I think your heart is in the right place, but realistically do you think throwing "stuff" at the kids and hoping for the best is the most optimal strategy? I mean if tomorrow someone handed you a book on insects and an insect catching kit, are you going to learn it and go do it? Likely not. That is how much interest some of these kids have in this subject.

A lot of organisations, grants, and so on throw money at things and hope for the best. Technology in particular is popular. They give out millions in technology grants with no specific focus or plan, and then they wind up with everyone having an iPad, no apps, no training, and no specific educational outcome.

So someone, no doubt, will suggesting buying Raspberry Pis for the entire class, and they're great. But the question is: What then? With no instruction, even 101, do you think many kids will pick it up and do much with it? Maybe you should be talking to the school about what could help THEM.

It might sound "boring" but honestly just buying them some digital projectors might do more for the kid's education than actually trying to buy the kids themselves bits and pieces, unless you have a plan to instruct the kids and get them going down a path (this would likely require cooperation with the school, maybe parents too).

Thanks for that feedback. This is precisely the concern I have. I had looked into the popular ed tech gadgets out there but just felt they weren't really viable for exactly the reasons you mentioned.

Part of the reason I asked was to see if anyone could suggest a different approach. I do think there is a way to achieve a win by focusing down the goal and working within the constraints you describe.

I full expect to do some onboarding work e.g. create videos / instructions etc. I'm looking for the right project kit to get them started. The equivalent for my Grandpa's generation was a radio. I wonder what today's "gateway project" would be?

I really like the idea of digital projectors. That might be a really high-leverage way to change how the classes are conducted.

Do you know of any examples where this has shown an impact?

What about the lego Mindstorms kits[0]? I haven't got my hands on them yet but I hear they are good. You could even pace this out into a few phases, like:

Phase 1: Buy them normal Lego sets to get them well acquainted with the toys.

Phase 2: show up with something cool you assembled from a Lego Mindstorms set. Hopefully a lot of them are going to say "Wow! Cool! How did you make it do that?" And that is when you can start teaching them bit by bit. (Also this is when you let them play around with a Mindstorms set)

[0] http://www.lego.com/en-us/mindstorms/?domainredir=mindstorms...

Thats a great idea. So fucking obvious. I think that's a good MVP for this approach. Thanks

I recently played with the GoGo Board recently: http://gogoboard.org/

Starter kit looks to be around $30-35. It comes with a board, a bunch of sensors (humidity, temperature, light, proximity, etc.), and a couple motors. It also connects to NetLogo Lab (https://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/), where you can explore various models.

If they have computers, or if you can get them ones, Minecraft is a good idea. Highly moddable, in multiple languages, huge communities and Redstone! Plus, it's fun.

buy an algebra book, let them study galois.