Welcome to The Inoculation Project! This week, we're helping an Idaho elementary school give students a chance to raise butterflies, grow crystals, and create compost. As always, our conduit is DonorsChoose.org, an organization founded in 2000 and highly rated by both Charity Navigator and the Better Business Bureau. If you’re short on cash, don’t worry — we’re glad to see you anyway! And your tips, recs, shares, and so on are a good free way to help, by helping us get on the rec list and catch more eyes. Join us below for all the fun!
THIS WEEK’S PROJECT
Resources: My students need crystal kits, a butterfly garden, and compost materials so that we can have our own science experiments.
School Poverty Level: Highest
Location: I T Stoddard Elementary School, Blackfoot, Idaho
Total: $169.99 (Matching funds available!)
Still Needed: $169.99 COMPLETED! Please see long-term project.
Expires: June 15, 2017
Teacher’s Comments from Mrs. Wieland:
My Students: "The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character, that is the goal of true education." -Martin Luther King Jr.
That is our goal here at our school and as a staff we strive to teach both the importance of education and character.
You will find children from all walks of life, some that have it all and some that have lives that would break your heart. Something that brings them all together is our school, and I have found, for some, it is their safe haven. I love the enthusiasm they all have for learning and they love to discover new things.
One hundred percent of our school's children receive free lunch. We also are bordered with a reservation and have farms all around our rural area, so as you can imagine we are a very diverse school with many cultures that flow through our halls. It is a great place to work and the children are incredible kids to teach. I love my job!
My Project: Being a new third grade teacher, I was worried that the wonder and excitement for learning would be lacking compared to what I was used to as a first grade teacher. Man, was I wrong! Their questions have become more advanced and the answers they expect in return have to have a plausible reason behind them, and at this age there is someone who knows about everything so they will know if you are making it up!
As we talk about the earth and how things grow, we have been able to plant seeds in our school garden.
We have been able to see for ourselves how seeds turn into an actual flower, but why not go further? Let's find out how soil becomes soil. My hope is that we get to see the cycle of how things like food scraps become nutrient soil for our garden through composting. I want them to see the cycle of a butterfly first hand by watching a caterpillar turn into a chrysalis, then turn into a butterfly, and then we can release them in our garden. And, like all kids they love shiny things, so we are going to create our own crystals that they can watch grow in front of their eyes.
My students are curious souls and I am so excited to see the enthusiasm they will have as they experience and experiment with these real life science projects.
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!
(Video features relentless photobombing by peacock.)
So that we can help both small and large projects, we usually present a relatively modest project each week, then feature a more ambitious project with a long-term deadline. As we chip away at the long-term project, our activity can also help push that project up DonorsChoose’s equivalent of our “rec list”, so it is shown to more donors outside Daily Kos. In that way, we can help finish projects that may be beyond our means when only our own dollars are considered.
LONG-TERM PROJECT
Resources: My students need books and [science/math] games to take home to engage their families to learn with them in a fun way.
School Poverty Level: High
Location: Lumpkin County Middle School, Dahlonega, Georgia
Total: $739.96 (Matching funds available!)
Still Needed: $339.96 Completed. Please see Urgent project below.
Expires: May 30, 2017
Teacher’s Comments from Mrs. Brunner:
My Students: My class is full of energetic sixth graders. They are in a transition year, coming to the middle school from three different elementary schools and are beginning to learn to be responsible for their own education.
My students are from an area that is economically challenged and are working against a culture that at times, doesn't value education.
These students want to be successful and strive to follow the good examples of those who have become successful. They want to be inspired by multiple examples of success and how to achieve it for themselves.
My Project: As a teacher, I want to take the spark of a new beginning and start a fire that will burn for the whole year. That’s what this project aims to do. Our parents and students arrive at open house excited for the new year. This is the best time to engage in a project that will have them return again and again throughout the school year.
Imagine a cafe setting with a warm drink, a good book and a friendly game between friends.
This cozy image is the setting for our family Cafe Nights starting before school and then every six weeks throughout the year. Students love games and good stories and with the supplies from this project, students can take teacher recommended books and games home with them that first night of open house. When they bring the items back to school, they’ll do so with their review of the game/book, so that the next Cafe Night will have student recommendations to guide families to their next selection.
The goal of the project is to increase achievement (measured by ovGPA) of our students. As families interact with learning in a fun, low-pressure way (through stories and games of their choosing), we hope to see two measurable changes in student behavior: fewer missing assignments and increased attendance at school.
The Cafe Nights will include informational tables on topics of interest, such as how to help middle school students and parent navigate adolescence, budgeting, and bullying. Student work and student presentations will be part of the evening. Most prominent of all, will be the games and stories purchased with this project. The lending library of family games and stories is the heart of the Cafe Nights, supporting families in the joy of learning and of spending time together.
