This week, we’re helping a Houston middle-school teacher get some science books, and a Cleveland fifth-grade teacher get tiny organisms for an “ecosystem in a bottle” project. 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 week we have a new project, from a Houston middle-school teacher who needs more books she can coax boys to read. She has a great collection here of mostly science and technology non-fiction. Many thanks to Eastern Bluebird for sharing this suggestion!
This project should not be very hard to complete, with matching funds from The Montgomery Family Fund: We believe that instilling a love of reading is critical to setting students up for success in life. We invite you to join us in supporting projects that provide books to classrooms in Texas.
PROJECT #1
Resources: Help me give my students nonfiction science books to add to our classroom library.
Economic need: An Equity Focus School; nearly all students from low‑income households.
Location: Woodland Acres Middle School, Houston, Texas
Total: $255.31 (2x matching funds from The Montgomery Family Fund)
Still Needed: $235.31 $85.31 ($43 from us)
Project description by Mrs. Self:
I would like to provide science based nonfiction books for my students. Many boys preferred to read nonfiction than fiction books. Many of them love books about science, cars, planes, spies, etc. Many of my students came up to me specifically asking for these types of books.
I would love to have these books in my classroom library.
I know they would love, love these books! This donation would be greatly appreciated. There is nothing I love more than being able to provide books that they're interested in. Thank you.
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!
The Way Things Work Now is the updated version of David Macaulay’s fascinating The Way Things Work, which takes apart technology so you don’t have to. This is a very brief video; there’s a great talk of almost an hour from him, and nothing in between.
Outbreak! Plagues That Changed History is also on the list.
We came a long way with this project when matching funds were available, and when they ran out, we came another long way. We will just keep moving forward now! Mrs. Saxon has planned for her fifth-graders in Cleveland to raise plants and animals in a couple of two-liter soda bottles. Everything on her list is a tiny living organism, even the “tank set,” which is actually a collection of 11 little marine critters.
PROJECT #2
Resources: Help me give my students a Carolina Touch Tank, Fantail Goldfish, Mosquito Fish, and other aquatic items to support our hands on learning with ecosytems.
Economic need: An Equity Focus School; nearly all students from low‑income households.
Location: Nathan Hale Elementary School, Cleveland, Ohio
Total: $867.05
Still Needed: $306.99 $121.99
Project description by Mrs. Saxon:
My students attend school in a large urban district in Ohio, where 100% of the student body receives free breakfast and lunch. Many of our students walk to school through neighborhoods characterized by boarded-up abandoned buildings and overgrown empty lots. Despite this, my students manage to come to school daily with a passion for education and especially love rising to the task of project-based, inquiry learning.
These materials will make a difference in my students' learning because they especially enjoy learning opportunities that allow them to have hands-on experiences and different learning modalities.
Having resources for constructing and investigating an actual ecosystem will make a huge difference in my students' learning.
My students will get to extend learning beyond the textbook by participating in a STEM activity in which we construct a pop bottle ecosystem complete with live mosquito fish, snails, pillbugs, and aquatic producers. We would first start out by using our available technology to research each of the main organisms that we will handle.
Next, students will contribute by donating/recycling empty 2-liter pop bottles. Students will build the terrarium by utilizing one of the bottles. Inside the terrarium, students will grow grass, mustard, and radish seeds. They will use daily journals to record observations and measurements, as insects and abiotic materials are slowly introduced to the environment. They will use the other pop bottle to make the aquarium portion of the ecosystem. Aquatic plants and organisms will be added and observed as well. Finally, the students will connect the land and water containers to make a complete ecosystem.
We will use the touch tank organisms and goldfish to make predictions, test theories, and further extend our knowledge. This project will significantly help my students understand how all organisms (big or small) are connected within an ecosystem.
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!
This was the best demo video I could find on what the project to be built is like.
We had plenty of time to learn about mosquito fish, so here’s another organism that will be moving to Cleveland, the pill bug.
Our main project from last week was completed, with a big assist from our readers, ...
Project #1, Life Science for Success: Ms. McClellan teaches fifth grade in Fort Worth, and she hopes this year her students will get a chance to handle real fossils, and work with actual living things.
She writes: I am so excited to bring fossils and an aquatic ecosystem into my classroom! These materials will allow me to provide hands on experience to my students, allowing my students to gain a better understanding of interaction between living and non living components of environment AND what life was like before using fossils!
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 993! The success-list diary also contains links and additional information about DonorsChoose.