My Students

"Curious that we spend more time congratulating people who have succeeded than encouraging people who have not." Neil deGrasse Tyson was right. We need to encourage the students who have not had a chance to succeed in science so they will learn new skills and perhaps, one day, reach the stars.

I have a rambunctious group of 25 first graders.

This is their first time being in school all day. They have an excitement for learning and just soak it up. They are definitely hard workers who need many different types of projects to keep them busy and learning. I've learned that doing a worksheet just doesn't do anything for this set of students. Although they are only 6 years old, they've grown up in a hands-on world. They work well together and really help each other out, but are still learning about how to make and keep friends. Our class has students who speak English as a Second Language. My students could be the next Bill Nye, Bonnie Dunbar, or Stephen Hawking.

My Project

I am requesting a set of Gears, Gears, Gears and the things we will need to be able to use them. Through trial and error, my students will be able to learn how gears work and enjoy this learning play time. There are so many things in our world that would not exist without great engineers and I'm wanting to inspire some of my students in the 1st grade. I'm also requesting a science kit that contains everything we need to be able to do science experiments in class. Even better, it includes what we need to integrate science with our math and language arts.

Recently, when I asked students and parents what their dream classroom would include, more science was at the top of the list.

It was then I realized how little science I have done in class. I want to change that. I know I could have the next engineer of the world's tallest building or a new type of medical device in my class but without experience early on, they may never know what they are able to do. I want all 25 of my students to love experimenting with science and engineering.