This week, we’re helping an elementary school librarian in North Carolina, and a high school science teacher in an Alaskan fishing village, get what they need to help their respective students. 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.
It’s the last Sunday of Black History Month, and our first project this week has a special designation from DonorsChoose:
Celebrate Black Teachers and Students
This project is part of the Black History Month celebration because it supports a Black teacher or a school where the majority of the students are Black.
This North Carolina elementary-school librarian needs non-fiction books about inventors!
PROJECT #1
Resources: Help me give my students books about inventors who dared to dream of something new.
Economic need: An Equity Focus School; nearly all students from low‑income households. Also a Celebrate Black Teachers and Students project.
Location: Alderman Rd Elementary School, Fayetteville, North Carolina
Total: $362.21
Still Needed: $263.99 $139.58
Project description by Mrs. Miller: Please help me get more non-fiction books into our school library. We are in need of more high interest books in every non-fiction section. My students love a good story. More importantly, they love a true story.
These books will help me inspire the next generation of inventors and creators.
Kids are just naturally curious; When students are engaged and excited, they become readers for life. My students love non-fiction books about the things they are interested in! These books about inventors will give my students the knowledge they seek and boost their own curiosity for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!
One of the requested books is about Ralph Baer, who fled Nazi Germany as a boy and ended up developing modern video games.
Our new second project is quite ambitious, but its deadline is still more than two months away and I think we can do it some good. Ms. Boone teaches high-school grades in a small fishing village with a population that’s heavily Alaskan Native. She needs a large assortment of hands-on lab materials for all the science topics she needs to cover.
PROJECT #2
Resources: Help me give my students more materials for exploratory labs in science class!
Economic need: An Equity Focus School; nearly all students from low‑income households.
Location: Newhalen School, Iliamna, Alaska
Total: $1,199.74
Still Needed: $882.09 $742.68
Project description by Ms. Boone: These materials meet the standards of the multiple levels of science that I teach, including general science, physical science, and earth science. They will help students by giving them opportunities to participate in hands on, exploratory labs.
With your donation, these materials can provide students in rural Alaska with more place-based and exploratory labs, giving them opportunities that they might not otherwise get in an remote area of Alaska.
Please consider helping my class gain more resources for hands on activities. We can't thank you enough for your support and consideration in donating.
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!
One of the requested lab kits is about sea urchin embryology. This short video gives an idea of why it’s such an interesting topic.
I’m happy and rather surprised to say that both our projects from last week were completed — I was not expecting the larger of the two to be funded last week! Many thanks to our readers, both for donating and for helping raise the projects’ visibility so other donors help out as well.
Project #1, There's Nothing Like a Book in Your Hands: Ms. Wright needed books for her Arkansas elementary students.
She writes: Thank you so much for contributing to my project. These books in the hands of students will allow them to really fall in love with reading. I'm so excited to use them and they will love being able to spend time examining the text and illustrations up close. Thanks again.
Project #2, Biology, Ecology, and Chemistry... Oh My!: Mrs. Parent had a lot of science lab materials on her wish list for her South Carolina middle-school students.
She writes: Thank you for choosing our project and helping further the impact that science will have on our young students. We are overjoyed to receive such generosity for our small rural school! The students helped pick the items so they will be very excited to get working on new explorations and show them to the community!
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 1085! The success-list diary also contains links and additional information about DonorsChoose.