This week, we’re helping two elementary school projects: MakerSpace materials for a Missouri second grade classroom and a variety of STEM projects for a never-before-funded classroom in Mississippi. We hope that readers who support quality public school education will help 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.
As belinda ridgewood pointed out last week, “this small rural Missouri school is located very near the Kansas border, about equally far from Kansas City to the north and Joplin to the south; its relative poverty and isolated location conspire to limit children’s experiences.” Since this project is so close to completion now, I’ve promoted it to the main project slot.
MAIN PROJECT
Resources: Help me give my students a variety of eight different kinds of supplies and tools for their MakerSpace station.
Economic need: More than half of students from low‑income households
Location: Hume R8 School, Hume, Missouri
Total: $291.93
Still Needed: $95.11 Completed, thank you! Please consider project linked in comments.
Teacher’s Comments from Mrs. Schow:
My Students: My students are growing, learning and making lifelong friends in a small community within a great little school. They are dreamers, thinkers, talkers, questioners and hard workers. They come into the room each morning with excitement on their faces and eager to learn new innovative things.
Our Pre-K through 12 school has an average class size of 12.
This community is comprised mainly of farmers and ranchers. Our location is very secluded. We have very few academic resources available. Traveling is required for day-to-day needs such as groceries, gas, clothing, and so on.
Students are faced with many challenges each day. The majority of the students come from poverty and/or single parent homes. Although this is a low socioeconomic community, it is very family oriented and close-knit. We feel that our students deserve the same quality education and resources needed to maximize learning as students at other schools that are not faced with the same economic challenges.
My Project: These 8 MakerSpace Sets include; a tool pack, wire, plastic tubing, wooden & foam shapes, craft tubes, wheels & propellers, and several types of containers. These MakerSpace resources will also encourage originality and ingenuity. We have an area in our classroom where MakerSpace is used, fostered and inspiration evolves there.
MakerSpace builds confidence and encourages creativity, innovation, and "out-of-the-box" thinking.
We welcome this variety of resources and tools to give us the opportunity to have more challenging science skills and "hands-on" activities for our students.
By donating to this project, you will be supporting boys and girls by opening the STEM doors to all of our students. You will help make a difference because neither the school nor I have more funds to purchase these additional resources for our students. Your donation will make this happen in our classroom!
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!
Our new long-term project will help a never-before-funded teacher in Mississippi with lessons focusing on oil spill cleanup and a variety of STEM challenges.
LONG-TERM PROJECT
Resources: Help me give my students the opportunity to become engineers by building drawbridges, cranes, and elevators with the Building Brick Challenge Kits.
Economic need: Nearly all students from low‑income households
Location: Osyka Elementary School, Osyka, Mississippi
Total: $393.95
Still Needed: $193.95 Completed, thank you!
Teacher’s Comments from Ms. McKenzie:
My Students: My students love using their creative energy to complete challenging, hands-on activities.
Watching the light in their eyes shine brighter with each new bit of learning is truly an awesome experience!
Our school is located in a small southern Mississippi town. The majority of our students do not have the opportunity to participate in educational activities outside of the classroom. We try to bring as many new exciting experiences as possible to them.
We also incorporate a variety of learning strategies, student-centered learning opportunities, small group and individualized instruction, to ensure that the needs of each student are met. I am thankful to have a group of students that are excited about learning!
My Project: The materials I am requesting will be extremely useful in giving my students an opportunity to learn more about engineering by becoming engineers. My students will be able to participate in cleaning up an oil spill with the Oil Spill Kit.
These future engineers will gain valuable skills by completing many STEM challenges.
Through the use of the STEM Building Bricks, these students will be able to complete STEM challenges involving drawbridges, towers, ramps, and solvable mazes.
While creating a volcano, using the SCULPTAMOLD material, these excited engineers will remain spic and span with the help of their disposable aprons!!!
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!
Thanks to an assist from our donors, last week’s main project—Motion, Friction, Cause and Effect—was completed. Here’s the teacher’s thank you note:
Thank you all for your kind donations. We are ready to start learning more with these awesome resources you have helped fund. The children are going to be so excited when I tell them about our project being funded. We thank you from the bottoms of our hearts. You rock!
With gratitude,
Ms. Griffith
Founded in 2009, The Inoculation Project combats the anti-science push in conservative America by funding science and math projects in 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 science or math projects, 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 720! The success-list diary also contains links and additional information about DonorsChoose.org.