work. In turn, their understandings of life processes and their curiosities will both be brought to higher levels, developing young scientists every step of the way.

Funding this project will help squash some of the misconceptions young minds pick up from their environment. It will also develop a yearning to know and seek further knowledge. The more students from rural communities learn, the more they can take home to their families to share. In turn, knowledge can push a rural community such as ours to take better care of itself, the people, and the environment.

Amount remaining to be funded: $616

From Coleman Middle School in Greenville, MS:

Making Science Come Alive! (Dissection)

Our worm dissection was, without a doubt, one of the most memorable lessons of last year. The day was not just memorable for me but also for my students; as evidenced by their squeals of delight and their rave reviews in their end of year evaluations. The dissection was almost unanimously named as my students’ favorite activity. I want to give my students another chance to experience hands on science through a frog dissection!

Additionally, with a class set of reusable dissection kits, my students will be able to perform several dissections during their middle school science careers. The dissection kits can be used by all 850 students at our school, grades 6th – 8th. Dissections are a wonderful way to get students excited about science because it is an intriguing way for students to explore organisms on their own; much more engaging than a picture in a textbook!

To see every single one of my kids get the chance to have their hands on their own dissection kit and their own earthworm was such a special experience last May. With enough frogs for each student wishing to make a dissection, they will again be able to explore for themselves the inside of an organism, something they have been begging for since that amazing May day!

Amount remaining to be funded: $342

From Pineywoods Community Academy in Lufkin, TX:

Scientists Need Supplies to Become Sleuths

I am most excited about going over living organisms with these tools, especially the dual microscopes. This past school year, the public school I taught at was lucky enough to go on a field trip to the university plant center.

The staff at the plant center had several buckets of pond water from the ponds in the park. The students were able to scoop out the water, along with some organisms, and observe them using the dual microscopes. They were so excited!! They had a sheet with pictures and names of the organisms they were observing, and they were sharing with each other what they were seeing and why they thought it was a certain organism. I LOVED seeing them like that. This is why I teach. I want to give my kids at this new school the same opportunity.

If I can get them to question, analyze, and justify their thinking then I am helping their lives become better. Giving them opportunities to deepen this kind of thinking is priceless.

Help these dying-to-be-scientists, really become just that— SCIENTISTS. Help them have experiences where they can actually measure something, observe a living organisms straight out of its habitat, and foster analytical thinking. Experiences they will never forget… making you … never forgotten.

Amount remaining to be funded: $528

You heard the teacher. There’s nothing for building a long-lasting interest in the natural world like getting to discover hidden bits of it. Let’s get these kids the tools they need.

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The Gross, The Cool, and the Squishy
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