Enhancing Science Education

Haskin Elementary 3rd Grade

Center, CO

Requested Amount: $2500

Donation Amount: $250

Without a science curriculum for my district my team is left finding science lessons in reading passages, and various self-funded projects. This grant would allow us to expand our science lessons.

We are proposing to utilize the funds to engage our third grade students in hands-on experiences that will enhance the content we are teaching as a third grade team the classroom. To do this, we propose purchasing supplies for science projects and experiential field trips. Our curriculum has modules on frogs and water pollution. We would also like to use funds to purchase supplies for science projects we can do in the classroom for these modules. We would like to take a trip to a zoo and let our kids research different animals and their habitats. Additional supplies would allow us to do experiments that would teach students about different molecules and reactions. To enhance this learning, we would like to take a field trip to our local college, Adams State University, to attend a science magic show. We believe these type of experiences will improve student knowledge of science standards and content and also improve overall engagement. We will also incorporate literacy and math content to support learning in these areas. Therefore, this will support increased academic performance. In addition, after COVID-19, we have seen increased negative behaviors in the classrooms, especially for our male students. The more experiential method of teaching science will support improved motivation and behavior for males (Huang et al., 2020), and the females will benefit from developing a sense of self-efficacy with the nontraditional gender socialized content of science (Master et al., 2021). This exposes our youth to experiences they likely would never get the opportunity to do, which also exposes them to career opportunities.