This week, we're helping provide a rural Tennessee 4th-grade classroom with some very cool digital microscopes and North Carolina middle-school computer science students with materials to start a robotics club and participate in local competitions.
#GivingTuesday is November 27th, and 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.
ETA match offer reported by GrowingMindsinSC:
if you put in the code WKB during checkout, your donation will be matched up to $50. There is a $50 cap per donor…. Codes only work on projects that don’t already have another match running at the same time.
Our long-term project is close enough to completion now to be promoted to our main project. Here’s belinda ridgewood’s description: “This classroom is in the northeastern tip of Tennessee, not far from Knoxville and adjacent to the Cherokee National Forest. I really like the little flip microscopes being requested — they’re the model shown in the video, and they’re so cool that I kind of want one, even though I seldom have much call for a microscope these days. I think the kids will love them!”
MAIN PROJECT
Resources: Help me give my students two hand-held microscopes so that they may view and study the physical characteristics of living organisms and non-living materials.
Economic need: More than half of students from low‑income households
Location: South Side Elementary School, Johnson City, Tennessee
Total: $330.84
Still Needed: $182.01 Completed, thank you! Please consider long-term project below.
Teacher’s Comments from Mrs. Miles:
My Students: My precious students come to school each day knowing they are going to do something exciting to learn math and science! Our classroom is comprised of a sweet group of 4th graders. They attend a Title I school which is located in a beautiful rural area in the mountains of Tennessee. Many of our students, about 85%, are from low-income families and would rather be at school than at home, where they feel safe, receive hot meals, and are supported by caring adults.
My students come from a variety of backgrounds, experiences, languages and family structures, and love to learn in a hands-on way.
I strive to create a feeling of security and caring, as well as create enriching math, science, and engineering design projects for all children. My goal is to develop the whole child, so that they may thrive academically, socially, behaviorally, and physically.
I incorporate STEM learning within my math and science lessons so that students experience those subjects in a hands-on way. It's important that children of this age actually "see" the math, science, and engineering concepts using visual tools, so that they gain an understanding of certain abstract ideas in these subject areas.
My Project: The microscopes that I am requesting in this project will be used in our science labs by students as they seek to understand the world around them. Last year, our state adopted new science standards based on the Next Generation Science Standards that were developed to improve science understanding and instruction for all children.
The new standards require students to engage and explore the physical aspects of plants and animals.
In order for students to see beyond what they observe with the naked eye, they can use these microscopes to provide the understanding they need to have as they learn about the systems, patterns, and relationships of living and non-living things in the environment.
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!
dolphine apparently created an account here to draw our attention to a project that fits our mission: “Love Donors Choose! New here so not sure where to put this but was wondering if I could nominate a project. This never before funded teacher in the Appalachian area (high poverty) of NC would like to start a robotics club and has one month left. ty www.donorschoose.org/...”
Although the amount still needed is a bit steep with a little over a month to go, I think it’s do-able given that #GivingTuesday is November 27th. So we’re going for it!
LONG-TERM PROJECT
Resources: Help me give my students MINDSTORMS Education EV3 Core Set so they may have the ability to build their own robot so they can expand their knowledge of coding
Economic need: Nearly all students from low‑income households
Location: North Wilkes Middle School, N Wilkesboro, North Carolina
Total: $582.66 (new 3x match added on 11/20/2019)
Still Needed: $473.84 $310.01 ($104 from us with new match!)
Teacher’s Comments from Mr. Byers:
My Students: 6th. 7th, and 8th grade students who are enrolled in computer science discoveries/ computer skills. The majority of my students come from low income backgrounds in a rural area that has historically thrived on factory work. There has been a recent shift in our community from factory work to technology based jobs. My students are gaining 21 century skills through my classes by learning problem solving skills, and collaboration and teamwork by working with one another to reach a common goal.
My Project: My students are amazed at what they are able to accomplish with coding. During their time of experimenting with coding on the computer they have shared that they would like to experience more.
My students desire to start a robotics club using the MINDSTORMS Education EV3 Core Set to write codes and to be able to complete in our local robotics competition.
Through this experience my students would obtain real life hands on experiences with coding that they could potentially use later in the career field. My students are very enthusiastic about this opportunity and the knowledge and skills they will be able to gain from this experience.
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!
Last week’s main project — Project STEMspace — was completed thanks to an assist from our donors. Thank you note for the marble run maze, robot mouse, and microscope slide set provided for use by 17 classes at an Indiana elementary school:
From the bottom of my heart, thank you so much for making Project STEMspace a reality! I can't believe how quickly this project was funded and how so many supported these amazing students. I am so excited to tell my students the wonderful news! Thank you again, my STEM leaders now have more materials to grow and expand.
With gratitude,
Ms. Young
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 702! The success-list diary also contains links and additional information about DonorsChoose.org.