The Inoculation Project, founded in 2009 by hyperbolic pants explosion, is a group of Kossacks who gather weekly to combat the anti-science push in conservative America by providing direct funding to science and math projects in red state classrooms. Our conduit is DonorsChoose.org, an organization founded in 2000 and rated highly by both Charity Navigator and the Better Business Bureau. Here’s an introductory video about DonorsChoose featuring Michelle Obama and Stephen Colbert. DonorsChoose.org allows you to make direct contributions to specific, vetted projects in public school classrooms, resulting in tremendous and immediate impacts from small dollar donations. Each week, we focus on funding a single small-dollar project at a time, in a traditionally red state classroom and preferably in a high-poverty district. We also carry along a more financially ambitious project as a long-term goal.
We'd like to be able to assist both small and large projects. This week, we've just completed a large, long-term project, so we're starting our next one as our main project. Our hope is to present a new relatively modest project each week, and also feature this more ambitious project with a long-term deadline, so we can chip away at it each week when our main project is completed. Since DonorsChoose has something similar to a "rec list", every time we create a flurry of activity on a project, even if the dollar amounts involved aren't large, we can push the project up that list so it gets shown to more donors outside Daily Kos. In that way, we can help finish projects that may be beyond our means when only our own dollars are considered.
THIS WEEK’S MAIN PROJECT
Resources: Spectrum tubes, spectroglasses, and a Wavelength/Spectrum Demonstrator to learn concepts related to light and atomic structure.
School Poverty Level: Highest
Location: Hillcrest High School, Midvale, Utah
Total: $457.67
Still Needed: $357.67 COMPLETED! Join us next Sunday!
Expires: June 6, 2016
Teacher’s Comments from Mrs. Hetrick:
My Students: Chemistry is more than a textbook! Sometimes it is che-mystery, but in my classroom it is chem-is-TRY! I want my students to experience the magic of chemistry first hand with lab experiences and on-your-feet activities that might knock their socks off (proper safety gear included, of course!).
My students are curious and gain more from experiencing chemistry first hand in the laboratory than with paper and text.
My students come from a wide range of demographics and all deserve quality, lab-intensive rigor and experiences. My high school hosts the only IB program in the district. Very few of my students will join this prestigious program next year because most of my students fit into the general education and college/career bound track. I teach six classes with 35-40 students per class. The monies received from students who can pay the lab fee do not give me freedom to purchase much lab equipment. Lab is where the magic of chemistry happens! When the labs are relevant, meaningful, and interesting students want to learn. These labs answer real-world questions and integrate other disciplines such as math and literature. I find that the more students manipulate matter in the lab personally and analyze the data, the deeper their understanding of chemistry concepts.
My Project: What is light? Why are red, green and yellow light used in traffic lights? Whys is the sunrise red? How does light relate to electrons in atoms? These are some of the questions I pose to my Jr. Chemists as we purposely pursue chemistry from starting bell to ending bell everyday and encourage them to find connections to the content from ending bell to starting bell outside of class. Labs and demonstrations transform the content into "in-your-face-and-up-close-and-personal" experiences that students will remember. Each spectrum tube contains an element sample that produces light. When students view the light through the spectro-glasses they discover that each element has a unique spectral fingerprint. This lab serves to demonstrate the mathematical relationships between energy, wavelength, and frequency of the light that we see in the universe. Overall, students learn to appreciate how electrons are arranged in atoms and that the energy they contain is quantized.
My school currently has 8 power supply stations and 12 spectroscopes to serve nearly 800 chemistry students. This project would allow 40 students to experience lab at the same time.
Lab experiences demonstrate that science concepts are relevant to their life outside of school. This project provides opportunities for students to understand the wave/particle nature of light with the electronic structure of atoms and how it influences the macroscopic world of chemistry they experience every day.
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!
From belinda ridgewood: I posted this video in a comment below, but it ought to go up here. Today our donations to this project are being matched through the #BestSchoolDay program, giving us a superb chance to double what we can do to help this classroom. Here’s a Colbert segment about it:
HOUSEKEEPING
Last week, our main project — Eastern's Outdoor Classroom Initiative — was completed. High school students in Kentucky will receive gardening tools for their outdoor classroom and garden.
See our list of successfully funded projects. (Ha! New list coming soon, really really!) We're up to 505!
When projects are not fully funded by their expiration date, donors are contacted by DonorsChoose and asked to choose another project to which to redirect their donations. Occasionally, a fully funded project is called off for some reason internal to the school/teacher, and funding is returned. We have no way of knowing why, but DonorsChoose handles those donations in the same way as for expired projects.
How is the poverty level defined at DonorsChoose.org?
Poverty level refers to the percentage of students at a given school who qualify for free and reduced lunch, which is considered a measure of economic need. To be deemed eligible for free lunch, a student's family income must be within 130% of the poverty line (a max of $29,055 for a family of four). For reduced lunch, the family income must be within 185% of the poverty level (a max of $41,348 for a family of four). Schools with 10%-39% of students receiving free/reduced lunch are denoted as "moderate poverty". Schools with 40%-64% of students receiving free/reduced lunch are denoted as "high poverty", while schools with 65%+ of students receiving free/reduced lunch are denoted as "highest poverty". For projects submitted from a school where free lunch rate data is unavailable or unreliable, "Poverty Data Unavailable" will appear.
More information:
DonorsChoose.org main page
DonorsChoose.org blog
About DonorsChoose.org
All DonorsChoose.org math & science projects search results
We are in no way affiliated with DonorsChoose.org, or any of the classroom projects presented for funding, except as specifically indicated (for example, when a kossack is the teacher).
♦◊♦◊♦◊♦◊♦
You are welcome to use The Inoculation Project avatar as your DonorsChoose avatar if you wish. If you need instructions for uploading it to your DonorsChoose profile, you'll find them in this diary.