This week, we’re helping bring science materials to a Houston preschool, and robotics kits to a South Dakota high school that serves the Rosebud Reservation. 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.
We made excellent progress on this project before its matching funds ran out! Now we have three months to knock off the last portion, so I am bumping it up here to make way for an even longer-term project.
MAIN PROJECT
Resources: Help me give my students science kits and materials to explore in our STEM learning station.
Economic need: More than three-quarters of students from low‑income households
Location: Sheldon Early Childhood Academy, Houston, Texas
Total: $992.62
Still Needed: $256.09 Completed, thank you! Please consider long-term project below.
Teacher’s Comments from Mrs. Zepeda:
My Students: I work in a Title I school where more than 80% of the students are economically disadvantaged. All of my students are English Language Learners. They are ready to learn a new language full of energy, curiosity, and questions.
In the mornings' students enter my room with smiles and are excited to learn something new.
They love to use their imagination to create pictures, build structures, and tell stories. As they learn new things, I can see the sparkle in their eyes as they build, create, and learn how to read and write.
My Project: STEM is something that schools have been exploring recently. In my classroom, I haven't been able to set up a STEM center because of a lack of Science materials. My students love going to the school's STEM lab, but only get to do it once a week. I would like to set up a STEM center in my classroom so that students have more time exploring science, technology, engineering and math skills.
All the science sets I have ordered like the crystal growing kit, life cycle kit, telescopes, and plant labs will be used to open up the Science part of our STEM center.
My students will be able to use them every other day as they rotate through all the centers in our classroom.
Exploring these Science kits will help them learn our Science objectives in a fun way and will also prepare them for our Science Fair which is a few months away!
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!
This next project is for a never-before-funded teacher. It’s quite a long-term project, by our standards. It currently has a 2x match and a May 8 deadline, so it’s not an impossible task for us, just a long one. White River, SD didn’t register with me at first, until I got almost to the end of the “My Students” section and read, “My students live on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota”. I think that speaks for itself for Daily Kos readers, about the importance of helping these students, whose people our country has worked so hard, for centuries, to eliminate.
Donations to this project are now being matched, thanks to support from Endless: Learning to code as a student can be a gateway to a passion for STEM, experimentation and invention, and a successful career after graduation. At Endless, we believe that by supporting access to creative coding tools our next generation of leaders will be equipped to shape technology – not be shaped by it.
[Explanatory links added to the text by me. I like that the robot they’ll build is called the Boe-Bot because the company calls its main circuit board the “Board of Education”.]
LONG-TERM PROJECT
Resources: Help me give my students the Parallax Cyber:bot robot kits, priced for a class kit. I would need 6 kits total for a price of $1797.50. The more robot kits, the better it would be for all students.
Economic need: Nearly all students from low‑income households
Location: White River High School, White River, South Dakota
Total: $1,138.02 (2x matching funds from Endless)
Still Needed: $1,088.02 $490.73 ($246 from us)
Teacher’s Comments from Mrs. VanHeuveln:
My Students: I am excited to teach a Robotics course using the Python programming language to my high school students. Our students are ready to learn robotics assembly, have the willingness to learn a new language (Python), and ready to engage in a new and exciting STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) course. My students could also participate in area robotics competition that would be enjoyable for them. CTE courses would be fulfilled in the robotics curriculum, as well as hands-on use of technology. My students live on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota. The need is very great to have this funding available for the Parallax robots.
My Project: My robotics course will use the Cyber:bot robot and bring to life a classroom of hands on learning, including learning a new programming language (Python), new STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) course, and we will be considering competitions in the area.
The Cyber:bots are designed from Parallax company, and are moderately priced.
NICERC has the curriculum ready to have my students learning from Day 1. My students will learn the ingenuity process to meet challenges they may face in competition.
My students will have an advantage in the 21st Century by coding a new language, and will understand the rigor of Computer Science terms and concepts. Most of my students are preparing for their futures by taking the programming classes I offer.
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!
Our main project from last week was completed, with a big assist from our readers! Mrs. Oyervides’s Texas kindergarten will be getting several kinds of blocks and building parts. Working together with these new toys will help the students with their English as well. The project was Learning and Creating.
Mrs. Oyervides writes: Thank you so much for your contributions. My students will learn so much and develop many skills from these learning materials, all while having fun at the same time. There are not enough words to express our gratitude for people like you who contribute to the education of our future generations.
Our Dollars at Work
Back in September, we helped with Ms. Rodriguez’s Houston 7th grade’s cell biology studies, by pitching in toward two new microscopes that will actually magnify enough for them to see cells. The project was A Closer Look at Cells. (More photos at the link.)
First of all , I thank you all for having faith that your donation will make a difference in the education of my students. The two new microscopes that we received brought a lot of excitement in the classroom as we explored different kinds of cells. We observed a variety of specimen such as letter e newsprint, onion cells, cheek cells, elodea cells, hair follicle, yeast cells and many more.
The quality, including clarity and level of magnification of the images we observed, just made it so amazing. It aroused curiosity as opposed to frustrations that I experience to see In the past, where students lose excitement and motivation when they see a blurry image of the cells, as they used the high power objective from the old microscopes that we had. We used to see cells at 400X magnification, our new microscopes magnify up to 2500X. That's similar to reading fine prints without glasses, versus reading it with glasses.
A few particular students were especially warmed by our new microscopes. Devyn was one of them. Devyn had been exhibiting poor behavior in class, difficulty completing assignments and seemed disconnected to what we were learning in the curriculum. It was during his class period when the first microscope arrived. I had already told the class that we were receiving two microscopes as soon as I found out that the project got fully funded. He offered to help unboxing and assembling some parts. I noticed the interest in his eyes and I asked him if he'd be willing to be trained in advance on how to use it, so that he could be my microscope assistant. He accepted the role and did a fine job assisting students who were a little scared to touch and explore the microscopes. I witnessed a big difference on his behavior and academic performance in my class after this experience.
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 799!!! The success-list diary also contains links and additional information about DonorsChoose.org.