This week, we’re helping a Florida high school class do a lab about wetlands, and some early-elementary classrooms in Louisiana get an assortment of good books to accommodate their various reading levels. 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.
Another week with two new projects! Ms. Barton is a never-before-funded teacher at a high school in a small city on the south bank of Lake Okeechobee in Florida. In light of that location, she hopes to do a lab that will help her students understand why wetlands are important.
To help us, we have 2x matching funds from Bezos Family Foundation: We’re helping more young people realize their potential by championing the science of learning and its application in everyday life. Please join us in giving back to help ensure that students and the educators who support them have what they need this year to learn, grow, and thrive.
PROJECT #1
Resources: Help me give my students the sponges and water bottles (lab equipment) needed to complete a science class lab experiment that shows how a wetland retains water, filters and cleans water and helps control flooding.
Economic need: An Equity Focus School; nearly all students from low‑income households.
Location: Clewiston High School, Clewiston, Florida
Total: $280.84 (2x matching funds from Bezos Family Foundation)
Still Needed: $280.84 $157.31 ($79 from us)
Project description by Ms. Barton: Florida's wetlands are important environments that provide necessary habitats for a vast array of animals and plants. Students are typically not aware of how vital a wetland is and what it does to improve water quality. This lab demonstrates what a wetland does.
The sponges in this lab act as the wetland itself and the bottles will be used to hold the clean water and the mucky water.
The students will pour the clean water over the sponge to see how wetlands absorb and hold water even in times of drought.
When the students pour the mucky water over the sponge most of the muck will stay on top of the sponge and cleaner water will drip through the sponge demonstrating how wetlands filter water.
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!
This video from the eco-channel of NowThis, NowThis Earth, is a good short explanation of what wetlands are and why they are so important to protect.
Our new project #2 is pretty ambitious, but we have until September. Mrs. Abby’s Louisiana team needs early-grades books, and at Lakeshore Learning, one of the go-to academic supply houses, they’ve found a well-organized collection of what look to be well-reputed children’s books, grouped by reading level.
PROJECT #2
Resources: Help me give my students a variety of books to become successful readers!
Economic need: An Equity Focus School; nearly all students from low‑income households.
Location: Sixth Ward Elementary School, Vacherie, Louisiana
Total: $420.28
Still Needed: $420.28 $349.99
Project description by Mrs. Abby: The books I am requesting will help students become successful and enthusiastic readers! The library set comes with specially selected books for every reading level! It is ideal for both guided and independent reading. The books are leveled from age 5-9 years making it easy to provide differentiated instruction and meet every student’s needs.
Our teachers are using the Accelerated Reader program and need to build classroom libraries with a variety of books for their students.
This library set will do just that! At our school, we are creating a better world one leader at a time!
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!
I wish the Lakeshore pages listed the book titles, but in their photo I spotted Bread and Jam for Frances, a 1964 classic by Russell and Lillian Hoban about a little badger girl who’s a picky eater.
Maybe it’s no longer surprising that both our projects from last week were completed, but it’s still wonderful! Many thanks to all our readers!
Project #1, Creating a Positive Classroom Climate With Kindness: Mrs. Richards teaches in Philadelphia, Mississippi, and was hoping to gather some books to help her students learn about kindness and compassion.
She writes: Thank you from one compassionate teacher to you many compassionate donors. In a world where you can be anything, you have chosen to be kind to myself and especially my students. This upcoming school year will open doors to new students with new personalities. Displaying compassion and kindness will prevail throughout because of your generosity. Thank you again for all you do for students, teachers, and public education.
Project #2, Detect Cancer With Gel Electrophoresis!: Ms. Tanner teaches high school biology in Buffalo, New York. She needed some lab kits with the supplies to allow her students to solve a simulated problem of DNA analysis, which will dovetail with their studies of gene mutation.
She writes: Thank you for helping me bring real-life and hands-on experiences that not only help my students learn, but also remember their learning! It means a lot to me that there are people out there who are still seeing and supporting teachers as we prepare the next generation for success in the future!
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 1113! The success-list diary also contains links and additional information about DonorsChoose.