This week, we’re helping an Austin first grade maintain their gardens, and a Memphis science class get some microscopes. 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, math, and literacy projects for public schools in low-income neighborhoods. As always, our conduit is DonorsChoose, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation that facilitates tax-deductible donations to specific, vetted projects in public schools.
I have good news: both our previous projects were completed last week, so we have new ones. The even better news is, our friend Eastern Bluebird found us the Holy Grail of The Inoculation Project (no vicious bunnies involved): a big matching funds donor who’s offering matches on some terrific science projects!
Of course, we never know how long we have until such funds run out, but let’s give it a try and see how much matching we can squeeze out before that happens. I’m posting two projects that are both pretty substantial, even with the matching; I’m choosing them because they only have until early September, so if they can’t get funded with this match, it’s not going to happen for them.
This Austin first grade teacher has an ongoing project that keeps her students in touch with nature. And I should say that the matching-grant organization is the National Corn Growers Association: NCGA is proud to fund projects that inspire the next generation of scientists! Agriculture is a vital partner in engaging students with STEM concepts that directly, and indirectly, impact their lives, helping spark students to solve real-world science issues.
PROJECT #1
Resources: Help me give my students soil, compost, fertilizers, watering cans, milkweed plants, trash grabbers, trash bags, a broom and dustpan and cups for indoor and outdoor growing and beautification.
Economic need: An Equity Focus School; nearly all students from low‑income households.
Location: Padron Elementary School, Austin, Texas
Total: $982.40 (2x matching funds from National Corn Growers Association)
Still Needed: $650.34 $420.34 ($211 from us)
Project description by Ms. G: I have an after school club and a classroom full of first graders that refer to themselves as Nature Explorers. They love learning about how we can take care of nature, so that it takes care of us.
Our mission is to learn about sustainability and ways to feed our community, beautify our campus and help the monarchs via our gardens.
We learn how to grow vegetables and herbs both indoors and outdoors that we get to eat and share with our school community. We need, soil. compost, fertilizers, watering cans, and cups to watch our seeds grow. We also maintain our Monarch Heroes Memorial Butterfly Garden in honor of one of our teachers, and can always use more milkweed plants. Finally, we keep our campus clean and free of trash with our dustpan, broom, trash grabbers and trash bags so that the beauty of our small green space can truly shine.
We hope you will support us in our endeavors to beautify our campus as we learn to grow flowers and vegetables both in class and in our after school program. We appreciate your support!
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!
A Floridian gardener starts us off learning about Asclepias plants, the milkweeds, some of which are requested in this project.
Mrs. Lacy’s students at her Memphis elementary school need microscopes to pursue the science projects she wants to bring to them.
PROJECT #2
Resources: Help me give my students the opportunity to view the world through a microscope!
Economic need: An Equity Focus School; more than half of students from low‑income households.
Location: Whitehaven Elementary School, Memphis, Tennessee
Total: $823.94 (2x matching funds from National Corn Growers Association)
Still Needed: $694.53 $464.53 ($233 from us)
Project description by Mrs. Lacy: Microscopes are a very essential part of any Science lab. We are in need of microscopes in our Science lab. I surveyed my innovators and about 50% had never looked through a microscope before. With your help, we can change that.
Help my students to view the world differently through the lenses of a microscope!
My innovators will learn the different parts of a microscope and how a microscope works. My innovators will be able to see cells and the composition of real-world things that they encounter everyday. During their STEM exploration labs, they will be taught how to collect soil and water samples as well as prepare slides for observation.
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!
Among the creatures the class might see are the rather well-known tardigrades.
Both of our projects from last week were completed! We had a LOT to do with both of them, especially the big environmental science one that we worked on for weeks.
Project #1, Board Games Help Us Learn Skills: Mrs. Leaver wanted her North Las Vegas elementary students to have some classic board games that would help them with a range of skills.
She writes: I'm so excited to have this project funded. I love that I get to help my students learn social skills through play. School can be stressful as students learn new academic material while juggling peer interactions, and community / home life. I'm hoping these games will come in handy to not only teach social skills, but also teach our students coping strategies too. Learning can be fun.
Project #2, Exploring Our Environment: Mr. Allen in Milwaukee wanted his high school classes to be able to do environmental science labs to test water and soil for pollutants.
As I write, he hasn’t seen the good news yet, but we’ll bring you his note when it’s available.
DonorsChoose has developed the designation Equity Focus Schools to describe some schools that submit projects. They meet two criteria: at least 50% of students are Black, Latinx, Native American, Pacific Islander, or multiracial, and at least 50% of students qualify for free or reduced price lunch, the standard measure for school economic need. You can read more at the link about their efforts to address the longstanding inequity in education. |
Founded in 2009, The Inoculation Project seeks to fund science, math, and literacy projects in public school classrooms and libraries. Our conduit is DonorsChoose, 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 projects 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 1049! The success-list diary also contains links and additional information about DonorsChoose.