The Giving Tree

Dylan Morris
How can I allow our school's staff to ask
for new items that the current school
system can't cover?

—My Driving Question

Mentors

Mr Adam Mr Hazlet The KCS Staff

Method Cards
● Interviewing the teachers and students on how they feel about
the underfunding in schools for my Method Cards.
○ Are the teachers comfortable with their current supply
amounts?
○ Do teachers have to buy their own supplies?/How much
and when are supplies covered by the school?
○ Do students ever feel undersupplied?
○ Why should students be required to purchase their own
supplies throughout the year?
Argumentative Essay
Claim: Schools often find themselves grappling with
inadequate resources to support effective teaching and
learning.

While schools might be funded fine, teachers and their needs

come much later and with far lower care.

Supply giveaways are few and far between with a limited

budget given.
What's it about?
● A Giving Tree is a tree(usually associated with
Christmas time) with ornaments for generous
people to select to donate gifts for people in
need.
○ Can be used for any group of people at any
time of the year though!
● Based off the book of the same name by Shel
Silverstein.
Inspiration
● Had to choose between continuing my project from Junior year or finding
something new and more lasting.
○ Puzzles for the Puzzled
● Had to research what parts of schools are struggling the most.
○ Where was KCS failing to meet comfort levels?
● Had to choose something unique that I haven't seen done yet from my years of
being here.
○ What was something that hasn't been chosen yet by neither Juniors nor
Seniors in the last couple of years?
 But Why?

01 02 03
Who Cares? Challenges? Legacy?
This project is targeted The hardest part of the The Tree itself will be left
towards the already project itself would have to up for staff to continue
struggling financial be getting people to adding to it as well as a
situation regarding actually fulfill the requests. later student to take it over
teachers and for their project.
subsequently, students.
Execution: Beginning
● More Researching:
○ Why are teachers underfunded for supplies?
○ Can this even be fixed?
○ What is a smaller scale work-around that I’m capable of?
● Researching about Giving Trees:
○ How can I make this accessible and reusable?
○ Who would answer the requests?
○ How should I present the requests?
Execution: Middle
● Designing a form to send out to the staff asking for
some requests.
○ Best questions to ask that specify item delivery,
description, and who wants what.

● Designing a physical form that is easy to fill

out and refill for offline use.
○ Uses the same questions but compact
and easy to display/read at a glance.
Execution: End/Legacy
● Built the physical tree
○ Cut out the main shape
○ Went through multiple
base designs
○ Spray painted
● Posted up in the office!
○ Awaiting for the office to
give the green light.
Execution: End/Legacy
● Gathered 10+ requests from
online form.
○ Wrote them on the
physical notes and used
pine needles to pin them
to the tree.
● Need to print more physical
notes
● All requests need to be taken to
the office?
Reflection
● I got better at communication.

● I feel more connected with the community.

● I hope to leave a lasting project and staple to how donations work at this

school.

● Researching challenged me as it's not a widely talked about topic

What's Left?
● Seeing and processing the results.

○ Were any of the items retrieved? How many? Any patterns?

● Was anything else donated as a gift without a prompt?

● Focus more on sticking to a timeline!

● Feedback?

● Should I keep the tree active or put it away?

 Thank You
to Everyone