Taking Pride in Science

My Students: We are a title I school and I do not have a science lab budget. All the equipment I have is very old and anything new I have to pay for out of my own pocket. I started video taping lessons using the students and they ended up learning so much more.
The school I teach at is in an area with a lot of families living in poverty. 80% of our students are on Free Lunch and over 70% of them speak English as a second language. They do not have the greatest home life, some live with grandparents because their parents are not able to take care of them. We have a population of homeless children who live in nearby shelters or group homes. Our school has very little parental support and our school has less then 5% participation for PTA. They work hard but do not have a lot of background or prior education and that makes it hard for them to be on grade level.
My Project: When most the students first come to me they hardly know any science at all. For the most part I have to start from square one. These videos will help keep record of what the students are learning and it will also allow them to share the videos with each other and other schools. I had an old video camera (which no longer works) that I taped the students making ice cream to show changes in matter, another timed how long it took ice to melt, and we also did a video about NASA space program. The students showed the video to other classes in the school, and then other classes became interested in learning their science lessons so they can create a video to share. There was a real interest in learning and having it on record. I shared one of the videos with another school and they loved the idea too. That teacher now tapes random lessons with the students.