This week, we’re helping a Florida early-grades teacher and an Oklahoma middle-school teacher fund materials for their classes to do some interesting science experiments. 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.
As so often happens, we made such good progress on our larger project from last week, I’m bumping it up here today! This never-before-funded teacher of early elementary students is in a small city in central Florida, about midway across the state from Tampa. She’s seeking books and lab kits about plants, insects, growing crystals, and more.
PROJECT #1
Resources: Help me give my students new and exciting real life science experiences in the classroom with discovery kits.
Economic need: An Equity Focus School; nearly all students from low‑income households.
Location: Janie Howard Wilson Elementary School, Lake Wales, Florida
Total: $355.81
Still Needed: $146.99 $61.99
Teacher’s Comments from Ms. Williams:
My Project: My students are at the beginning of their educational career and are excited about everything they are learning. In our classroom we strive to be lifelong learners, these amazing science discovery materials will allow us to participate in some real life strategies.
Never stop questioning!
This is our motto and by embracing this, our class can gain knowledge in each activity we complete from growing our own vegetables to learning new cultures through hands on activities.
With your help, students will be able to not only watch the root systems of their plants grow but identify the beneficial insects on each leaf.
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!
One of the resources requested is a lab kit for germinating seeds and watching them grow in a see-through growing medium. As it happens, I just love seed-germination cross-section time-lapses! This one is a kidney bean.
The pea vine illustrates how that spinning behavior works for the vine when support is made available.
Bonus: three baby oak trees take their time sprouting from acorns!
Many thanks to Eastern Bluebird for locating this new project! Mrs. Hastings is a never-before-funded middle-school science teacher in the small town of Idabel, all the way in the southeastern corner of Oklahoma, in the Choctaw Nation. We’ll have the help of 2x matching funds from an anonymous donor.
PROJECT #2
Resources: Help me give my students a microscope and slides for a hands-on experience within our science lab!
Economic need: An Equity Focus School; nearly all students from low‑income households.
Location: Idabel Middle School, Idabel, Oklahoma
Total: $690.91 (2x matching funds from an anonymous funder)
Still Needed: $540.91 $250.91 ($126 from us)
Teacher’s Comments from Mrs. Hastings:
My Project: My students are all unique individuals and learn best in a unique way. Just like many adults, my students learn best through hands-on experiences. These materials will allow me to give that opportunity to my students to help further their knowledge of the scientific world around them. Project-based learning will be the center of my science class. Science should be inclusive and fun!
Every student should be able to question the possibilities of the world around them and explore those possibilities.
These materials will allow my students to think outside the box. They will also help students immerse themselves into learning. Encouraging future scientists to love their learning and do amazing things in life.
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!
This is just a short overview of the microscope kit that is one of the items requested.
One piece of the kit is brine shrimp eggs. Brine shrimp have long been sold as “sea monkeys”, but I had no idea until I saw this video that the shady salesman who thought that up was a Klan-adjacent white supremacist!
Our main project from last week was completed, mostly by our readers!
Project #1, Just a Few Scientists, with No Resources...Safety First?...Oh Boy: Ms. Monday teaches earth science at a Georgia middle school. She’s wanted to do some labs with her students, but lacked safety equipment as well as lab materials.
She writes: Thank you so much your generosity!
This year, I have tons of STEAM focused lab activities that I will be able to conduct “safely”. I will also be able to reinforce and remediate with the other donated material.
Thanks again, 2022-2023 will be filled with safe SCIENTISTS in Miss Monday class.
| 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 989! The success-list diary also contains links and additional information about DonorsChoose.
