This week, we're helping a never-before-funded teacher to provide additional STEMspace activities at Abraham Lincoln Elementary School in Indiana. With the assistance of a matching offer, we’re also continuing to chip away at our long-term project providing a raised vegetable bed and rainwater barrel for a Port Arthur school in one of the areas hardest hit by Hurricane Harvey.
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 red-state 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.
This never-before-funded Indiana teacher is planning to expand the variety of hands-on activities available in their STEMspace (a makerspace focused on science, technology, engineering, and math). Thanks to Eastern Bluebird for bringing this project to my attention.
MAIN PROJECT
Resources: Help me give my students an opportunity to use a variety of tools in the process of learning what STEM and the Design Process entail by using a marble run maze, a robot mouse, and microscope slide set.
Economic need: Nearly all students from low‑income households
Location: Abraham Lincoln Elementary School, East Chicago, Indiana
Total: $370.35
Still Needed: $305.65 $164.18
Teacher’s Comments from Ms. Young:
My Students: My students are future STEM leaders. They are so inquisitive I almost cannot keep up!
They seek out answers in a world filled with questions.
They satiate their curious minds through their discoveries.
They uncover the world around them one activity at a time.
Together we grow into STEM leaders.
My students respond best to authentic hands-on learning during our regular class time and STEMspace days. During this time we build our connections with peers and their teacher, creating a safe and fun learning environment. I especially enjoy the next time that I see these students after a STEMspace day, they seem to be extra aware of the world around them. I only see each of my classes (17 in total) once a week for 45 minutes. This time is jam-packed with science and engineering inquiry based learning, hands-on activity, and time to share and discuss our findings.
Our school is at 99% free and reduced lunch, students come from the surrounding low-income neighborhoods.
My Project: As we near the 8th week of STEM class, we have already grown exponentially. I see curiosity sparking in each student and an increase of questions about their world. I realized my student were flourishing under hands-on activities. I took to Teachers Pay Teachers and Pintrest to find more ideas that focused on using the Engineering Design Process.
I found the Makerspace!
I had heard of such a space before but the implications didn't click until I saw it online. I decided to test this idea on a small scale with a few of my 17 classes. It was one of those 'teacher moments' where I was so proud of my students and fell in love with the profession all over again.
Our current Makerspace/STEMspace includes: K'nex, Legos, Foam Shapes, Omnifix cubes, dominos, and playdough. Each of these materials has task cards for the students to use in creating a piece. There is also a worksheet available for them to create their own unique piece using the Engineering Design Process and share with their peers.
However this is STEM, we don't simply focus on engineering! I see this project becoming a STEMspace where they can explore the meaning of STEM and learn where their new skills can take them. I would like to incorporate circuitry with Snap Circuits, where students can learn the basics of electricity to apply in later lessons. The Code and Go Robot Mouse has already been tested in our classroom, thanks to one of our second grade teachers lending us one. My older grades also use Code Combat during this STEMspace time! Another bin includes student microscopes and a 'What I See' worksheet. The addition of these microscope slides can show students the invisible world. The Gravity Marble set, Legos, and base plates add more!
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!
And here’s our long-term project in Port Arthur, which is still struggling to recover from Hurricane Harvey. This school in particular needs help.
“Harvey’s not over”: School’s about to start — but the trauma from Hurricane Harvey lingers:
As students across southeast Texas prepare to head back to the stability of a regimented school day, many in the area are still living in small trailers, stuffed into rooms with aunts, uncles and grandparents while their parents argue with insurance providers and desperately hunt for contractors who won’t rip them off.
Mental health providers say the stress and instability are exacerbating existing anxieties and traumas. And they don't expect the problem to let up any time soon, even as the hurricane fades from public consciousness.
More than 75 percent of Port Arthur ISD's students were displaced from their homes by Harvey's flooding and had to move into hotels or trailers or with relatives. About 500 students had to leave the district to find shelter; they have slowly returned after the completion of apartment remodels or when their families find other homes.
I wish more match offers were available to support students who have been struggling to recover after natural disasters in so-called red states, but I’m grateful that The Rebuild Texas Fund is still going strong over a year later.
“Donations to this project are now being matched, thanks to support from The Rebuild Texas Fund. The Rebuild Texas Fund is committed to supporting those on the ground doing the hard work of recovering from Hurricane Harvey. The efforts of our teachers, their students, and the community are so appreciated!”
LONG-TERM PROJECT
Resources: My students need a raised vegetable bed (4x8), gardening dirt & compost, vegetable fertilizers, and gardening essentials such as a rain water barrel for watering the garden.
Economic need: Nearly all students from low‑income households
Location: Lucian Adams Elementary School, Port Arthur, Texas
Total: $1,594.87 (Matching funds from The Rebuild Texas Fund)
Still Needed: $1,106.93 $808.11 ($405 from us)
Teacher’s Comments from Mrs. Morris:
My Students: Our kindergarten class has been impacted by Hurricane Harvey.
I teach kindergarten in Port Arthur, TX.
Before Hurricane Harvey hit our area, I had the opportunity to meet some of my sweet students, but because of the damage caused by flood water, many students have experienced loss of items and home. We are a Title I school, and many of our students are from low-income households.
Please, help us have a successful school year full of learning in a comfortable and clean environment.
Thank you!
My Project: I teach in a Title I low-income and high-poverty school district. My students are faced with several challenges both in and out of the classroom. Through science, my class will be introduced to and learn about life cycles, what plants need to live and grow, and how they can grow their own healthy food at home.
Many of my students, who live in apartments, do not get the opportunity to see vegetables grow or have access each day to vegetables.
My students will learn the life cycle of plants (seed, sprout, plant, flower, vegetable), what a plant needs to live and grow (food, water, air, dirt), where their food comes from (farm or garden), and how they can grow their own food at home.
Through planting our own raised bed vegetable garden, students will be able to watch the life cycle in real time and real life as we plant small seedlings and watch the plants grow and fruit. Students will learn about what a plant needs to live and grow and the parts of a plant and how providing things such as dirt, compost, and fertilizer plants can thrive.
We want the students to acquire a love of the garden and growing food. As the plants grow students will be able to taste the products of their hard work such as tomatoes, cucumbers, spinach, basil, and peppers!!!
Students will also be able to plant a tomato seed in class using the plastic cups and dirt providing through this project! They will be able to watch it grow each day into their very own plant they can take home!
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!
We have completed our 700th project, but that celebration will have to wait until after Tuesday’s election. Here is the thank you note from last week’s funded teacher for the MagnaTiles:
Thank you so much. I appreciate everyone who donated. I wanted to thank Daily Kos for making this project the Project of the Week. My students are going to have so much fun adding these MagnaTiles to their collection. I can't wait to see how their imagination unfolds when they build. Thank you for providing the opportunity for my students to learn with these new resources!
With gratitude,
Mrs. Davis
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 700! The success-list diary also contains links and additional information about DonorsChoose.org.