This week, we're taking advantage of a special 5x match offer that is helping students who evacuated to Florida due to the devastation wrought by Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. As always, our focus is on science and math projects.
We’re also continuing to support our long-term project (which is not eligible for the special 5x match) that will help elementary school students in Arizona study the weather. We hope that readers who support quality public school education will help all of 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. 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.
Like so many Americans, I’ve found the current Administration’s refusal to provide meaningful assistance to those suffering during the aftermath of Hurricane Maria infuriating. These are the first DonorsChoose.org projects that I’ve found which are intended to at least help the kids from Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands who are now living in Florida and trying to continue their educations. Here’s the special 5x match offer description:
Donations to these projects are now being matched, thanks to support from Tony and Nanar Yoseloff. Our community is proud to support students displaced by Hurricane Maria so that they have the resources and supplies they need to start fresh at a new school.
We will feature projects matched by this offer until their funds run out.
Resources: My students need hands-on supplies to be able to understand the sun.
Economic need: More than three-quarters of students from low‑income households
Location: Bellamy Elementary School, Tampa, Florida
Still Needed: $1,011.38 Completed with help from 5x match offer! Thank you.
Teacher’s Comments from Ms. White (my emphasis):
My Students: When I think about going to school, I think about tons of textbooks, hours of research in the library, and a lot of frustration from not actually finding what I need. My goal this year is to provide my students with anything and everything they will need to be successful. For the first time, my students will be tested online in Math. The unfortunate part is these students do not have the resources available to practice and get comfortable .
Our students come from low-income households that require them to take on a lot more than any 8-year-old should have to.
This year because of Hurricane Maria, I have also received many students from Puerto Rico. Because of the daily struggles my students face, I want them to feel like the only thing they have to worry about is being the best student they can be. I want them to feel like they are ready for anything and everything that is thrown at them. I don't want them to look back and feel like their elementary years were frustrating and unfair because the expectations were too high to reach.
My Project: These sun supplies will allow not only my English speakers, but also my non-English speakers to be able to have a hands on learning experience. The sun was one of the most fascinating things to learn about BUT you can't touch it, you can't look at it, and you get build it. These supplies will allow my students to dive in without getting hurt or hurting someone else. They will learning about the rotations, solar energy, and the layers of the sun. They will also be able to create and watch a solar race car race while we use a solar oven. These supplies can change the way these students view learning.
Resources: My students need a handheld digital microscope capable of looking at both the micro and macro level and projecting to our SMART Board in our classroom for great whole group learning.
Economic need: Nearly all students from low‑income households
Location: Little River Elementary School, Orlando, Florida
Still Needed: $739.58 Completed with help from 5x match offer! Thank you.
Teacher’s Comments from Ms. Peyovich (my emphasis):
My Students: We are a K to fifth-grade Title I elementary school with 400+ children in FL providing free breakfast and/or lunch for all. Our students' families struggle financially so there is very little extra funds for relevant, comprehensible science investigations. To add to our population we were blessed to welcome many students new to our country from Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. Their lives were significantly impacted by Hurricane Maria with devastating property damage in particular to their modest homes. Some are living here with extended family, separated from their parents and other siblings. Yet through it all we will all emerge stronger.
My students are the most amazing kiddos: they are welcoming, caring, bright, energetic, and curious.
As budding computer programmers, mathematicians, engineers, and scientists, they clamor for more opportunities to engage in computer programming and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) explorations both during and beyond the typical school day. Our goal is to give each student the very best education and the best support possible at all times. Won't you please help us? We need a digital classroom microscope for hands-on, relevant, STEM study. Thank you!
My Project: We need a digital handheld microscope to accurately measure and view in great detail both larger insects such as butterflies and grasshoppers and microscopic pond animals in our science labs in order to build and maintain a competitive edge in becoming 21st Century skills ready scholars. Our rapidly changing technological world demands that we proactively train and equip our students to become future innovative problem solvers and world decision makers.
My students are amazing: they are our future astronauts that will one day tread on Martian soil; engineer responsibly in our environmentally sensitive treasure known as the Florida Everglades and produce cutting edge medical research and development while providing world class care at our booming Lake Nona Medical City.
How can our central Florida students, especially our newest, post-Hurricane Maria immigrant students, face the challenges of the future without real, meaningful project based learning opportunities? How can we even consider engaging them without the very basic scientific tools such as a digital, handheld microscope which enables projection to our SMART Board and viewing by all simultaneously at their disposal? Please help us in our effort train up these students and equip them with a classroom digital microscope, thank you!
ETA another 5x match project!
Resources: My students need art supplies to access science in a hands on way. They will use markers, clay, colored pencils and poster boards to create interactive, hands on science projects.
Economic need: More than three-quarters of students from low‑income households
Location: Leto High School, Tampa, Florida
Still Needed: $366.62 $296.09 ($60 from us with 5x match)
Teacher’s Comments from Ms. Mattiace (my emphasis):
My Students: I work in a Title I High School. Most of our students (72%) are English Language Learners (ELL), with languages other than English as their first language. Many students are new to this country, some have been displaced by Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, and many have moved to the United States within the last 2 or three years from Puerto Rico, Cuba, Columbia and other Spanish speaking countries. Our wonderful students have a real thirst to learn, which is so very refreshing. We have great parental support in the area of academics, but many of our parents struggle financially. We are called a Comprehensive High School which includes a Cosmetology program, Auto Mechanic program, and a Culinary program in addition to the traditional academic programs.
My Project: These art supplies will allow my students the opportunity to explore and create interactive and hands on science projects in our Science Lab. They will create interactive posters, modeling clay DNA strands, paper representations of cells, a 3D periodic table and much more. For so many of my students access to art supplies is limited due to economics. Their financial/economic situations make it almost impossible for them to bring their own supplies. By having supplies like markers, paper, and edging scissors in the classroom it evens the playing field and everyone has the same opportunities.
Art is the universal language that makes science accessible to all my students no matter their background or economic situation.
Art is a way to engage students who might not ordinarily be engaged and allow students to express what they have learned through a non traditional approach instead of the traditional paper and pencil type assessment.
Again, our long-term project below is quite good, but ineligible for the special 5x match.
LONG-TERM PROJECT
Resources: My students need weather devices, such as a barometer, anemometer, and forecast station, so that they can learn to measure weather by reading the instruments.
Economic need: More than three-quarters of students from low‑income households
Location: Sunset Vista Elementary School, Glendale, Arizona
Still Needed: $189.91 Completed! Thank you.
Teacher’s Comments from Mrs. LaCasse:
My Students: My fourth grade students come from a Title One school. Many live in apartments and have never had the experience of raising a garden. They are ready for new experiences and love to make observations as they study science.
These students have diverse learning needs.
This project will help to bind them together as a team as they learn about life science. They will need to use skills across the content areas, which will make those skills meaningful for them.
My Project: The materials that I have chosen, such as a barometer, anemometer, and forecast station, will provide the students with the opportunity to measure, read, and interpret data about the weather in Arizona. The first part of the new year is the perfect time of the year for this because we experience a variety of types of weather as opposed to our frequent sunny days with blue skies. There is also a variance in temperature!
Students will have an opportunity to build 3 small weather stations which I will also save for next year's students to use.
This will capture their interest. Using real materials to measure weather will leave them with a deeper understanding than simple videos and worksheets.
The barometer will help them read and interpret air pressure, the weather station will give us a digital format to track the weather, and will be used daily once they learn what it means. I was very excited to find the thermometers. They are perfect for reading practice.
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!
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 — our series total is 629! The success-list diary also contains links and additional information about DonorsChoose.org.