This week, we're helping to provide simple math tools to a special needs preschool class in Missouri and materials to program a robot and study life cycles to a kindergarten class in South Carolina. Edited to add a STEM project for an elementary school in Norfolk, Virginia since the South Carolina project was completed so quickly!
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.
As belinda ridgewood explained last week, Ms. Meyers teaches pre-K students with special needs and developmental delays in Joplin, Missouri, and hopes to get some hands-on activities to help the children with basic math concepts like shapes and counting. Because this project is so close to completion now, it made sense to move it from long-term status to our main project.
MAIN PROJECT
Resources: Help me give my students hands on math supplies to build active engagement including magnetic manipulatives, counters and pattern blocks.
Economic need: More than half of students from low‑income households
Location: Joplin Early Childhood Center, Joplin, Missouri
Total: $235.84
Still Needed: $114.07 Completed, thank you! Please consider Project 3 below.
Teacher’s Comments from Ms. Meyers:
My Students: The students have a variety of needs including, but not limited to, limited or no exposure to peers, academics, communication, social or motor concepts. Many of the children have limited or no language and are working on basic and appropriate communication. The children also have limited social-emotional or social-behavior skills that are developmental below their age range and they are being introduced to appropriate social interactions as well as social communicational skills for themselves, to engage with peers, and to engage with adults.
My students are special because they are children and children are a miracle and a blessing to teach, learn from, and watch them grow into excited and participating life-long learners.
My classroom has a variety of students, though most of the students are from a low-economic area.
My classroom consists of children with specialized needs (Autism, learning, physical, and motor disabilities [fine and gross], developmental delays, and communication disabilities). The classroom also contains children with typical developmental progress who help provide modeling for the students with delays. The combined format also provides each student the opportunity to connect, make friendships, and learn about the diversity around them and how to empathize with each other.
My Project: I am requesting support in developing my students math center activities. Some of the supplies I am requesting include pattern blocks and designs which will allow students to explore shapes and how shapes make up pictures and objects around them. Another item includes manipulatives that will allow for thematic engagement, magnetic exploration and learning about numbers and how numbers and math concepts are everywhere around them.
Hands-on manipulatives allow students to actively engage and explore.
By adding a variety of manipulatives to my classroom, I'm helping my students increase their curiosity, ability to seek out information and to help develop their problem solving skills.
My students enjoy the basic math supplies we have now, but I would like to expand the center to help build up a deeper understanding of math and allow for more students to be able to participate in the center without limiting the number of supplies the students effectively need to explore the concepts fully.
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!
Our new long-term project will provide a coding robot and life cycle materials for some kindergarten students in N Charleston, South Carolina.
LONG-TERM PROJECT
Resources: Help me give my students a coding robot, ant farm, and Root Vue Farm to explore technology and science standards.
Economic need: Nearly all students from low‑income households
Location: Windsor Hill Elementary School, N Charleston, South Carolina
Total: $243.56
Still Needed: $243.56 Completed, thank you! Please consider Project 3 below.
Teacher’s Comments from Ms. Wilt:
My Students: I teach in a Title I school with high poverty. Our school is currently funded by a grant for free breakfast and lunch for all students. Our class is composed of students from many backgrounds including students with different languages spoken in the home. We have a mix of boys and girls from five to six years old. This is the first school experience for many of my students.
Students are excited about all aspects of the school including lessons, arts infusion activities, experiments, and social interactions.
The enthusiasm our children exhibit motivates and encourages me.
My Project: Kindergarten students need hands-on experiences to understand their environment. I want to provide my students' opportunities to create for themselves. By adding these tools to my classroom, we will be able to grow plants, investigate the life of ants, and program a robot.
Engaging my students with experiments that they plan and implement will not only motivate them but also encourage critical thinking skills.
As students program their robot to maneuver around obstacles they are not only learning to code, but they will also be problem solving. Growing their own plants and caring for an ant farm will provide students opportunities to witness life cycles in the classroom.
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!
Less than an hour after posting, one project has already been completed, so here’s another one!
Resources: Help me give my students these STEM, Chemistry & Biology, Learning Kits. The Inquiries in Science: Understanding Properties of Matter Kit will be so engaging. They will learn so much from each of these hands on experiences.
Economic need: Nearly all students from low‑income households
Location: Granby Elementary School, Norfolk, Virginia
Total: $1,148.31 (match offer has expired)
Still Needed: $1,048.31 $621.25
Teacher’s Comments from Mrs. B.:
My Students: As a teacher in a Title I school district, my students are faced with several challenges both in and out of the classroom. Despite the many challenges they face, they are capable of so many great things. I want them to become thinkers and problem solvers. I want the world to become relevant to their learning. I want them to love learning.
They are creative, clever and very spontaneous but need the chance to explore this.
Many of them are being raised in single parent households and we have a high military population. Exposure to nightly reading and vocabulary may be limited. This may prevent them from getting ahead early in life and may not provide them with the life experiences many of us see as "typical". From the minute they walk in the door of my classroom, I focus on their potential and growth while they are with me. I am teaching them how to be leaders and get ready for higher education and their career choices in the STEM fields.
My Project: With this STEM project and multiple types of STEM Learning Kits, my students will be able to utilize our Science Learning Lab to it's full potential and to THEIR full potential. The students will be able to focus on their surrounding and make a conscious effort of what they are noticing and doing with their hands and their minds while using these STEM Learning kits, thus motivating them to investigate and dig deeper.
Using hands on STEM Learning Kits and conducting scientific investigations regularly will encourage students to wonder and ask more “why” questions.
The Owl Pellets, Essence of Slime and Chemical Reaction Kits are just a few of the learning kits that my students will be able to make real life scientific connections to. This will make them better communicators, keen observers and confident enough to take on the world of STEM. We will use all of these STEM labs for our Mad Science Club before school activities, Reading and Math integration lessons, and STEM experiments throughout the day for all grade levels.
Last week’s main project — STEM and Ozobot Robotics — was completed with a huge assist from our donors!
I am tremendously thankful for the kind gift that you have bestowed on me and my students. Your love and kindness will help my students to advance in their technology and robotics skills. I cannot wait to tell my students how they have been blessed with a gift from wonderful people that will enhance their learning. The tools that you funded will enable students to connect STEM concepts with concrete skills. We love and thank you for believing in our ability to learn STEM. Thank you so much!
With gratitude,
Ms. Johnson
Founded in 2009, The Inoculation Project combats the anti-science push in conservative America by funding science and math projects in 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 science or math projects, 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 711! The success-list diary also contains links and additional information about DonorsChoose.org.
DONORS CHOOSE WOULD LIKE YOU TO KNOW that if you need to squeeze in some tax-deductible donations before the year ends, but don’t have time to browse projects during the holidays, you can pre-purchase “account credits” now, at this link, and apply them to projects at any time in the next year. (If you do not get around to applying them, one year from the date of your donation, DonorsChoose will apply your credits to help urgent projects they select.)