This week, we’re helping an elementary-school class in Milwaukee and a middle-school class in McAllen, TX, get some STEM lab supplies, the latter to help them enter a competition. 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.
Now see, what did I say last time? It got so busy over at last week’s project #2 that now, it’s nearing completion and is moved up to the #1 slot!
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 #1
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: $158.28 $74.75
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!
There are several different kinds of building toy in this request, and not all of them are the traditional rectangular blocks. Here are a couple of them. I like that the manufacturer of Brain Flakes notes they are “painless to step on”. Anyone whose kids have had Lego can appreciate that!
Encouraged by our success with some recent big running-out-of-time projects, I thought we might take a shot at this one. Mrs. Dougherty needs help to supply her middle-school students in a Texas border city with what they’ll need to compete in a nearby STEM competition.
PROJECT #2
Resources: Help me give my students Various STEM Kits to prepare for upcoming competition.
Economic need: An Equity Focus School; nearly all students from low‑income households.
Location: William B Travis Middle School, McAllen, Texas
Total: $489.62
Still Needed: $389.62 $172.56
Project description by Mrs. Dougherty: Please help inspire young scientists. The STEM Kits will help various students prepare for competition. Students will be able to perform engineering skills to be able to compete against 10 schools.
These young scientists are eager and ready to apply their engineering skills.
Our students come from a Title I school and want to experience a science competition at the local college and the kits will be used for their competition.
Our students’ goal is to be able to compete and showcase their projects and their science knowledge and skills Let’s keep their science interest sparked.
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!
The requested kits are specifically designed to ready students to participate in Science Olympiad events. Here’s a short video from the organization responsible for these events.
Good news: our project #1 from last week was completed, with the help of the matching-grant organization and our readers!
Project #1, How Does It Work?: Ms. Menifield wanted tools so that her Mississippi elementary students could take old devices apart to learn about how they work. She took the trouble to sign up for Daily Kos to come and thank us in the thread last week, and she also wrote a wonderful note in the project:
She writes: I can try my best to express in writing how grateful I am for your support, but really no words can show my excitement and gratitude. I know that this project will be a game changer for some of my students. Sometimes students can show you better than they can tell you. This STEM project will not only awaken the curiosity in my students, but it will bridge communication between them as well. Thank you all for coming together to bring this project to life.
| 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 1092! The success-list diary also contains links and additional information about DonorsChoose.
