DonorsChoose Challenge Classroom Proposal Focus, Human Evolution

tags: DonorsChoose2008, education, public school education, fund raising, evolution education, nature education, bird education

Start your day off right by helping America's poor children to get a good basic education in science. This is a project that focuses on human evolution in a high-poverty Massachusetts classroom -- they need another $771 to complete their funding request. Won't you help?

9th Graders Study Evolution: Did We Really Evolve From Apes?

I am the high school biology teacher at my school. Our school is severely lacking materials in the Science Department. We have the basics (books, test tubes, beakers, etc.) but we are in desperate need of more up-to-date, modern equipment and models.

The first unit of our biology course studies the theory of evolution and how man came to be. As of right now, my students cannot comprehend or even believe the possibility that we evolved from primates and early man. I would like to show them by using models of skulls from early man and primates so they can see the similarities and differences between them. I'm hoping by doing this they will understand the theory of evolution better.

To do this I will need actual models of skulls from the different time periods of man (Homo erectus, Australopithecus boisei) as well as models of skulls of some primates (i.e. gorilla, chimpanzee).

Your help will ensure that my students obtain the best science education they could possibly obtain. I want my students to like science, to appreciate science and to understand how much of a role science plays in their everyday lives.

My students need skull visual aids to help them see the similarities and differences between humans, early man, and primates. The cost of this proposal is $1,036, which includes shipping for any materials requested and fulfillment. [PDF].