This week, we’re helping Arkansas high school students learn to preserve herbarium specimens, and Texas fifth graders create a giant science/art project about fossils. 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.
Our project #2 from last week is so near to completion that it’s popped up here today!
Ms. Atupan teaches high school in a small Arkansas city west of Memphis, TN, and she is hoping to enable her students to preserve dried plants as herbarium specimens. We have help from 2x matching funds from Michael Jordan and the Jordan Brand: Education is a key pillar of the Jordan BCC and we are proud to support teachers and their students in equity-focused schools. Black educators are essential to advancing equity in our communities and impacting the lives of every student, and all teachers play a role in uplifting Black students.
PROJECT #1
Resources: Help me give my students tools to preserve herbarium specimens, such as a Herbarium Press Frame, papers, pens, pencils, glue, and lined paper, for classification purposes.
Economic need: An Equity Focus School; nearly all students from low‑income households.
Location: Forrest City High School, Forrest City, Arkansas
Total: $459.12 (2x matching funds from Michael Jordan and the Jordan Brand)
Still Needed: $223.82 Completed, thank you! Please consider project #2 below.
Project description by Ms. Atupan: Our project aims to establish a sustainable herbarium to preserve plant specimens for scientific research and education. Usually, we preserve a dried variety of leaves. By providing the necessary materials and equipment, we will empower students and researchers to contribute to biodiversity conservation efforts and advance botanical knowledge. It will make a significant impact on their student's life.
Materials Needed:
Wooden Herbarium Press Frame, Acid-free Paper, Pencils and Pens, Scotch Tape, and Glue
Preserving plant specimens in a herbarium is crucial for documenting Earth's biodiversity and understanding the impact of environmental changes on ecosystems. However, many educational institutions and research facilities struggle to maintain comprehensive herbarium collections without access to the necessary equipment and materials.
Our project seeks to address this issue by providing the essential tools needed to establish a sustainable herbarium. The wooden herbarium press frames will enable students and researchers to flatten and dry plant specimens appropriately, ensuring long-term preservation. The acid-free paper will also safeguard specimens from deterioration, while pencils and pens will facilitate accurately labeling each specimen's vital information.
Furthermore, scotch tape and glue will be instrumental in securely attaching delicate plant parts to the paper, preventing damage and preserving their integrity for future study. Equipping our institution with these materials will empower botanical enthusiasts of all ages to contribute to scientific research, conservation efforts, and environmental education initiatives.
With your support, we can create a thriving herbarium that is a valuable resource for students, researchers, and the broader community. Together, let's preserve Earth's botanical heritage and inspire the next generation of stewards for our planet's biodiversity.
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!
Dr. Barbara Thiers, Director of the Steere Herbarium at the New York Botanical Garden, walks the New York PBS station through the facility and shows some highlights of their 7-million+-specimen collection.
Our new project #2 comes from a never-before-funded teacher. In the Texas border city of Laredo, three classes of fifth graders are very excited to create an art extravaganza about fossils!
PROJECT #2
Resources: Help me give my students coloring supplies, glue, tape, and pencils for their science/art project.
Economic need: An Equity Focus School; more than three-quarters of students from low‑income households.
Location: Finley Elementary School, Laredo, Texas
Total: $353.12
Still Needed: $353.12 $193.12
Project description by Ms. Urbina: I have three 5th grade classes which I intend to start a fossil poster project with. The posters will allow the students to work together in a group and create a landscape full of different types of dinosaur or animal fossils. They can make it as big as they like by connecting posters sheets together. To create this landscape they will need many markers, crayons, color pencils, scissors, pencils, glue, and tape.
The students are allowed to draw out their fossils on white paper and then piece it together by cutting and pasting the drawings onto the poster.
This will allow each student to play their part in the project and collaborate on ideas. This group of 5th graders are very outspoken and love doing group projects with their classmates. I asked each class to pick a topic and the majority agreed on a fossil project because they find it very interesting.
I have many students who have great artistic skills. These supplies will allow them to fully use their artistic abilities to create a great poster. They are also very interested in science and love to learn about old historic pieces such as fossils, rocks, and landforms. I am very excited to see what they create on their posters. My goals for this project are to inspire students to research about Earth's past through fossils, use their creativity, and work together as a group by collaborating and negotiating their ideas.
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!
This segment from National Geographic reviews the different types of fossils and how they are formed.
Our project #1 from last week was completed, because our readers are awesome!
Project #1, Today's Readers Are Tomorrow's Leaders!: Mrs. Abby’s Louisiana team needed early-grades books, and at Lakeshore Learning, one of the go-to academic supply houses, they found a well-organized collection of what look to be well-reputed children’s books, grouped by reading level.
The project was completed only yesterday, so Mrs. Abby hasn’t gotten the news yet. We’ll bring you her note when it’s available.
We do, however, have a note from an earlier project whose teacher hadn’t circled back until this week. The project was Oximeters to Enhance Vital Signs Unit: Ms. Alvarez teaches middle school in Kansas City, and needed oximeters for an interesting science module developed by Project Lead The Way (PLTW), a US nonprofit that develops STEM curriculum units for elementary, middle, and high school levels.
She writes: Thank you for graciously funding my request for Oximeters. This will make our Vital Signs unit much more exciting as we are able to gather more information about ourselves.
Bringing Science to life and being able to provide real world examples is a great way to get students interested in classroom work.
| 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 1115! The success-list diary also contains links and additional information about DonorsChoose.
