This week, we’re helping an Iowa middle school teacher put buckets of STEM materials on all her classroom tables, and a Georgia high school teacher provide some wonderful books to her AP Literature students. 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 red-state 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.
Eastern Bluebird has really been helpful in finding us some great projects! Here’s a never-before-funded teacher at an Iowa elementary school, who wants STEM buckets that will help her students in many ways.
PROJECT #1
Resources: Help me give my students engage working with other students by helping me create stem buckets.
Economic need: An Equity Focus School; more than half of students from low‑income households.
Location: Fillmore Elementary School, Davenport, Iowa
Total: $392.19
Still Needed: $183.19 Completed, thank you! Please consider Project #2 below.
Project description by Mrs. Christensen: My school is working hard at building positive student to student relationships. One of the ways I want to work on that in my classroom is by creating stem buckets for each table in my classroom. Some of the buckets will include magnetic tiles, interlocking building pieces, etc. My students will work with their peers on free building during break times, morning work, and end of the day. When they are building they will be working on conversations with others, sharing, listening to others and learning from their peers. All of these things will continue to build our positive classroom environment. This also offers some students the opportunity to use their creative thinking and problem solving skills when using these tools. Many of my students do not have the opportunity at home to engage in imaginative play with stem items.
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!
Here’s one of the more unusual building toys requested.
And here’s another — not just square blocks for this class!
This substantial project for a Georgia high school will bring the students some of the most distinguished works of literature in English, several of which have given Nazi bigots considerable distress in many parts of the country. I think we can all agree that we need to get these books to the kids, before their local MAGAs figure out what’s going on.
PROJECT #2
Resources: Help me give my students a variety of books from diverse authors to help them prepare for the AP Literature test. These are all books that have been utilized on the test multiple times. Please help!
Economic need: An Equity Focus School; more than half of students from low‑income households.
Location: Hiram High School, Hiram, Georgia
Total: $664.93
Still Needed: $529.93 $353.40
Project description by Ms. Michelle Roberts: My students are hard-working, enthusiastic learners who are attempting to broaden their horizons by expanding their knowledge of both fiction and nonfiction texts. With budget cuts and the other challenges facing schools over the past few years as well as the current economic hardships many of our families face even during normal circumstances, their choices are somewhat limited.
Funding this project will ensure that students have access to materials with a variety of focuses regardless of their technological access.
By providing diverse texts and choices, students are able to improve reading comprehension by selecting texts that are meaningful and engaging to them. Diverse texts offer more options for students to engage in experiences similar to their own experiences and to explore new worlds and experiences outside of their own personal experiences.
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!
Two works by Richard Wright, Black Boy and Native Son, are being requested.
And three Toni Morrison books are also on the list: Beloved, The Bluest Eye, and Song of Solomon. This is quite a striking three minutes and change she gives Charlie Rose here; I encourage you to stay until the end.
Our main project from last week was completed, many thanks to our readers, and that large project we’d brought so far along was also funded during the matching-funds event on Giving Tuesday. We also have a note from a teacher whose project was completed earlier.
Project #1 last week, Readers Are Leaders!: Ms. Jones needed books that would interest her Tuscaloosa, Alabama fifth graders, by depicting a diverse selection of characters.
She writes: Thank you SO MUCH for your generous donations!!! This means so much to me! I cannot wait to expand our classroom library with these new reads. Readers are leaders is our school motto! Thank you again so very much. Your generosity means the world to my kiddos & I! Best wishes!
Project #2 last week, Enhancing STEM Knowledge and Skills: Dr. Morales could see that working with Lego Spike Prime robotics materials would help middle-schoolers in El Paso with science, math, and engineering concepts, and help them see a way toward a good career.
Dr. Morales writes: Thank you for your generosity. My students and I are very honored and humbled by your kindness. As a result, more students will be afforded the opportunity to participate in robotics. As such, they will enhance their STEM knowledge and this will be their trajectory for college and career readiness.
And, this project from the week before last, funded too late for the teacher to have responded, Ninja-fied and Understanding Our Feelings: Mrs. Williams needed some books for her North Carolina second grade that would help them learn about feelings and how to manage them.
She writes: Some of my students are in such need of these books. They can have trouble regulating their emotions at times, and although it has gotten much better from the beginning of the year, we all always need to improve ourselves! My students love to read, especially during DEAR time. Having these awesome ninja books that teach about identifying ever-changing emotions will definitely benefit my students' emotional wellbeing. We greatly thank you for your continued support throughout the year!!
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 combats the anti-science, anti-education push in conservative America by funding science, math, and literacy projects in red-state 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 1005! The success-list diary also contains links and additional information about DonorsChoose.