(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . The Inoculation Project 8/6/2023: Library Books and Environmental Science [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-08-06 This week, we’re helping a new school library project in Alabama, and continuing with an environmental science project for a Milwaukee high school. 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. This week, we have a new book project! Mrs. Green is a school librarian in this very tiny (population less than 1000) Alabama town west of Montgomery, and her students want to read books that they can relate to. PROJECT #1 Project: Books Like Me Resources: Help me give my students literature that reflects who they are and what they look like. Economic need: An Equity Focus School; more than half of students from low‑income households. Location: Autaugaville School, Autaugaville, Alabama Total: $592.86 Still Needed: $ 240.35 $190.35 Project description by Mrs. Green: My school is predominantly housed with African American students. My students are always coming to the library to seek more books about their heritage or books that relate to them. As a result, I would like to start a "Like Me" collection in the library with the books that have been selected in order to lure the students in to identify with more books that look like them. I feel that seeing more books that connect with them will have them circulating the books day in and day out non-stop. DONATE HERE Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference! Here are a couple of the books Mrs. Green is requesting! (You can see the list on the project page.) x x YouTube Video x x YouTube Video We’ve made good progress on this ambitious science project for a couple of weeks now, helped along by some additional funds gained on Gates Foundation Match Day this past week! Mr. Allen in Milwaukee needs some help with equipment for his high school environmental science students. PROJECT #2 Project: Exploring Our Environment Resources: Help me give my students the equipment to study their environment and the impact of human activities. Economic need: An Equity Focus School; nearly all students from low‑income households. Location: Wisconsin Conservatory of Lifelong Learning, Milwaukee, Wisconsin Total: $916.13 Still Needed: $ 567.16 $497.16 Project description by Mr. Allen: Our Environmental Science students at WCLL are excited to learn about aspects of the environment they we unaware of. Using the materials listed in this project students will examine factors that affect water quality and soil quality. Using water samples collected from the nearby Milwaukee River students will identify chemicals that may be present in the water samples. They will use a sample of soil from a local park to examine pollutants that may be present in it. Students will track those chemicals to pollution sources such as vehicles, industries, or other sources. DONATE HERE Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference! This water test kit is one of the items requested. x YouTube Video I had a request for a soil-testing-related video about the nitrogen cycle for this week, and I am happy to oblige! x x YouTube Video Project #1 from last week was completed, with a big assist from our readers! Project #1, Grow Our Library: Expanding Students' Access to Great Books #2: Ms. Dunn is the school librarian in Webb, Mississippi, and this was phase 2 of her effort to get some new books in the high school library to appeal to her students. She writes: Thank you so much for your generosity in donating to this project. I truly appreciate it. It continues to be my goal to build out our library’s collection with a catalog of exciting books that supports students’ reading interests, and you have helped tremendously in pursuit of that end with your donation. My students will be so happy to start the year with this new group of books! Thank you again! 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 1051! The success-list diary also contains links and additional information about DonorsChoose. [END] --- [1] Url: https://dailykos.com/stories/2023/8/6/2185527/-The-Inoculation-Project-8-6-2023-Library-Books-and-Environmental-Science Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/