This week, we celebrate a special day for DonorsChoose in their quest to connect donors with public school classrooms, and we’ll have a chance to make our own connections! We’ll also have news of one of our 2017 completed 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.
I should open by saying that, despite the date, this is not an April Fool’s diary! The story I’m going to tell you sounds crazy, so I will let Stephen Colbert confirm it for me. (Okay, maybe that’s not the best way to make you believe it’s true...)
On Tuesday, the DonorsChoose site was down all day. Of course, that happened last Sunday too, but this time, they said it was scheduled downtime. When the site came back online that night, here was the news, delivered on Colbert’s Late Show: The cryptocurrency company Ripple had donated $29 million in the form of its own cryptocurrency, XRP, to DonorsChoose, with the expected effect of completely funding all the open projects on DonorsChoose at the time, some 35,000 of them! (DonorsChoose will liquidate the XRP into USD over two weeks, so as to create a less dramatic effect on the XRP market.) Here’s Stephen:
And here’s Charles Best, the founder of DonorsChoose, with the Ripple SVP of Marketing, to tell you themselves:
On a normal weekend, we hold off making final project selections for our diary until Saturday night (to avoid putting time into ones that get paid up before Sunday), then hang out on Sunday morning and update the projects in the diary. But this weekend is Easter, a family day for both nomandates and myself. Now, consider the likely half-life of a new science project on DonorsChoose five days after a) all 35,000 prior projects have been funded and b) the charity’s been plugged on TV by Colbert. They’re winking out like bits of Chinese satellite this week, and yay! to that.
We try to post a diary in our regular format every Sunday no matter what. But this time, in honor of #BestSchoolDay and in recognition that neither of us can spare the time to keep an open project in the diary, we’ve decided to make this do-it-yourself Inoculation Project day.
Here’s how it works: When you click the link under the Inoculation Project avatar, you will go to a list of all available DonorsChoose projects classified as Science/Math in “traditional” public schools, in order by smallest amount needed to complete. As you scroll down, you’ll notice all kinds of options along the left side to change or narrow your search results, and above the list on the right, there’s a dropdown to change the sort order.
Have a look around, and if you choose to donate to a project that appeals to you, I hope you’ll let us know in the comments what it was. We will not be mad if you wander off and choose, say, a blue-state art project. You’re the donor, and you get to choose!
We will stop by as we can during the day. Happy Easter, happy Passover, happy Ostara! But by all means, keep reading below!
Last week, two of our three projects were completed on Sunday, and the third was finished by the Ripple donation.
First, we helped Mrs. Hash’s North Carolina third graders get a stack of nonfiction books about the lives of inspiring women, in the sciences and other fields. The project was Little Literature Leaders. Mrs. Hash writes: The impact of these books encourages young girls to be interested in math and science and it also helps the young gentlemen in my school to see girls as equals in the field and help them value the girls in their classes. This impact is not only educational in supplementing lessons in the STEM field, but also impacts the mindset of the readers.
Then, Mrs. Graff’s Oklahoma middle school students needed a geared sun-earth-moon model that would demonstrate how the movements of these bodies are responsible for seasons, moon phases, and eclipses. The project was Illuminating Astronomy. Mrs. Graff writes: I am so overwhelmed by the generosity shown by so many. I love my job! I love my students! Sometimes I feel like I am teaching with one hand tied behind my back due to a lack of funding/ resources. The right way to teach science isn't cheap. Thank you for freeing me up to teach with passion and resources. Thank you for helping us purchase a tool that will "Illuminate" their learning.
And then, we helped Mrs. Robinson’s Iowa middle schoolers with another big stack of books, this time science fiction and science non-fiction. The project was Science and Literature. Mrs. Robinson writes: Wow! I am so excited to have so many generous donors. I am also thrilled to be a part of #bestschoolday for 2018. I cannot wait to start reading a few of these books and see how to incorporate them as not only materials for students to take home, but also as read aloud pieces in the classroom. Again, thank you all so much!
Our Dollars at Work!!!
In early December, we were able to help the FIRST Robotics Team headquartered at a South Carolina high school obtain the programmable joysticks they’d need to control their robots in the year’s competitions. The project was Joysticks for the Win! At the time, the team advisor, Mr. Johnson, wrote: I especially want to thank the donors who read about our project on The Inoculation Project! It is amazing to watch students from various walks of life sharing their unique perspectives and skills to create a fully functional and competitive robot! Listening to them openly discuss their hopes and ideas gives me tremendous hope for our future!
I urge you to go to the link to see the other pictures, and read his longer note explaining why the new joysticks are so important. And then, read the paragraphs that follow these pictures.
This week, Mr. Johnson (now a registered Daily Kos user!) was kind enough to send me a kosmail to say how his team did. He wanted me to share that news with you all. He writes:
In your blog dated 12/03/2017, you featured our Donors Choose project for 4 joysticks. The robotics team 342 placed 3rd at the Palmetto Regional Competition in Myrtle Beach, SC and 2nd at the Rocket City Regional Competition in Huntsville, Alabama.
We were awarded a Wild Card slot at the World Championship in Houston, Texas. Our success is due in part to the joysticks that your readers donated to the team. I am so very grateful to your readers’ generosity. Please let them know how thankful we are for their gifts.
We’re so proud to have been able to give this obviously talented team a hand! May they continue to be successful!
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 651! The success-list diary also contains links and additional information about DonorsChoose.org.