This week, we’re helping two elementary school teachers, one in Mississippi and one in Wisconsin, give their classes the chance to do STEM-related activities. 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.
Two new projects this week!
Our friend Eastern Bluebird often finds good projects for us, but I thought this one was especially cool. Ms. Menifield wants tools so that her Mississippi elementary students can take old devices apart to learn about how they work, in the time-honored fashion of tinkerers everywhere. There are matching funds available to help make this happen, from the Center for Disaster Philanthropy: Complex humanitarian crises have long been a focus of Center for Disaster Philanthropy. We must act now to support the fair and humane treatment of immigrants and migrants seeking refuge here. Together, we are helping teachers embrace migrant, refugee, and immigrant students. We salute our dedicated educators and learners!
PROJECT #1
Resources: Help me give my students tools to help them explore how mechanical things work while building self confidence and breaking down language barriers.
Economic need: An Equity Focus School; nearly all students from low‑income households.
Location: Southaven Intermediate School, Southaven, Mississippi
Total: $317.51 (2x matching funds from Center for Disaster Philanthropy)
Still Needed: $224.45 Completed, thank you! Please consider Project #2 below.
Project description by Ms. Menifield: How many times have you been tempted to open up a watch, phone, or toy to see how it works? Or you may have just been curious about taking something apart and putting it back together.
Students learn by exploring; they need to be able to see, do, and redo!
Help me get tools that will allow my newcomers to explore language communication through working on familiar objects with their peers.
Many of my students come from low-income homes and a few are newcomers to the States. Supporting our classroom will help greatly in assisting in common communication with other students. For my students that are new to this country, the benefits of this project would help them build confidence. This project will allow students to take old items, open them up, and explore how they work. The headlamps will give them the opportunity to see the different gears inside up close. The screwdrivers and tweezers will allow them to get in and take out parts of the object. They will use the magnetic pans to hold the metal pieces so they are not lost. The label maker will be used to label objects to be used in both English and Spanish. With this project, my students will be exploring these objects with peers that speak different languages. I am hoping that through this project, my students develop an interest in helping my newcomers adjust to their new community through working together.
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!
This might be more detail about how a watch works than most of us need, but it’s kind of fascinating!
As usual, our new project #2 is quite ambitious, but we’ve been very successful lately at creating enough of a stir to attract additional donors, especially with the help of a few folks who don’t stop in here to say hi (which is fine!) but are clearly donating sometimes in response to our suggestions. We see you and we thank you!
Mrs. Schroeder’s Wisconsin elementary students look forward to their STEM time, and all the more so when they get the many engaging building toys, puzzles, and other items she’s requesting for them.
PROJECT #2
Resources: Help me give my students more supplies to continue to keep them engaged during STEM time.
Economic need: An Equity Focus School; nearly all students from low‑income households.
Location: Luther Burbank School, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Total: $885.34
Still Needed: $680.34 $408.28
Project description by Mrs. Schroeder: My students love STEM time. We do STEM time for 30 minutes at the end of the day and the kids love it. They are so creative and love to explore and use new materials. They usually stick with the same material for a few days because they want to finish them from the day before. These items will continue to keep my kids engaged. They work hard to finish their work so that they can have extra time building .I see them taking care of the materials in class so that they stay in great shape for the next time. They are learning to be responsible through STEM as well.
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!
The K’Nex roller coaster building set is one of the items requested. Looks like fun!
I’m delighted to say that both our projects from last week were completed! Many thanks to our readers for supporting these efforts!
Project #1, Phonics Matters: Ms. Fiorillo’s South Carolina students need some extra help with phonics, so she was hoping to get a collection of “decodable books” and related materials.
She writes: I am speechless!! Thank you so very much for your generous donations. You have no idea what an impact these books will make in my class. You have just changed so many lives. Thank you so very much from the bottom of our hearts. You gave us reading and love for reading back to my classroom. Thank you so much!
Project #2, Inspiring Scientists Using Agriculture: Ms. Hatfield teaches chemistry in a Jackson, Mississippi high school. Her idea was, in the course of learning how different substances affect plant growth, her students can become aware of some possible career paths they haven’t heard of before.
She writes: Thank you for your generous donations. My students and I are very grateful for the generous heart that you all have. Thank you for motivating me to continue to provide my students with an awesome learning experience. Please continue to support me and teachers around the world as we strive to be better educators.
| 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 1091! The success-list diary also contains links and additional information about DonorsChoose.
