Donor's Choose

This year, I've decided to begin my Master's degree. An amazing opportunity came up last spring that allowed me to attend professional development all summer and for the next school year on incorporating Engineering, Math and Science into my curriculum. Through this grant project, I am also able to receive college credits towards my Master's degree, so along with three of my co-workers, I'm on track to have that finished in the Spring of 2019.

This summer I spent over 80 hours working with my colleagues to develop Engineering Learning Cycles for my students. So far, I have an entire unit on Force and Motion that allows students to create and arrange their own playground to consider predicting future motion and avoiding student collisions. I also have an entire unit on Weather, Climate and Hazardous weather where students will build a house, following certain constraints, to withstand wind (simulating hazardous weather).

I've completed the Force and Motion learning cycle with both my class and my partners' class so far this year. Both classes loved it and grasped the science concepts, while doing a Tug of War, exploring playground equipment, and building their very own playground out of Legos.


Anyway, I've been having a really fun year with my students and I know that they're ready to do more projects like these. Unfortunately, with teaching, my Masters, raising a family and a newborn on the way, another 80 hours of my own time to create more of these units seems unattainable right now. Thankfully, I was able to attend the National Science Teacher Association Conference in November and learned of a book for teachers that already has several lessons like these created! I fell in love with this book after attending an hour session about it and immediately went to purchase it from the bookstore at the conference.

It's called Picture Perfect STEM Lessons for grades 3-5. It incorporates all subjects (math, science, reading, writing and social studies) into units that fit our grade level standards. It starts by introducing the topics through picture books for the students. It has lessons, activities and projects all mapped out
for teachers. The only problem is....I need the picture books. My school district does not pay for materials like these for teachers. This is something I'd have to buy out of pocket - over $300 in pictures books for my students.

This is where I'm asking for help, which is hard for me to do. I've filled out a project on Donor's Choose (a website that helps teachers get their projects funded by donations). This week only, Donor's Choose will match any donation up to $50 towards my project. I would LOVE for this project to get funded so I can better the learning environment for my students. They loved Science this last semester and have been begging to do more. I would love to incorporate this learning style throughout my day, not just in Science. If you click on the link above (or here), it'll take you to my project information on Donor's Choose. If you have any questions, feel free to ask! You're welcome to share my link with anyone who would like to help out a public school teacher looking to get more resources for her classroom.

Thank you so much for always being awesome readers!!! :-)