This week, we’re helping provide Elementary Fraction Kits for South Carolina 4th-graders at a never-before-funded teacher’s school and parts for a Texas elementary school computer club that’s ready to move up from repairs and build a computer! 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 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.
GrowingMindsinSC chose this never-before-funded teacher’s project to celebrate her birthday earlier this month: “Mr. Trull is a 1st year teacher teaching math to all 4th graders in the school. He really needs these resources to teach fractions effectively.” Her birthday donors got this project off to a great start, and perhaps our usual flurry of small donations will help push it across the finish line in the next couple of weeks.
MAIN PROJECT
Resources: Help me give my students hands on math manipulative items that will help them understand core math concepts.
Economic need: Nearly all students from low‑income households
Location: Hickory Tavern Elementary-Middle School, Gray Court, South Carolina
Total: $658.85
Still Needed: $293.12 Completed, thank you! Please consider bonus projects below.
Teacher’s Comments from Mr. Trull:
My Students: Students come to school with a variety of life experiences. They strive to feel included and accepted. These kids are filled with the energy to learn and are excited to try new things.
Sometimes they find it difficult to overcome challenging concepts, but with a bit of encouragement and redirection, they work hard at learning new ideas.
The students need extra support and learning materials to really shine. Several students face many hurdles and need the help of others to level the playing field so they can become successful learners.
My Project: Because I am a first year teacher, I do not have a slew of hands-on materials for my students. The Elementary Fraction Kits contains materials that will allow all of the students to have materials available to manipulate fractions. The fraction games add another dimension to learning by appealing to students eagerness to compete.
I love keeping my students engaged and seeing them learn new concepts!
I would love to be able to have math manipulative items that will aid in keeping students engaged. Using hands on materials will allow students to see the concepts they are trying to understand. Students really struggle with understanding fractions. Without visuals it is nearly impossible to understand how much of something a fraction is.
These hands-on fraction kits and games will be a huge help in giving these young, eager learners a firm grasp on understanding fractions.
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!
Mr. Fenner, our long-term project’s teacher, signed up last week to post a comment in belinda ridgewood’s diary:
Hello all,
Thank you all so much for supporting and bringing attention to my project. We have used the club this year to give two computers so far to students of low income families for home use and at the end of the year we were planning on giving away another. I have always had a passion for STEM and even though I teach reading I like to integrate the two together as much as possible. My room is a mash up of Harry Potter theme with an old look with great technology and a modern look at once. Most of what I do in the computer club comes out of my own pocket or uses my equipment so it is nice when we can have some assistance through Donors Choose. If you want to check out what we have done in the computer club at my school and in my classroom my twitter is @MrFennerCobb.
We have plenty of time to complete this project, and we’re going to stick with it until we do so.
LONG-TERM PROJECT
Resources: Help me give my students an experience building our own computer in our after-school club.
Economic need: More than three-quarters of students from low‑income households
Location: Viola Cobb Elementary School, Channelview, Texas
Total: $750.72 (1.5x matching funds from Verizon)
Still Needed: $413.34 Completed, thank you! Please consider projects below.
Teacher’s Comments from Mr. Fenner:
My Students: I am a sixth year teacher working on my first year trying flexible seating. I teach in a low-income/Title I school district, and my students face several challenges both in and out of the classroom. This year we were struck by Hurricane Harvey and our school was really not damaged, but the homes of many of my students were.
Despite the hardships they have faced, they are resilient and spirited learners making their way back.
They like to move, they love to read and love lots of positive attention. From the minute they walk in the door of my classroom, I focus on their potential and growth while they are with me. I may not be able personally to solve the many challenges they face outside of school. However, I can certainly make a powerful impact on the eight hours they spend here at school every day.
My Project: I run an after-school club at my elementary school where I teach 5th graders how to build and repair computers as a valuable skill, hobby, and potential future career. My students love getting their hands in a computer and learning how it works.
This project would give us the parts that we want to build a new computer for our after school club.
These computer components would help us with the missing pieces that we still require in order to build our next computer.
The processor, ram, graphics card, SSD, power supply, monitor, and mouse will be combined with some other pieces we already have to complete a computer. The students will be able to build this computer from start to finish in order to learn how it works and how they can do this to save money or as a future career. Since we are an AVID campus I am all about teaching students about future STEM related professions.
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!
Edited to add bonus projects!
BONUS PROJECT
Resources: Help me give my students the new TI-84 Plus calculators! They work hard and deserve the best tools to help them be successful.
Economic need: Nearly all students from low‑income households
Location: North Wilkes High School, Hays, North Carolina
Total: $982.93 (1.5x match offer)
Still Needed: $272.21 $129.72 ($87 from us!)
Teacher’s Comments from Mrs. Shirk:
My Students: We are a low income school in the northwest corner of North Carolina. My classes are composed of 9th-12th graders that are eager to learn the math required to get them ready for the real world and college.
We are a school where 60% of our students receive free lunch and about 20% receive reduced price lunch.
Our textbooks are outdated; our calculators are outdated and are all but dead. Most of our students come from low income families without the means to buy the required technology.
My Project: UPGRADE! Please help me get a small class set of TI-84 Plus calculators to help them work through various types of math problems. On our current roster, we have students ranging from 9th to 12th grade, in a variety of math classes. I would love to have a very versatile calculator which would allow all of the students to appropriately access assistance.
These new calculators will help foster a love of math!
Our current calculators have been around for a while and have been painted, buttons have worn off, and screens are scratched or cracked. My kiddos and I would love a new set to help foster a love of math and build the confidence required to be successful in math.
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!
This project was posted by a never-before-funded teacher:
BONUS PROJECT #2
Resources: Help me give my students STEAM lab kits to explore engineering and the creative process through these products!
Economic need: Nearly all students from low‑income households
Location: Raquel Pena Elementary School, Brownsville, Texas
Total: $185.66
Still Needed: $85.66 $80.66
Teacher’s Comments from Ms. Castaneda:
My Students: My kids are fun, serious, interesting and challenging. Each has a unique way of learning, communicating, and excelling. They are hard working and keep up with my high expectations. We are a blended learning class for ELLs. They are always engaged and eager to learn beyond the books. They accepted the challenge and are excelling. They love working together and completing objectives.
STEAM challenges gets their attention and motivation.
Our school is a place where students can get the support, encouragement, and the inspiration to be successful! Our classroom family is faced with academic, social, and emotional challenges every day but the drive for success overcome any challenges. Our classroom is a place where technology, creativity, risk-taking and project-based learning is used to succeed.
My Project: Thames & Kosmos The Big Engineering Makerspace and SmartLab(r) Aftershock Earthquake Labtm Kit will continue to enhance our STEAM classroom that I strive to create. My classroom is a place that my students really enjoy hands-on experiences!! These kits will give my students opportunities to enhance their learning at a new level.
With Thames & Kosmos The Big Engineering Makerspace and SmartLab(r) Aftershock Earthquake Labtm Kit, my students will be able to choose how they can bring to life their creations and allow them to explore engineering independently with their own creativity.
It will also allow them more options to use in order create new products and ideas to solve real-world problems. My students already have shown an astonishing interest in engineering and this project will only help enrich their experiences.
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!
Thanks to a boost from our donors, last week’s main project — Hand Sewing Quilts in Our Middle School Math Class — was completed! Here’s the teacher’s thank you note:
I want to offer a sincere thank you to each and every one of you for helping my students! It's great to see a student project transform from an idea in my head to an actual student product.
Pictures of the completed quilts will be coming as soon as possible!
With gratitude,
Mrs. Hall
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 723! The success-list diary also contains links and additional information about DonorsChoose.org.