This week, we’ve lined up new projects about weather and space in Georgia and Tennessee grade schools, and one to bring “stomp rockets” to a Michigan middle school. They join our ongoing project with a middle-school robotics club in Ohio. 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 and math projects for red-state public schools in low-income neighborhoods. As always, our conduit is DonorsChoose.org, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation that facilitates tax-deductible donations to specific, vetted projects in public schools.
This is the week that we will certainly complete our 750th project at the Inoculation Project. I decided that, rather than pick one project needing a larger amount to be completed, I’d pick three with more modest amounts remaining. (We also still have our in-progress long-term project, below.) If you plan to donate today, please distribute your donation as you’re moved when reading the four descriptions, to one or more of them. All have plenty of time remaining, and I hope more than one of us might have the satisfaction of putting in the last few dollars to put one over the top.
UPDATE: Our long-term project was completed, so that is #750! Party next Sunday!
UPDATE #2: We completed all four projects today! Thank you to everyone in this community, those who had some funds to share and those who helped keep us on the rec list for so long today. We’ll see you next week to whoop it up!
These three currently have 2x matching funds available from Google: We’re incredibly grateful for the work teachers do every day to create learning environments that represent all students, so we’re contributing $4 million to double donations to classrooms, while funds last, through the #ISeeMe campaign, as part of our new $5 million commitment to public school classrooms.
PROJECT #1
Resources: Help me give my students science kits to help them engage and explore during our weather and seasons science unit.
Economic need: Nearly all students from low‑income households
Location: Rockbridge Elementary School, Stone Mountain, Georgia
Total: $201.06 (2x matching funds from Google)
Still Needed: $181.06 Completed, thank you! See you next week!
Teacher’s Comments from Ms. Adams:
My Students: My students are young, bright, amazing students. They are growing, learning, and engaging in new things every day. As children of the 21st century, learning and rigor are at an all time high, and my students need new materials and resources to reach new levels of knowledge. I tell my students that doing good has something to do with feeling good. They are leaving behind much of the play of preschool and kindergarten and diving deeper into developing critical academic skills.
My school is a Title I school, and the majority of students come from a low economic status.
90% of our students receive free breakfast and lunch.
Many of my students are growing up in single parent homes or with foster parents. Some students are faced with several challenges, both in and outside of our classroom. Despite so many hardships, my students are excited to learn and do their best!
My Project: There are very few materials and manipulatives available at my school to use for our Weather and Seasons science unit. I want my students to be able to fully engage and explore in their learnings.
Children are hands-on learners.
The world around them provides so many natural opportunities to explore and learn. The Seasons and Weather theme box will allow my students to learn all about Earth Science with comprehensive, hands-on lessons. From a rain gauge and thermometer to snowflake stencils and sorting mats, it has materials that will help them explore the four seasons and learn about weather. The Weather Activity tub will provide my students exciting experiments to high-interest writing projects, it has everything they need to observe and investigate weather!
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!
PROJECT #2
Resources: Help me give my students books about space to use during our earth and space science unit.
Economic need: More than half of students from low‑income households
Location: Jasper Elementary School, Jasper, Tennessee
Total: $191.00 (2x matching funds from Google)
Still Needed: $191.00 Completed, thank you! See you next week!
Teacher’s Comments from Mrs. Lewis:
My Students: All of my students love to learn! My school is a Title I school where 100% of the students receive free breakfast and lunch every day. We live in a rural community with a diverse student population.
My students enjoy coming to school every day and are always very eager to learn.
My students love to learn by using a variety of materials. My projects are all for things that will make my students' education better and instill a love of learning.
My Project: My students will be studying earth and space science this school year by completing a unit study. Help me make my unit better by providing books for my students when we begin to learn about space this year! These amazing books will allow my students to fully understand what the solar system is all about. These fun and educational books can help me make my lessons much more interactive.
My students will be engaged in the lesson when they are able to have these books in their hands while we are learning all about space.
When my students are interested in materials and activities, it is amazing to watch them work cooperatively with their peers, engage in conversation skills, and participate in classroom discussions.
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!
Aerospace engineering in Michigan? Oh yeah, this one’s for my daddy. Sure do miss him.
PROJECT #3
Resources: Help me give my students an engineering experience that enhances their science and math knowledge.
Economic need: More than half of students from low‑income households
Location: Thurston Middle School, Saint Charles, Michigan
Total: $337.28 (2x matching funds from Google)
Still Needed: $237.28 Completed, thank you! See you next week!
Teacher’s Comments from Ms. Birdwell:
My Students: My students have been excited to be a part of my STEM class where we focus on engineering projects that incorporate science and math knowledge to complete. Their abilities to create, problem-solve, and improve their own learning have grown immensely through this class. We have worked on building roller coasters, creating effective hurricane shelters, learning and designing in CAD programs, practicing coding, and much more.
