The Inoculation Project, founded in 2009 by hyperbolic pants explosion, is a group of Kossacks who gather weekly to combat the anti-science push in conservative America by providing direct funding to science and math projects in red state classrooms. Our conduit is DonorsChoose.org, a fourteen-year-old organization rated highly by both Charity Navigator and the Better Business Bureau. Here's a little introductory video about DonorsChoose. DonorsChoose.org allows you to make direct contributions to specific, vetted projects in public school classrooms, resulting in tremendous and immediate impacts from small dollar donations. *Each week*, we focus on funding a single small-dollar project at a time, in a traditionally red state classroom and preferably in a high-poverty district.
THIS WEEK’S MAIN PROJECT
Resources: 6 Saltwater Fuel-Cell Car, 1 Salt Water Fuel Cell Monster Truck
School Poverty Level: High
Location: West Fork Middle School, West Fork, AR
Total: $231.40
Still Needed: $231.40 $133.75
Expires: Apr 12, 2016
Teacher’s Comments from Mr. Crane:
My Students: Science is often a challenging subject for middle school students, yet, when given the right materials, it is the most fascinating and engaging subject of them all! Who hasn't made a vinegar and baking soda volcano at some point in their lives?
We attend a small K-12th grade school located in a rural town in which there are just as many dirt roads as there are paved. Many of my students are under resourced 7th and 8th graders who have a passion for learning about the world around them.
Limited only by their own understanding and previous classroom experiences, these young people thrive in an exploratory atmosphere. Many of them have had limited opportunities to receive high quality science exposure due to the heavy emphasis on mathematics and literacy in the early years. Economic backgrounds and limited school resources have inhibited opportunities for them to learn kinesthetically, and develop their scientific communication skills linguistically. My students have had minimal exposure to project-based learning tasks which use real-world applications.
My Project: Powered by saltwater, these fuel-cell cars provide a low-cost introduction to alternative energy sources. No batteries required to introduce students to clean energy! The transparent case allows students to see the rhythm of the piston in vertical or horizontal position. In small teams, my students will be able to experiment with salt-to-water ratios for various effects on performance of their vehicle as they explore alternatives to the use of fossil fuels!
I want my students to truly understand the potential for exploring alternative forms of energy.
Although reading about it in books will benefit the literacy skills of my 7th and 8th graders, they will need opportunities to manipulate and experiment with these different renewable resources to truly understand their impact.
DONATE HERE
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!
We'd like to be able to assist both small and large projects. Our hope is to present a new relatively modest project each week, and then feature a more ambitious project with a long-term deadline, so we can chip away at it each week when our main project is completed. Since DonorsChoose has something similar to a "rec list", every time we create a flurry of activity on a project, even if the dollar amounts involved aren't large, we can push the project up that list so it gets 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 Needed: a contaminated creek kit, forensics kit, and a microscope
School Poverty Level: Highest
Location: Seventh Street Elementary School, N Little Rock, AR
Total Cost: $488.99
Still Needed: $265.46 $215.46
Expires: Jan 31, 2016
Teacher's Comments from Mrs. Bissett:
My Students: Creative thinking and enriching science experiences that spark imagination. I want my students to be creative problem solvers and scientific thinkers by the end of the year.
My students are truly amazing thinkers and desire quality learning experiences.
They love to learn interesting and new things in a fun and exciting way. They crave it and need it because they are gifted and talented students. They are intense, emotional and have needs that are not met in the regular classroom. I help challenge their minds and meet their needs! Our school is under construction. They are building new parts and remodeling others. The school has a 92% free and reduced lunch rate, and it is located in a low socioeconomic area. Many have never even left their neighborhood.
My Project: My students will go on a CSI mystery. They will try to solve the mystery of the contaminated creek. They will try to solve what contaminated the creek, what happens when chemicals are spilled in our natural water ways, and what happens to the ecosystem of the creek. They will learn the importance of why dilution is not the solution. The learning does not stop there. Someone gets attacked while taking samples where the spill occurred. Students will have to figure out why someone wouldn't want samples taken from the creek and catch the attacker through forensic science. Through deductive reasoning and using the creative problem solving process students will solve both mysteries.
My classroom is a portable while the new wing is under construction.
We share a wall with another teacher and it is loud. The construction trucks that back up make a very loud beeping noise. These are challenges that we face everyday. I try to create learning experiences that spark creative thinking to help them forget about all the craziness going on around us.
DONATE HERE
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!
OUR DOLLAR’S AT WORK
Elementary school students in Mrs. Poteet’s class are working with the Snap Circuits and K’nex Gears Kit that were supplied from the project, ASJLibrary Makerspace.
There are additional photos at the link.
HOUSEKEEPING
See our list of successfully funded projects. We're up to 492!
When projects are not fully funded by their expiration date, donors are contacted by DonorsChoose and asked to choose another project to which to redirect their donations. Occasionally, a fully funded project is called off for some reason internal to the school/teacher, and funding is returned. We have no way of knowing why, but DonorsChoose handles those donations in the same way as for expired projects.
How is the poverty level defined at DonorsChoose.org?
Poverty level refers to the percentage of students at a given school who qualify for free and reduced lunch, which is considered a measure of economic need. To be deemed eligible for free lunch, a student's family income must be within 130% of the poverty line (a max of $29,055 for a family of four). For reduced lunch, the family income must be within 185% of the poverty level (a max of $41,348 for a family of four). Schools with 10%-39% of students receiving free/reduced lunch are denoted as "moderate poverty" while schools with more than 40% of students receiving free/reduced lunch are denoted as "high poverty". For projects submitted from a school where free lunch rate data is unavailable or unreliable, "Poverty Data Unavailable" will appear.
More information: DonorsChoose.org, DonorsChoose.org, DonorsChoose.org
We are in no way affiliated with DonorsChoose.org, or any of the classroom projects presented for funding.
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You are welcome to use The Inoculation Project avatar as your DonorsChoose avatar if you wish. If you need instructions for uploading it to your DonorsChoose profile, you'll find them in this diary.