What would U like to see a school do with a donation?

[Tropo-Bob]

This week I will be meeting with the principle of a nearby primary school to discuss donating one of my telescopes to the school, or to a teacher at the school. However, I must be getting old as I really wish to see future generations of students develop to their full potential. So I am thinking of also offering a $500 donation to the school, if they can put that to good use.

My question is: If You were offering such a donation, what would You like the school to use this money for?

I had a few thoughts on this. My earliest was books for the school libary, but talking with my school-aged, great nephews, they say that their libary (different school) has heaps of books. I thought of offering the money to assist disadvantaged students with fees for outings that they may not be able to afford. I also thought that perphaps the best investment may to assist the teachers develop their own libary with books that directly help teachers or report of sucessful teaching elsewhere.

I do not wish this thread to be political with people saying the Government should do this or that. I am just looking for suggestions on what I CAN DO!

Anybody that is or was a teacher, I will partically appreciate their advice, but nevertheless, all advice is appreciated. Even PM me if You do not wish to undergo the riggors of an open discussion.

[JA]

Good question Bob. If it were me I would think of something that you feel is missing or lacking in children's education today and direct it towards that. More ipads, computers, etc is not the answer.

Best
JA

[Wavytone]

To be honest I think it would go unused, for several reasons:

- teachers are specifically their to teach the program in the curriculum, nothing else. Unfortunately that does not extend to a practical session actually looking through a telescope.

- it involves having to set aside an evening after school to show them what lies above. Very few teachers will do that.

- it also presupposes the teachers have half an idea how to use it, and what to point it at in the sky. I can't think of one that ever did that I've known.

- it also assumes someone has the ability to look after it and maintain it, or fix it when it breaks. This will probably be the end of the telescope.

I'm also aware of a couple of schools that were given telescopes that lay in parts in the back of labs, unused for decades - until some of the students realised they'd found something quite interesting and were sufficiently keen to put it into use.

[RyanJones]

If it is a secondary school, I think I’d like to see it used as an innovations prize. The kids could either work individually or in small teams to come up with an innovative idea to solve a given problem. Maybe the prize could be split into $50 $150 and $300 but not an everyone gets a prize situation. I’d like to see young people encouraged to express their ideas and become self motivated.

[pmrid]

Sadly, I fear that $500 on its own would not achieve as much as you would wish. In fact, I wonder whether schools are able to accept such donations these days. But putting that aside, my suggestion is to promote a school science project by offering to match prize money dollar for dollar up to your sum of $500 any funds provided by the school or the P&C or even the students themselves towards that end.

Give the students some ownership of the projects they build.

Peter

[Startrek]

The donation could possibly go towards a school day excursion to an observatory with a small group who show some initial interest
It would be obviously more difficult to arrange a night school excursion to an observatory but at least if the kids ( primary or secondary ) visited during the day it may ignite some further interest in the universe.If the excursion does spark some real interest in the kid then maybe the parents / carers could take their interest further ?
My 2 cents......

[Wavytone]

The usual solution is for the school to contact an Astro society to arrange an outreach night - having participated in quite a few over the years. With a group of 30 it takes several scopes to show them all a few objects in reasonable time.

[Tropo-Bob]

Thanks all for the suggestions.

I donated my Vixen 80mm (F11) refractor, mount & 2EPs to the school this afternoon and reassured them that I am only to happy to help if they need further assistance with this. Some of the students who saw me carry it in were very excited as well the staff.

The school was also very happy to accept my donation for materials. They put to me that they had STEM Projects for the grades 4 to 6, but did not have the rescources this year to fund projects for the Years 1 to 3 (though they expect this to be approved in 2020.) These are hands on, fun-projects for kids to do; so I was happy to pay for those project kits.

And that is my feedback. Each one of us can make a difference.

[Outcast]

That is an awesome outcome Bob :thumbsup:

[strongmanmike]

Nice one Bob, well done :thumbsup:

Mike

[Nikolas]

Best thing to do is offer it as a science award for an aspiring student, you can even split the money 5 ways say from year 7 to year 11 so each year level apart from 12 is represented.