This week, we’re helping Kansas City high school students studying to be EMTs, and Houston first graders just getting started learning about science. 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 red-state 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.
This never-before-funded teacher in a Kansas City tech high school hopes to help her multi-lingual students in their EMT studies, with earbuds that run software based on Google Translate. But for that, she’ll need an Android tablet.
PROJECT #1
Resources: Help me give my students the technology to understand the subject of emergency medicine
Economic need: An Equity Focus School; nearly all students from low‑income households.
Location: Manual Career & Tech Center, Kansas City, Missouri
Total: $275.13
Still Needed: $275.13 $195.13
Teacher’s Comments from Ms. P.:
My Project: One thing I truly love about my classroom is that it is very diverse with students from all over the world. With this demographic comes some English language learning challenges. Teaching students how to become an EMT requires more than a basic understanding of English due to the post-secondary nature of the course and the medical terms being introduced. I have tried to help my students' need for English comprehension by providing the Google Pixel Buds A-series. The technology is amazing! With the assistance of the Google Translate app, the Pixel Buds can help the student hear spoken language continuously translated into their ear accompanied by a transcript. I didn't realize the live translation feature only works on an Android device.
With this project, I would be able to reach more students and encourage English Language Learners to pursue a career as an Emergency Medical Technician.
I think it would be so wonderful to see my students improve their understanding of what is being discussed in the classroom. By donating to this project you will be helping students grasp the concepts of emergency medicine. This device will also allow us to introduce virtual medical simulation into the classroom setting.
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!
This is a pretty cool bit of tech, even if not perfect.
Our new longer-term project comes from a Houston early-elementary teacher who saw one of our posts and took the initiative to sign up for a Daily Kos account and present her project to me via Kosmail!
I’m glad she did, because my usual searches don’t include projects as large as hers, but that doesn’t mean we can’t take one up now and then. She has plenty of time plus, currently, 2x matching funds from Chevron: Chevron recognizes that supporting racial equity in education is essential. In partnership with DonorsChoose, Chevron seeks to provide students with resources that increase access to STEM opportunities for Black, Latinx, and Indigenous Americans.
PROJECT #2
Resources: Help me give my students a sensory light table and desk with supplies along with hands-on S.T.E.A.M. learning materials.
Economic need: An Equity Focus School; nearly all students from low‑income households.
Location: Green Valley Elementary School, Houston, Texas
Total: $970.06 (2x matching funds from Chevron)
Still Needed: $790.06 $370.06 ($186 from us)
Teacher’s Comments from Ms. Perez:
My Project: My 1st Grade Scholars are my Super Heroes! Among the many challenges that they face, they have proven their resilience and remain optimistic and are excited to come to school each day.
“The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically—Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education”, Martin Luther King.
My First Grade Scholars enjoy coming to school each day and they are eager to learn and if you took one step into our classroom, you can see their curiosity that drives them naturally.
My students attend a Title I school. More than 80% receive free lunch and free breakfast is offered to each student. As their Bilingual Education Teacher, I am their voice and will always advocate to close the learning gap and help my students succeed despite the low socio-economic school population. Their creativity, drive for knowledge, and determination to overcome all obstacles is why they deserve much more than what they have.
These donations will further inspire my First Grade Scholars to do well in their day to day learning experiences as well as motivate them to intensify their learning and discovery through the sensory light table and desk through hands-on learning to explore various math concepts with the math manipulatives provided. The students will also be engaged with the science readers provided and the translucent pattern blocks so they can make endless S.T.E.A.M designs and creations unfold right before their eyes. The much needed storage and desk supplies will house these math and science resources for our classroom so they can last for future 1st grade scientists in our classroom for years to come.
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!
Among the requested tools is a whole collection of items for kids to use on a light table. Ordinary things like letters, shapes, and blocks take on a new dimension when they are transparent and glow in pretty colors against the light surface! The first video is a little ad from the maker of some of the products.
But the uses of a light table don’t end there!
Our main project from last week was completed, with a couple of rounds of good help from our readers!
Project #1, Let's Get Our Learning-on With Hands-on!: Mrs. Lattner needed an assortment of interesting lab kits, to help bring science to life for her Cleveland middle school students.
She writes: Thank you for making it possible for my students to have engaging hands on science materials. Learning about DNA and genetic traits will be easier when the students can manipulate it. Remembering the elements of Periodic Table of Elements will become easy practice. The students will become masters of ecosystems, biomes, and biodiversity. We will have enough litmus paper to test many more household items to see if they are acids or bases.
This is all due to amazing donors like you.
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 combats the anti-science, anti-education push in conservative America by funding science, math, and literacy projects in red-state 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 976! The success-list diary also contains links and additional information about DonorsChoose.