By building these essential skills, my students ensure that they will have what they need in order to be successful in whichever career field they choose later in life, whether it is STEM-related or not.
We are in a small school district where there is a small amount of extra funds for experiences that larger districts are able to provide for their students.
My Project: These stomp rockets will help give students a chance to engineer their own rockets and then test multiple designs to compare successful solutions to maximize their distance. Students will use these materials to go through the engineering design process to use critical thinking and problem solving skills to create and continually improve their own rocket designs.
This project will tie in multiple science and math content skills.
Students will be engaged in this hands-on project which will increase their interests in calculating speeds of their rockets, finding trajectory, and learning how to use projectors to measure and decide on the best angle to send off their rockets.
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!
This video is part 2 — see part 1 for rocket/launcher building.
Also, NASA helps kids with another style of DIY rocket here.
And, we made terrific progress on this ambitious project last week, and we can surely bring it home well before the deadline. The matching-funds code AMBASSADORS, entered at checkout, will continue to double gifts to this project this week!
LONG-TERM PROJECT
Resources: Help me give my students the ability to learn coding skills and develop innovative building skills through the use of Lego Boost Creative Toolbox Fun Robot Building Set and the Ultimate Coding Kits.
Economic need: Nearly all students from low‑income households
Location: Lincoln PreK-8 School, Warren, Ohio
Total: $614.06
Still Needed: COMPLETED!!! We have a winner!!!
Teacher’s Comments from Mrs. DePascale:
My Students: My students are amazing young people who share my passion for science. They are thinkers and problems solvers who jump at any opportunity to be involved. Since they are not all in the same class everyday, their excitement is contagious when we get together weekly to work on our science related projects. These students continue to be an inspiration to me on a daily basis both in and out of the classroom.
My students have a hunger for learning new skills and have inquired about coding & robotics as our next STEM challenge.
That is how this project came about.
Supporting their desire is paramount to my personal beliefs. I foresee this group of students accomplishing great things in the near future and becoming a well needed addition to our community. My goal is to give them what they need to be successful.
My Project: I run an after school Science Club and STEM Team that includes students in grades 6-8. We meet at least two days a week where our goal is to either complete STEM challenges or solve a long term problem that students have decided will benefit either the school or community at large. I usually try to develop lessons and activities that incorporate items I readily have available. After using this method for the past couple of years, the students requested that we delve into learning about coding and robotics. I would love to fulfill that request, but do not have any materials to work with.
The Ultimate Coding Kits will give students the background knowledge needed in order to utilize the Lego Boost Creative Toolbox Fun Robot and Star Wars Droid Inventors Kit.
During our meetings, the students will work in small teams to learn the coding skills that the kits provide. Once they have tackled the art of coding, teams will move on to build and program the robot and droid. To take these skills to the next level, students will be challenged to rearrange pieces to design their own robot or droid for specific functions not previously used. Transference of knowledge is the ultimate goal in any lesson.
I strongly feel that coding and robotics are skills that students will need in the future. The jobs of tomorrow don't exist today, but I have to give my students every opportunity for success in whatever field they choose to study!
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!
Our main project from last week was completed, thanks mostly to our readers and our matching funds, making it project #749 for us!
Ms. Catlett’s Tulsa, Oklahoma Head Start class will soon have a Fairy Tale STEAM kit, plus a set of multicultural puppets, to help them with both literacy and science and math concepts. The project was STEM Starts Early!
Ms. Catlett hasn’t seen this news yet, but we’ll bring you her note when she does!
Our Dollars at Work
Back in February, Mrs. Hall had an out-of-the-box idea for a project to help her Florida middle school students get a hands-on understanding of transformations in mathematics, by designing and making quilt blocks. The project was Hand Sewing Quilts in Our Middle School Math Class. (More photos at the link.)
I would like to thank each of you for donating to our class project. The students worked hard to design quilt blocks that contained transformations and their designs were fantastic! We then sewed the blocks by hand. This part of the project turned out to be a bit too much for beginning sewers, but they gave it their best shot. You never know until to try!
The students and I learned a great deal by working on this project. Next year we will be using sewing machines instead of hand sewing. I think this will allow more students to be successful with the quilt block creation.
The current 6th graders can't wait to get to my class because they get to learn how to sew!! I look forward to another try with this quilt project.
Founded in 2009, The Inoculation Project combats the anti-science push in conservative America by funding science and math projects in red-state classrooms and libraries. Our conduit is DonorsChoose.org, 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 science or math projects, preferably 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 749! The success-list diary also contains links and additional information about DonorsChoose.org.