Scroll down for this week's project. On tap this week: Science Games in Louisiana
Reminder: Look for "The Inoculation Project" every Friday afternoon!
The Inoculation Project: Math & Science in Red State Schools
Solid science education is the best inoculation against ignorance.
The objective of this weekly project is to combat the anti-science push in conservative America by providing direct funding each week to math and science projects in red state classrooms.
Fortunately, a conduit organization for achieving this direct funding already exists: DonorsChoose.org. DonorsChoose.org allows you to make direct contributions to specific classroom projects (all vetted), resulting in tremendous and immediate impacts from small dollar donations.
Each week we focus on funding a single small-dollar project in a traditionally red state classroom. These are projects whose funding requests are expiring within the next week. If the projects are not funded by their expiration date, they die.
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This Week's Project
Project: Hands-On Learning Materials
Resources Needed: hands on math and science learning materials, games, and puzzles to reinforce skills taught in science, reading, and writing
School Poverty Level: High
State: Louisiana
Total Cost: $462.46
Still Needed: $136.75 COMPLETED! See bonus project in comments!
Expires: Jul 15, 2011
Click to Donate
Teacher's Comments:
My Students
Do you remember learning how to read and write with boring texts books, outlining chapter after chapter, and memorizing pointless facts for exams that were forgotten? My students need more than text books and lecturing.
My students are 8 and 9 year old third graders from Southwest Louisiana. They love learning and using many different materials,and at times are quite challenging. Our school is a Title One school, low income and low parental involvement school. I have students in my class of all ability levels, so keeping them all focused and learning is hard with limited hands on materials. My students accept any task thrown their way and deserve to have their experience and knowledge expanded and challenged.
My Project
The items I am asking for will allow all students to practice skills through hands on learning and allow me, the teacher, to work with small groups of students, giving each student more one-on-one time. The science games and reading/writing skills folder games libraries will allow students to work in cooperative groups and understand the different topics in science and reading.
Providing these science games will allow many students to be engaged at once. The reading folders will offer learning in key areas such as grammar/writing, comprehension, vocabulary, and word work. Fluency and comprehension is a big concept and skill in third grade, so these partner scripts will allow students to improve their fluency and comprehension skills with high-interest passages and quizzes while working with a partner. The reading response prompt cards will help guide students while independently reading fiction and non-fiction selections.
Many of my students come from families that do not have the resources to provide the extra help they need to succeed. They also live in an area that does not offer the opportunities these children need to overcome all of the obstacles thrown their way. These materials would maximize their learning potential and allow for maximum growth for students to excel in academics.
Please consider rescuing this project by making a small donation to it. Small dollars make a big difference.
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Good News
Last week's project, Last Child in the Classsroom, got funded!
Here's what the teacher had to say:
I can't begin to tell you all how your generous support inspires me to keep reaching for the stars in terms of providing hands on relevant learning opportunities for my students. I want each of you to know that I love to brag about the amazing acts of kindness I have experienced from perfect strangers like yourselves on Donors Choose. I ran into one of my students the other day and they told me how bored they were and how much they missed being in class especially the field trips. I can't wait to share the great news with students and their families. Thank you again for making their first scientific exploration of the new school year a memorable one.
With gratitude,
Mrs. M.
We also funded the bonus project, Mendel Genetics - Tracing Inherited Traits with Blurps! Pretty awesome!
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Projects Funded So Far
Our list of successfully funded projects has gotten so huge, I gave it its own separate diary!
We're up to 116 funded projects.
Go check it out! (And be sure to click on the links for pictures of the kids working with the resources we provided for them.)
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Helpful Links
DonorsChoose.org
DonorsChoose.org Blog
DonorsChoose.org Donor FAQ
All DonorsChoose.org Math & Science Projects
Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with DonorsChoose.org, or any of the classroom projects presented for funding. I'm just volunteering my time and pixels to make a difference.
