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The Inoculation Project 8/27/2023: Gardens and Microscopes Part 2 [1]

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Date: 2023-08-27

This week, we’re continuing to help 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.

We started last week working on two projects that would have been out of our range originally, but had gained the help of matching funds, and we put such a big dent in them that I have perfect confidence that they will both be completed before their early-September deadlines.

The funding 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.

This Austin first grade teacher has an ongoing project that keeps her students in touch with nature.

PROJECT #1 Project: Nature Explorers Service Project 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: $ 420.34 $310.34 ($156 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! DONATE HERE Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference! More about butterfly gardens from the Florida gardener who introduced milkweeds last week. She has great playlists on her channel, in case you are interested in doing this, on butterfly gardening for beginners and on milkweed specifically. x x YouTube Video

Mrs. Lacy’s students at her Memphis elementary school need microscopes to pursue the science projects she wants to bring to them.

PROJECT #2 Project: What's a Science Lab Without Microscopes? 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: $ 404.53 $294.53 ($148 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. DONATE HERE Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference! The people who brought us the tardigrade video last week offer a little survey of microscopic life in puddles, with a bit of microscopy history. (It happens there’s a short opening ad for a tardigrade t-shirt based on last week’s video, that says “Chubby, Misunderstood, & Not Immortal”. I admit to being sorely tempted.) x x YouTube Video

Our projects from last week are still ongoing, but a project from the week before was completed so late in the week that the teacher hadn’t yet had time to respond, so we have his note now. 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. He writes: Thank you for your consideration and your donation to support this project. You have provided an opportunity for my students to engage in scientific experiments to build their skills and efficacy in science. I am looking forward to implementing this project as my students have thus far in the school year expressed interest in carrying out more experiments.

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.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/8/27/2189848/-The-Inoculation-Project-8-27-2023-Gardens-and-Microscopes-Part-2

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