This week, we're helping to provide hands-on materials that tackle environmental challenges for a 5th-grade classroom in San Antonio, Texas, and games and activities for a Learning Commons in an elementary school library in North Carolina. We hope that readers who support quality public school education will help these teachers and students by sharing or supporting our featured projects.
The Inoculation Project is an ongoing, volunteer effort to crowdfund science and math projects for public schools in low-income neighborhoods. As always, our conduit is DonorsChoose.org, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation that facilitates tax-deductible donations to specific, vetted projects in public schools.
These Global Challenges STEM kits tackle environmental issues through project-based activities that require students to clean up oil spills, address a water shortage by building a solar still to desalinate water, and build a solar panel that can power a home during an energy crisis.
MAIN PROJECT
Resources: My students need fun Global Challenges Project-Based STEM Kits to use in our classroom.
Economic need: Nearly all students from low‑income households
Location: Douglass Elementary School, San Antonio, Texas
Total: $237.11
Still Needed: $237.11 Completed! Thank you.
Teacher’s Comments from Ms. Duarte:
My Students: I am a bilingual 5th grade teacher in a low-income/high poverty school district. My students are Hispanic and African-American, and they are faced with several challenges both in and out of the classroom. Regardless of the many obstacles they face daily, they walk in our classroom ready to learn.
I am looking to provide them with fun, creative and meaningful learning experiences.
Through my personal experience, it is not what you are learning but how you are learning it that makes a difference in being accountable for your own education. Learning should be fun! My students are wild, emotional and full of love, life and have so much to offer the world. I cannot wait to see how much they grow throughout this year. My students are community changers and will break many cycles they are currently in
My Project: We are learning about alternative energy and how to take care of our environment! What a great way to be able to incorporate real life global STEM challenges we face today in our classroom curriculum. In everything we do and learn in our class we connect it to our personal daily lives. These resources will be used as a STEM center.
These STEM kits will allow my students develop their own problem solving solutions while thinking critically and creatively!
Students will be able to fix an oil spill, deal with water shortage & also find creative ways to fight an energy crisis.
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!
These requested games and activities will reside in a library Learning Commons area and be used by a range of classes. This is the teacher’s first request for funding.
LONG-TERM PROJECT
Resources: My students need hands-on activities and games that require skills to create strategies, problem solve, be artistic, but most important have fun while learning!
Economic need: Nearly all students from low‑income households
Location: Old Fort Elementary School, Old Fort, North Carolina
Total: $393.88
Still Needed: $373.39 $283.09
Teacher’s Comments from Mrs. McKinney:
My Students: The Learning Commons is located in the School Library Media Center. It is a hive of activity in which students come to research, tinker, explore, read and relax. Throughout the day one will see collaborative lessons taught by the Media Coordinator, Classroom Teachers, Special Area Teachers, and Instructional Assistants. Students also visit the Learning Commons before school, during lunch and when released from class to use the materials independently. With open and versatile scheduling, information and materials are provided to students at their "point of need. We are a community of learners that is "Growing Today for Tomorrow."
My Project: Elementary students need social skills that help learn how to share, work with a partner and deal with success vs failure situations. Simple games, such as Pick Up Sticks, Dominoes, and Marble Runs are great ways for them to learn through play. Sometimes plans don't always work the first time. We want our students to not give up when things don't go as planned. They need to ask themselves, "What can I do differently the next time to be successful?".
We need materials to use in our Makerspace area that will provide hands-on, creative ways to encourage students to collaboratively design, experiment, build and invent as they deeply engage in science, engineering and tinkering.
By starting with simple games, they will improve social skills that allow them to more effectively collaborate with others in the future.
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!
Both of last week’s projects were completed with a huge assist from our generous donors!
Students at a North Carolina middle school will receive a laser-exploration kit as well as lab and safety equipment:
Thanks to you, my future scientists will get to explore their world in an interactive and SAFE way with our much needed equipment. Our students will be better prepared for what's ahead and we will be able to open new doors of interest for them. From the bottom of my heart... THANK YOU!
With gratitude,
Ms. Thomas
And a robotics team in South Carolina has already received their new joysticks:
Thank you for your very generous donation. Most of our donations come the friends, family members, or corporate sponsors. However, your donations are very special to the team. Without any additional information or knowledge of the team besides what was revealed in The Inoculation Project, many of you gave generously to a small robotics team in South Carolina.
Every year we must replace old joysticks. You wouldn't think that controllers would receive that much wear and tear from a bunch of "nerds". However, the joysticks must go through Drive Team tryouts. Approximately half of the team auditions for the two most coveted positions on the drive team: driver and controller. After the drive team is finalized, they must practice, practice, and practice. After weeks of practice comes the actual competition. At the end of a single season, a joystick is near the end of its life.
The joysticks that your donation made possible arrive as blank pages. Each function of the joystick (such as turning left, moving forward, controlling the arm that throws a ball, to activate the motor that allows the robot to climb an obstacle) must be programmed by a small team of students. The button controls are often customized for each drive team.
The entire team was excited to receive four new joysticks. The programmers immediately began to program basic motion (forward, reverse, left, right, etc.). The other controls will be programmed once the season begins on January 6, 2018.
Our robotics team is very grateful for your very generous donation.
With gratitude,
Mr. Johnson
Mr. Johnson also signed up to thank us last weekend!
Founded in 2009, The Inoculation Project combats the anti-science push in conservative America by funding science and math projects in traditionally red-state classrooms and libraries. Our conduit is DonorsChoose.org, 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 two science or math projects in red states, preferably 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 615! The success-list diary also contains links and additional information about DonorsChoose.org.