This week, we’re helping third grade classrooms in Cincinnati and Los Angeles, who need gardening tools and engineering kits respectively. 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 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.
Let’s see if we can help this never-before-funded teacher in a Cincinnati elementary school, hoping to equip her students to tend gardens this spring.
PROJECT #1
Resources: Help me give my students the opportunity to learn in an outdoor environment that helps foster creative thinking, cooperation, and provides hands-on experiences in nature.
Economic need: An Equity Focus School; nearly all students from low‑income households.
Location: Evanston Academy, Cincinnati, Ohio
Total: $390.18
Still Needed: $137.41 Completed, thank you! Please consider project #2 below!
Project description by Ms. Wagner: The students at our school are creative and curious learners! Hands-on experiences in an outdoor learning environment let students see new perspectives and engage with lessons in different ways.
Please help us support all of our learners in experiencing the joys of nature and the growth that comes with new endeavors!
These materials will enable children to care for our 11 new native trees and raised garden beds. They will be able to plant, water, and grow their own flowers and vegetables, all while learning cooperation and collaboration with peers!
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources marks “Ohio Native Plant Month” in April with this pretty slide show of Ohio’s flowering native plants.
For our new longer-term project, here’s a Los Angeles third-grade teacher whose students need a chance to design and build model vehicles and learn some physics.
PROJECT #2
Resources: Help me give my students the Lakeshore Design & Play Cars and STEAM Kits to develop their engineering skills and learn about balanced and unbalanced forces.
Economic need: An Equity Focus School; nearly all students from low‑income households.
Location: Euclid Avenue Elementary School, Los Angeles, California
Total: $438.78
Still Needed: $385.07 $214.78
Project description by Ms. Barajas: My students love to explore and learn how things work! With these STEAM kits, they will more easily build model cars, boats, and planes.
My third graders will learn about engineering, technology, and science through different hands-on activities!
They will better understand how different parts function and work together. They will use the models they build to conduct investigations based on their own questions. Through different experiments, they will also learn about balanced and unbalanced forces. As a final project, they will design their own model cars, boats, and/or planes using other materials in an effort to improve the original designs.
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!
This video series happens to be intended for third graders, and addresses one of the topics Ms. Barajas hopes to cover.
We have excellent news today! Both our projects from last week were completed, with lots of help from us; we got a special shoutout from a teacher; and, we’re catching up with a note that, unbeknownst to the teacher, missed our posting time a couple of weeks ago!
Project #1, Making and Manipulating Mars Space Station: Mrs. Snow teaches in a small Oklahoma town, and hoped to do a big, Mars-related end-of-year project that would involve nearly all the elementary and middle grades.
She writes: Thank you so much for you support. Shout out to all the Daily Kos help and support for our project. My students have been looking forward to building our cardboard Mars station, but to add grown up tools will just be icing on the cake. I am so excited to start the project.
Project #2, Growing Socially and Academically with Games and Books!: Ms. Hamm teaches elementary-grades students in an even smaller Oklahoma town. She needed books and games that would help her students learn how to understand themselves and their community.
She writes: Thank you so much for donating to our classroom! It means the world to us that you chose our project!
We are so excited to be receiving these supplies to help us in learning academics, social skills and how to help our community.
These hands on materials will help us achieve our goals.
And here’s the project from earlier this month, Amazing Literacy Through New Books: Mrs. Unsell teaches a California classroom of elementary-age special ed students with a wide variety of needs. She requested a selection of books her students will enjoy.
She writes: Thank you so much for your support! My students are going to love all the new books we will be receiving. I look forward to sharing these amazing stories with my students and providing more learning opportunities. Literacy and the love of reading is so important for our young students.
| 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 seeks to fund science, math, and literacy projects in 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 1077! The success-list diary also contains links and additional information about DonorsChoose.
