This week, we're helping to provide building toys for a kindergarten in Lansing, and math readiness backpacks for an elementary school class in Mississippi. We hope that readers who support quality public school education will help these teachers and students 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.
MAIN PROJECT
Resources: My students need Legos, Playstix, Tumble Trax, Brain Flakes and Straw Structures to help them continue to develop their learning through play.
Economic need: More than half of students from low‑income households
Location: Cumberland Elementary School, Lansing, Michigan
Total: $198.52
Still Needed: $198.52 Completed! Thank you.
Teacher’s Comments from Ms. Ingraham:
My Students: I teach Kindergarten in a low-income school district to 27 energetic kids. A third of my students are from refugee families. Every day I set aside a time called Play to Learn. This is a time the students can choose where they would like to play in the classroom and do their learning.
I think Fred Rogers hit the nail on the head when he said, "Play is the real work of childhood."
"Look, look!" one of my students excitedly waves me over to where they are working. I walk over to this student and she excitedly shares how she made a house using magnatiles. I look around my classroom to see the other students engaged in different areas of the classroom. Some students are reading in the book area, some are playing in the house area or the writing area and others are building with blocks on the carpet.
My Project: I believe that play is an integral part of children's learning and development and want to provide my students with access to a wide range of toys. STEM-based curriculums focus on educating kids in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. My students will use these STEM materials daily to enhance their learning.
STEM education teaches students essential problem-solving skills that they’ll need as they grow and develop, and helps them learn how to manage themselves and work out critical thinking issues in their daily life.
Connecting science, math, engineering, and technology in ways that kids can understand and see in a hands-on way helps them see from a young age why these subjects are not only important but also fun.
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference
Do not watch without kleenex:
Bonus video, no kleenex: Mr. Rogers, realizing the Wicked Witch of the West scares some children, invites Margaret Hamilton over, has a nice chat with her, and then invites her to dress up in her witch outfit so everyone can see it’s really just the same nice lady in there, pretending to be a witch.
Our long-term project is making good progress! It looked pretty daunting when the 5x matching funds ran out only a little way into this substantial project, but that is why we call it “long term”! There’s plenty of time left for it to pick up the amount it still needs.
LONG-TERM PROJECT
Resources: My students need math readiness backpacks to prepare them for common core math.
Economic need: Nearly all students from low‑income households
Location: Wilkinson County Elementary School, Woodville, Mississippi
Total: $847.78
Still Needed: $155.48 Completed! Thank you.
Teacher’s Comments from Ms. R.:
My Students: I have a lively group of first grade students! Our county is classified as high poverty on every google search. We are a Title I school. There isn't any industry in the area. Access to academic resources outside of the school are very limited.
Most of our students come to us with very little exposure to real life experiences due to the fact that the county resources are so limited.
We are required to expose them to so much, but without technology, that can be impossible. These kids are eager to learn but do not have the necessary tools.
My Project: My students need math readiness backpacks to help them prepare for the common core math standards. We have so much access to lots and lots of books to send home and in the community- from the library, to book drives, to the parents center, but math resources at the house are extremely limited. I would love to be able to send these backpacks home that are filled with basic math prep resources and manipulatives, so the parents have something at their fingertips to help them prepare for this new math the students are learning at school. Common Core Math Standards are new for most of these parents. It's a new way of learning math, and I am asked constantly for advice on how to help. Having manipulatives and flash cards at home is a perfect solution. I was so inspired by the Marvelous Math Take Home Bags project that I decided it was necessary that I create my own take home bags.
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference
Last week, we booted out 2017 by completing our main project, Bringing The Environment Into The Classroom (for a series total of 626!) High school science students in Georgia will soon have three environmental science lab kits that will allow them to collect and analyze climate data to test their theories.
In posting this project, Mr. Battles observed: We are a Title One district with extreme poverty. We are near 100% African American. The community is lacking in a lot of areas. Several of the larger chains have abandoned the area. The employment rate is low and most of the kids family fall into the poverty range. We need your help.
Our Dollars at Work
In July, we helped fund a project to provide an assortment of STEM materials to kindergarten and first grade students in Indiana. They’ll be building ramps and bridges, exploring force and motion, and studying weather! The project was S.T.E.M. Supplies for Small Scientists (more photos at the link).
Mrs. D. writes: ... My students were so excited to see all of the cool things we would be doing in science this year, using your generous donations...
The past couple of weeks, my students were engineers. We had two separate problems to solve...one was how to take care of an itchy back and the second was how to get the Billy Goats Gruff to the other side of the river to eat grass. Students loved using the materials you donated to build either a back-scratcher or bridge of their own design...
I am very excited for some of the upcoming lessons I will be exploring with my students using some of these donations. We will continue to explore "problems" in literature and fairy tales that need solutions from engineers, such as the Three Billy Goats Gruff problem we explored. We will also be exploring electricity using circuits, force and gravity, and weather, as scientists. Without your generous donations, students would not have the hands-on opportunities that I am excited to be able to provide now. Thank you for inspiring my students to want to learn about science.
Founded in 2009, The Inoculation Project combats the anti-science push in conservative America by funding science and math projects in traditionally 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 two science or math projects in red states, 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. The success-list diary also contains links and additional information about DonorsChoose.org.