Welcome to The Inoculation Project, an effort to help fund science and math projects in red-state public schools categorized as highest poverty. This week, we’re helping middle school students in Detroit to create a bird and butterfly wildflower garden and high school students in the Rio Grande Valley to study STEM through rocketry.
As always, our conduit is DonorsChoose.org, an organization founded in 2000 and highly rated by both Charity Navigator and the Better Business Bureau. If you’re short on cash, don’t worry — we’re glad to see you anyway! And your tips, recs, shares, and so on are a good free way to help, by helping us get on the rec list and catch more eyes.
Here’s our Earth Day (a day late) project!
THIS WEEK’S PROJECT
Resources: My students need materials such as fencing, a bird bath and feeder, bird feed and a DVD player to attract wildlife and to improve their knowledge about nature.
School Poverty Level: Highest
Location: Munger Elementary-Middle School, Detroit, Michigan
Total: $375.86
Still Needed: $305.86 $143.51
Expires: May 26, 2017
Teacher’s Comments from Mr. Boye:
My Students: Our school is situated in an urban setting, and our middle school students are excited about science. I am interested in channeling this excitement into a thirst for environmental education.
I am ready to challenge my students to become stewards of their environment!
Our school is located on a large piece of property, which contains a field of approximately eight acres. I hope to encourage my students to become environmentally aware through on-site and off-site field trips. My students are excited about the projects that we plan to complete, and hopefully, through DonorsChoose.org, we can get the materials we need for these experiences!
My Project: The materials I am requesting will allow my students to make observations about birds and butterflies, and to work to take pride in their school and their community, The students will be using the materials, along with seeds provided by Cornell University to plant and maintain a bird and butterfly wildflower garden outside of our window.
While working to create a wildflower garden, the students will learn how their urban environment is a natural habitat for many plants and animals.
The students will use field guides to identify wildflowers, butterflies and birds. They will use the speaker I requested to practice recognizing bird calls by ear, and they will watch DVDs to learn how to identify raptors (as we attend a Hawkfest event each fall) as well as field and forest birds. As we will be visiting a wildlife reserve, I will also be purchasing a DVD to help in identification of shore birds and wetland birds.
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!
Several teachers at this next school are trying to develop a cross-curricular STEM unit for their students, and I thought it would be fun to give them a boost. I chose to start with this project because it has the earliest expiration date.
LONG-TERM PROJECT
Resources: My students need model rockets, engines, launch pads, fin guides, and an altimeter. Students will build the rockets as part of a cross-curricular STEM project that will teach how to measure trajectories, altitude, and engineering variables.
School Poverty Level: Highest
Location: Valley View High School, Pharr, Texas
Total: $664.71
Still Needed: $664.71 $530.00
Expires: July 30, 2017
Teacher’s Comments from Mr. Ochoa:
My Students: I teach at a T-STEM school within a school in a low-income/high poverty school district. My students are faced with several challenges both in and out of the classroom. Despite the many challenges they face, I am looking to always challenge and provide my students with creative and meaningful learning experiences.
My students are eager for new experiences, excited to learn and always willing to work on projects.
They like to create, they love to read, and they crave challenges. Many of them are being raised in single parent households and receive a free lunch based on their socioeconomic status. These things may prevent them from getting ahead early in life and may not provide them with the life experiences many of us see as "typical". From the minute they walk in the door of my classroom I focus on their potential and growth while they are with me. I may not be able to control their home lives, however, I can certainly control their experience during the school day. By doing this in a creative and positive way, I am hopeful to inspire creative learners to continue on a path of academic excellence.
My Project: Being part of a TSTEM campus, students are expected to learn STEM principles in all disciplines. Every item purchased will aid in the instruction of those principles from teaching Newton's Laws of Physics to writing a letter to the astronauts at the International Space Station. These materials will also be used to introduce students (and especially female students) to the field of model rocketry.
This 'hobby' makes a great platform for teaching students mathematics, science, engineering, and technology.
Using these rocket kits and altimeters we can spark the interest of students in rocketry and then go on to have them work on teams and compete in our school's Rocketry Challenge which will not only task them with STEM skills but also with skills in project management, collaboration, and communication.
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!
Both of last week’s projects have already been completed! Here are the teachers’ thank you notes:
Thank you so much for your donations and support to this great project. It is going to help my students in so many different ways in promoting science and STEM in the classroom. It is also going to help reach future students of mine. I can't wait to use these resources to help promote STEM and science in the classroom. Thank you again so much for believing in our young people and in education.
With gratitude,
Ms. Vandiford
Thank you so much for helping me with my project! All of these supplies are going to help my students grow tremendously with their math skills! These manipulative are very important to build my students' math skills. I am so appreciative of your support and donations. Thank you so much again!
With gratitude,
Ms. Harvey
Founded in 2009, The Inoculation Project is an effort to combat the anti-science push in conservative America by providing direct funding to science and math projects in traditionally red-state classrooms and libraries. Our conduit is DonorsChoose.org, an organization founded in 2000 and highly rated by both Charity Navigator and the Better Business Bureau. DonorsChoose allows you to contribute to specific, vetted projects in public schools, resulting in tremendous and immediate impacts from small-dollar donations. Here’s an introductory video about DonorsChoose featuring Michelle Obama and Stephen Colbert.
Each Sunday morning, we focus on helping to fund one or two science and math projects in traditionally red-state schools, preferably in highest-poverty districts. We welcome everyone who shares our interest — no money is required! Your tip, rec, republish, comment, or share helps bring us more eyes, and besides, we like the company of others who love kids and education. Feel free to post a link or video, or just tell us how your weather is!
Finally, here’s our list of successfully funded projects — our series total is 567! The success-list diary now also contains links and additional information about DonorsChoose, formerly found in this space.