Students in our sixth grade Project Lead the Way program are smart, curious and visually talented. At our school, we are designing and building a prosthetic brace for handicapped kids, and more! We live near NASA and can use all sorts of digital information from their research on the ISS and on Earth, in Engineering and the Sciences. We have AutoCad Sketchup Pro software for simulation and modeling, in addition to animation software, but our computers are Pentium 4 (Win XP era).
A local aerospace IT company recently donated 12 laptops, and 6 desktop computers and monitors to our PLTW STEAM program. Value of these items would exceed $25,000 if I bought them new. The computers need hard drives, RAM, power cords, mice and keyboards. The desktops will be located in the STEAM Engineering, Science and the Arts classroom/laboratory. The laptops will allow us to take our design and prototype ideas to different build and assembly stations in the lab, and out in the field. This way students can enter data while they are collecting it, working in teams just like NASA engineers do! Hands-on, real life problem solving must begin as early as possible to ensure our kids have all the tools for a successful career and adult life.
These sixth graders deserve the best we have to give them. Our community is wonderfully diverse; we represent the world in culture and ethnic blends. Maybe this is why I call them BRILLIANT MINDS; as a group they will shape tomorrow!
About my class
Students in our sixth grade Project Lead the Way program are smart, curious and visually talented. At our school, we are designing and building a prosthetic brace for handicapped kids, and more! We live near NASA and can use all sorts of digital information from their research on the ISS and on Earth, in Engineering and the Sciences. We have AutoCad Sketchup Pro software for simulation and modeling, in addition to animation software, but our computers are Pentium 4 (Win XP era).
A local aerospace IT company recently donated 12 laptops, and 6 desktop computers and monitors to our PLTW STEAM program. Value of these items would exceed $25,000 if I bought them new. The computers need hard drives, RAM, power cords, mice and keyboards. The desktops will be located in the STEAM Engineering, Science and the Arts classroom/laboratory. The laptops will allow us to take our design and prototype ideas to different build and assembly stations in the lab, and out in the field. This way students can enter data while they are collecting it, working in teams just like NASA engineers do! Hands-on, real life problem solving must begin as early as possible to ensure our kids have all the tools for a successful career and adult life.
These sixth graders deserve the best we have to give them. Our community is wonderfully diverse; we represent the world in culture and ethnic blends. Maybe this is why I call them BRILLIANT MINDS; as a group they will shape tomorrow!
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