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!
Since we are near to finishing both our projects for this week, I am adding a special kossack-requested project here — the teacher is the daughter of our friend GrowingMindsInSC. We cannot call it “long-term” because it is set to expire in a little over a week. Since there is a matching offer, it really needs only about $500 of regular-people donations. That’s a lot but, as we’ve noted before, if we show it some love (and maybe toss out a few tweets or FB posts that generate some activity), DonorsChoose will take notice and do the equivalent of rec-listing it. (Remember, if the project does not succeed, despite our efforts, you can redirect your donation to a different project.) Let’s try, shall we?
DAILY KOS URGENT PROJECT
Resources: My students need an aquarium kit, lizard and frog habitats, and more to study live animals and their habitats in order to learn about the environment.
School Poverty Level: High
Location: Hickory Tavern Elementary-Middle School, Gray Court, South Carolina
Total: $1,396.74 (Matching funds available!)
Still Needed: $1,070.27 YAY!!! COMPLETED! Thanks to all, and see you next Sunday.
Expires: FEBRUARY 28, 2017
Teacher’s Comments from Ms. Burns:
My Students: Our school is a small, Title I, rural school. My students come from a tight-knit community made up of a variety of economic backgrounds. Many of these students grow up together while attending K through 8th grade at our school. Even though many of the students may not have an abundance of materials, they have huge hearts and eager minds.They get excited to try new things and explore new ideas in a safe environment.
My students are astonished that so many people want them to succeed.
They know this is true by the number of generous donations they receive. The joy on their faces is priceless.
My Project: What better way to learn about animals and their habitats than by watching and caring for them every day? We need an aquarium kit, lizard habitat, terrarium, and more to support live animals and their habitats in order to learn about the environment.
My students LOVE animals, they love to read about them, draw them, and talk about them, they especially love to get up close with living creatures!
Caring for different types of creatures will engage students in an in-depth environmental study that will create lifelong ecosystem knowledge. By observing and nurturing animals and their habitats, students will develop a deep understanding of animals and habitat needs. Students will develop a knowledge base and a passion for the ecosystem.
My students need to learn about a variety of animals, adaptations, and their habitats. Learning this information up close and personal with live animals and habitats, will help students learn how to care for the environment. They will also develop an understanding of why it is important to keep environments healthy. Through this in-depth study, students will learn how to care for animals, different habitats, and get hands-on experiences they will not get anywhere else!
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!
Our main project from last week was completed (for a series total of 551!), with the help of a generous donor matching our donations. In the project Chemical Compounds Everywhere, a South Carolina high school chemistry class will get materials to help them create a presentation about household chemical compounds.
Mrs. I. writes: ...My students will be thrilled about this great news. This will really help them relate chemistry concept to the things that happen in their everyday lives outside of the classroom. I thank you for your kindness and contribution to the advancement of science in public schools.
Our Dollars at Work
In November, Ms. Still asked for help bringing new and appealing books into her Georgia high school library despite the small budget available to her. Now the two dozen volumes she requested have arrived and been put into circulation. The project was My Students Deserve to See Award-Winning Books in Their Library! (More photos at the link.)
...We are working diligently to rid the shelves of books that might have been appealing 20 or even 30 years ago, but that simply don't speak to the students of today. I don't want my students to have to pick through old clutter in order to find the jewels - I want the library to be chock full of books that students actually WANT to read! :)
Thank you for helping us to fulfill our mission of serving students and encouraging everyone to become a life-long reader and learner. I cannot tell you how important these books are to improving our collection and the selection that our students will now be able to enjoy! Our sincere thanks to each of you!
Founded in 2009, The Inoculation Project is an effort to combat the anti-science push in conservative America by providing direct funding to science and math projects in traditionally red-state classrooms and libraries. Our conduit is DonorsChoose.org, an organization founded in 2000 and highly rated by both Charity Navigator and the Better Business Bureau. DonorsChoose allows you to contribute to specific, vetted projects in public schools, resulting in tremendous and immediate impacts from small-dollar donations. Here’s an introductory video about DonorsChoose featuring Michelle Obama and Stephen Colbert.
Each Sunday morning, we focus on helping to fund one or two science and math projects in traditionally red-state schools, preferably in highest-poverty districts. We welcome everyone who shares our interest — no money is required! Your tip, rec, republish, comment, or share helps bring us more eyes, and besides, we like the company of others who love kids and education. Feel free to post a link or video, or just tell us how your weather is!
Finally, here’s our list of successfully funded projects. The success-list diary now also contains links and additional information about DonorsChoose, formerly found in this space.
Note: we have had requests to increase the number of photos of Dr. Tyson. 😀 We aim to please, so we will occasionally feature an extra one. Today’s Bonus Tyson Shot: