This week, we’re helping two classrooms get materials they need for a variety of science investigations: a Texas first grade, and a Montana sixth grade in the Blackfeet Nation. We hope that readers who support quality public school education will help by sharing or supporting our featured projects.
The Inoculation Project is an ongoing, volunteer effort to crowdfund science, math, and literacy projects for public schools in low-income neighborhoods. As always, our conduit is DonorsChoose, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation that facilitates tax-deductible donations to specific, vetted projects in public schools.
First, I need to say that nomandates, who has had to step back from doing these weekly diaries, has nonetheless kept her hand in by creating a new “Success List” diary that will list/link our completed projects starting from #1201, and you can find it here (as well as, always, at the link at the end of this diary). It also contains links to all the previous segments of the list, including the one ending with project #1200 that we just retired. Thank you, nomandates!!!
Anyway: today we have a new project #1!
Mrs. B. teaches first grade in Arlington, a Texas city right between Dallas and Fort Worth. She needs some materials to allow her students to investigate aspects of weather and how plants grow.
PROJECT #1
Resources: Help me give my students science materials they need to do our investigations this year.
Economic need: An Equity Focus School; nearly all students from low‑income households.
Location: Sandy McNutt Elementary School, Arlington, Texas
Total: $192.75
Still Needed: $171.26
Project description by Mrs. B.: My students get so excited when it is time to visit the science lab for our investigations. However - not having enough materials makes it a stressful time for our students and their teachers. I want them to continue to love science and so these materials will give us enough that the whole grade level can be engaged.
Science is a part of our everyday lives and I want them to be engaged during our investigation time of our lessons.
The soil is for every student to be able to look at the contents of soil and understand why it is a vital part of our plants unit as well.
We also learn about the weather and being able to track our rainfall with the rain gauge will really engage them as well!
Thank you for supporting our students!!
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!
Dr. Teri Balser of the University of Wisconsin-Madison gives a five-minute introduction to her field, soil science, and why it’s so important.
Our longer-term project is back! Last week it had matching funds, and we were able to secure some of those funds with our donations, so we made good progress. This week, the matching grant has run out, so the amount needed jumps up a bit — but we just keep working. Sometimes, another match will have come along next week, but in any case, we’ll eventually get this funded.
Ms. Guardipee is a never-before-funded teacher in a small Montana community that is the seat of tribal government of the Blackfeet Nation. She needs some equipment for hands-on science experiments for her 6th grade class, as well as some other items to improve her classroom.
PROJECT #2
Resources: Help me give my students decor and supplies to explore science and create a comfortable and fun learning environment.
Economic need: An Equity Focus School; nearly all students from low‑income households.
Location: Browning Middle School, Browning, Montana
Total: $952.00
Still Needed: $463.18
Project description by Ms. Guardipee: We have several items needed to complete various science experiments around cells and stem activities. There are also items to help make our classroom a little more comfortable for the students' learning environment. We will use the lamps and bean bags to make a calm corner for students who may need it. If students are provided more hands-on materials, it would benefit them extremely.
Help us learn more about cells and organisms.
We also want to do a bacteria experiment in various areas of our school. Students are excited to get hands-on in science. Thank you from our 6th-grade science classes.
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!
The requested set of microscope slides features some two dozen plant parts, so here is a video from the California Academy of Sciences in which they have animated a dive inside a redwood leaf, going to ever smaller-scale structures. *If you turn on closed captioning, an explanation of what’s being shown will appear on the screen.
Our project #1 from last week was completed, after several weeks with us! Thank you to everyone who donated and otherwise supported that effort!
Project #1, Bringing Learning to Life with Osmo: Ms. Tangle wanted her Texas kindergarten students to have some clever interactive educational games that work with an iPad or phone.
She writes: Thank you so, so much for supporting my Osmo project! Your generosity means the world to my students and me. Because of you, my classroom will have new hands-on learning opportunities that spark curiosity, build confidence, and make learning fun. We appreciate your kindness more than words can say!
DonorsChoose has developed the designation Equity Focus Schools to describe some schools that submit projects. They meet ANY of these criteria:
❧ At least 50% of students are Black, Latino, Native American, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, or multiracial
❧ At least 50% of students qualify for free or reduced price lunch
❧ Rural schools where more than one third (34+%) of the students are eligible for free and reduced priced lunch
You can read more at the link about their efforts to address the longstanding inequity in education. |
Founded in 2009, The Inoculation Project seeks to fund science, math, and literacy projects in public school classrooms and libraries. Our conduit is DonorsChoose, a crowdfunding charity founded in 2000 and highly rated by both Charity Navigator and the Better Business Bureau.
Every Sunday, we focus on helping to fund projects in neighborhood public schools where the overwhelming majority of students come from low-income households. We welcome everyone who supports public school education — no money is required!
Finally, here’s our list of successfully funded projects — our series total is 1201! The success-list diary also contains links and additional information about DonorsChoose.
