This week, we’re helping two Texas projects: a high school agriculture teacher in west Texas, hoping to teach soil testing, and a Houston elementary school librarian trying to buy the books her students ask for. We hope that readers who support quality public school education will help by sharing or supporting our featured projects.
The Inoculation Project is an ongoing, volunteer effort to crowdfund science, math, and literacy projects for public schools in low-income neighborhoods. As always, our conduit is DonorsChoose, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation that facilitates tax-deductible donations to specific, vetted projects in public schools.
Good news: the big Texas project we’ve long been working on has benefited from some donations that were matched earlier this week in a special event for Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month. That matching is over now, BUT the amount still needed is so diminished that the project is moving up here this week, and I think we’re likely to see it completed before next week!
Mr. Reisinger is a brand-new junior/senior high school teacher in a little dot of a town a bit southeast of Lubbock, Texas. He’s teaching agriculture classes, and he needs all sorts of equipment, as new teachers will. This project is most focused on soil testing. (“FFA” is “Future Farmers of America”.)
PROJECT #1
Resources: Help me give my students an Agriculture class to remember this school year.
Economic need: An Equity Focus School; more than three‑quarters of students from low‑income households.
Location: Wilson School, Wilson, Texas
Total: $1,139.87
Still Needed: $148.66 Completed! Yay, thank you! Please consider project #2 below.
Project description by Mr. Reisinger: I am brand new into teaching starting my first year as an Agriculture at a very small 1a school in West Texas serving a predominately minority population with various socioeconomic situations. I teach plant science and agriculture mechanics/wielding to students from 7th-12th grade, I will also be teaching a middle school stem class. I also run the FFA chapter at the same time. My goal is to establish a fun agriculture program while also providing skills that students can later use in their careers.
My main goal is to get enough soil testing kits so that students and work collaboratively to gain new skills in soil science and better understand nutrients required for plant growth in the soil.
These supplies will help further develop skills in my students to allow them to be better members of society. Help me develop better citizens in my school and community.
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!
I’m pleased that we’re about to complete this project, if for no other reason than that you’re probably getting tired of soil testing videos. This one’s a bit different — it’s from a British organic farming organization, and it suggests a series of manual tests as well as the kind we’ve been talking about. The one where you dig up a shovelful of soil and inventory all the worms made me glad that I am not obliged to be a farmer.
PROJECT #2
Resources: Help me give my students additional brand-new library-bound books of well-loved children's titles and more!
Economic need: An Equity Focus School; nearly all students from low‑income households.
Location: Vera Escamilla Elementary School, Houston, Texas
Total: $200.19
Still Needed: $189.31 $117.54
Project description by Ms. L.: With a robust school library's collection, students can fall in love with books even more. I am in the process of updating my collection to fill more of the requests from my wonderful students. It has been a journey. The campus is in year five as a newly reconfigured elementary campus, thus bringing a set of challenges. We also recently welcomed the new dual-language program at our campus - we are blessed to be one of the few elementary campuses to offer this amazing program. As a result, I have a wide range of reading tastes - so I am excited to start this series of providing access to popular titles.
I am requesting the graphic novel, Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, so that they can share with their families and friends!
Graphic novels are proven to help students grow in their language abilities, especially students in the English Learners program. Students had been asking for this specific title and I can't wait for this project to be funded!
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!
The requested books, Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, are actually a six-volume series, with reinforced library bindings. They started life as a Marvel comic series, which attracted the attention of Laurence Fishburne. He pursued turning it into an animated series, and Disney ultimately picked it up. This is a Disney short poking fun at the how-to-draw-x style, but it’s a good intro to the main characters, a 13-year-old genius and unwilling superhero, and her pal the hot-dog-loving tyrannosaurus.
We’re just loaded with good news today! Our main project from last week was completed, with our readers doing a lot of the heavy lifting, boosted by a matching offer.
Project #1, Books for Little People: Mrs. Brown wanted to give her Norfolk, VA pre-schoolers books that they can take home and keep, because not every home has any.
She writes: This is awesome news! I simply cannot thank you enough for providing books for my little ones. What an incredible act of kindness! Thank You so much, These books will be a great enrichment for my students at home, who don't have much of a library. I will also have a copy for my classroom. This is wonderful.
| DonorsChoose has developed the designation Equity Focus Schools to describe some schools that submit projects. They meet two criteria: at least 50% of students are Black, Latinx, Native American, Pacific Islander, or multiracial, and at least 50% of students qualify for free or reduced price lunch, the standard measure for school economic need. You can read more at the link about their efforts to address the longstanding inequity in education. |
Founded in 2009, The Inoculation Project seeks to fund science, math, and literacy projects in public school classrooms and libraries. Our conduit is DonorsChoose, 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 projects 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 1053! The success-list diary also contains links and additional information about DonorsChoose.
