📚 The Inoculation Project: Success List VIII

In our new success list diary, The Inoculation Project (TIP) will track science, math, and literacy projects #1201+ that have been fully funded through DonorsChoose after being featured by our group and supported by Daily Kos readers.

Our regular TIP diary will post at 9:00am CT on Sunday with our currently featured projects, which can always be found on TIP’s blog page.

About TIP: Founded in 2009, The Inoculation Project is an ongoing, volunteer effort to crowdfund science, math, and literacy projects for public schools in low-income neighborhoods. 

We focus on those schools because, as How Unequal School Funding Punishes Poor Kids points out,

About four in 10 students attend schools in districts with poverty rates of upwards of 75 percent, which perpetuates the structural poverty that keeps families trapped in poor communities with impoverished schools.

Underfunding education doesn’t just leave the most vulnerable children ill-prepared for the world, it makes the world a crueler and more divided place to grow up in.

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.

Mae Jemison, the first Black female astronaut

Video: What Your Support Means to Students | DonorsChoose

Nov 24, 2025

Every donation makes a difference. Join students from across the country as they read letters to donors who helped bring books, recorders, and other materials into their classrooms, showing the real impact your support has on their learning.

Also, DonorsChoose is on Bluesky! They’ve posted more recently, but I like this video featuring Megan Rapinoe:

This week @wkamaubell.bsky.social is using his #CelebrityJeapardy winnings to surprise students. Today, he and #MeganRapinoe are scoring major points with the kids at P.S. 299! 🏆⚽

Join in and help students in your community: DonorsChoose.org/Megan.


[image or embed]

— DonorsChoose (@donorschoose.bsky.social) October 15, 2025 at 8:08 AM

More about DonorsChoose

DonorsChoose is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation that facilitates tax-deductible donations to specific, vetted projects in public schools.

Founded in 2000 by Charles Best, a public-school history teacher, DonorsChoose is a crowdfunding charity, one that has received the highest possible ratings from Charity Watch, Charity Navigator, and GuideStar.

DonorsChoose is also the first charity to be recognized among the top 10 of Fast Company's list of the World's Most Innovative Companies and operates in accordance with a simple philosophy (my emphasis):

“Teachers know how to improve education,” [Best] says, “but they are a voice that is consistently overlooked or ignored.” [….]

“We’ve heard people say that teachers have no business going rogue and trying to select their own books, technology, and classes–and citizens have no business deciding what is worthy. And yes, we have a position on that, and a response to people who raise that question,” says Best, evenly. “Screw you. We believe in teachers. We believe in the wisdom of the crowd.”

Since TIP’s inception in 2009, our supporters have helped fund over 1,200 DonorsChoose projects! Here are our previous lists of successfully funded science and math projects:

TIP #s 1-200

TIP #s 201-400

TIP #s 401-500

TIP #s 501-600

TIP #s 601-750

TIP #s 751-900

TIP #s 901-1200

Current List

1201. Bringing Learning to Life with Osmo

1202. Science Gets My Students Engaged!

1203. 6th Grade Science Classroom Wish List

1204. Everyday Supplies for PALs

1205. Soil to Grow: Helping Our School Garden Come to Life!

1206. STEAM Building for First Grade

1207. Building Future Innovators with STEM

1208. Play Based Centers for the New Year!

1209. Bringing Life Cycles to Life

1210. From Curiosity to Exploring Chemistry and Earth Science Through STEM

1211. Mini Biospheres: Building Self-Sustaining Ecosystems in Science

FAQs about DonorsChoose:

Why was my donation returned to me?

When a project is not fully funded by its expiration date, donors are contacted by DonorsChoose and asked to redirect their donations to another project. Occasionally, a fully funded project is called off for some reason internal to the school/teacher. DonorsChoose handles those donations in the same way as for expired projects.

How is a school’s economic need defined at DonorsChoose?

Our definition of a school’s economic need is based on the percentage of students at a given school who qualify for free and reduce-price lunch - a measure that’s commonly used to represent a school’s level of need and eligibility for federal funding.

Projects on DonorsChoose will denote the approximate percentage of students at the school that qualify for free and reduced-price lunch, and categorize them in the following way:

• More than a third of students from low-income households: 30-44%
• Half of students from low-income households: 45-50%
• More than half of students from low-income households: 51-75%
• More than three-quarters of students from low-income households: 76-89%
• Nearly all students from low-income households: 90%+

More info: DonorsChoose blog and About DonorsChoose

Disclaimer: The Inoculation Project series is in no way affiliated with DonorsChoose or with any of the classroom projects presented for funding, except as specifically indicated (for example, when a Daily Kos community member is the teacher). Daily Kos community members run the TIP group and series; our efforts are neither directed nor endorsed by Daily Kos or Kos Media LLC.