My name is Stephanie Gamble and I am a kindergarten teacher at Achievement First Brownsville Elementary School. I am the kindergarten science planner, which means that I plan and teach science to the grade. This year I approached my school admission about adding funds to the science curriculum budget for science experiments. Unfortunately, I was told that since science experiments were not a required part of the curriculum and the budget was too tight to add it in. The kindergarten staff and I feel that we are doing our students a great dis-service by not allowing them the opportunity to take part in hands on learning. As a school that is operating in a low income area, it is our mission to eliminate the achievement gap and offer our students all of the opportunities their wealthier peers have. However, here is a case in which we don’t have the means to give then a well-rounded education. I am writing to you to request funds to be able to administer 34 different science experiments next year for 93 kindergarten students in my school. Almost all of the materials I am requesting are non-consumable, this means we will be able to use them year after year thus helping many more students than just the 2012 – 2013 cohort.