(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . The Inoculation Project 6/23/2024: Kindness in Mississippi, DNA in Buffalo [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-06-23 This week, we’re helping buy books for an elementary school class in Mississippi, and lab kits for a high school class in Buffalo, NY, both with the help of matching grants. 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’re happy to have two projects with matching grants this week! It’s always nice to be able to take up a little more ambitious project than we might otherwise, because some organization has teachers’ backs. Mrs. Richards teaches in Philadelphia, Mississippi, and is hoping to gather some books to help her students learn about kindness and compassion. The 2x match is by The Compassion Project: Donations to this project are now being matched, thanks to support from The Compassion Project. There is no more important skill to teach today than compassion: how to see the world through the eyes of another person in order to help them. Free resources for teachers and parents interested in teaching compassion are available at thecompassionproject.com. PROJECT #1 Project: Creating a Positive Classroom Climate With Kindness Resources: Help me give my students kindness rocks, activity books, and literature books to learn and promote both kindness and compassion. Economic need: An Equity Focus School; nearly all students from low‑income households. Location: Philadelphia Elementary School, Philadelphia, Mississippi Total: $443.92 (2x matching funds from The Compassion Project) Still Needed: $ 205.51 Completed, thank you! Please consider project #2 below. Project description by Mrs. Richards: I am requesting a children's book to teach lessons on kindness and compassion. Children learn through play, experiences of others, and from book characters. I have carefully chosen books with characters who look like my students and share similar feelings as them. I have also chosen books with animal characters with feelings relatable to my students. These books will allow for conversations pertaining to the well-being of my students and how we as a class can work together to help one another just as characters being read about. My students will make text-to-self connections as well as text-to-text connections. The kindness rocks and activity book will be used as a means of measuring the understanding of how to show and accept both kindness and compassion to and from others. These activities can and will be done together which will gives the opportunities to share ideas and school supplies. Collaboration is key when showing kindness to others. The bookshelf will help the students learn how to be kind to books by properly storing them. This will allow other students and classes to have access to books that are kept intact year after year as kindness is being spread. DONATE HERE Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference! One of the requested books is Kind Ninja, from the Ninja Life Hacks series by Mary Nhin, teaching children about social and emotional skills. Here, the book is read aloud by the author. x x YouTube Video Ms. Tanner teaches high school biology in Buffalo, New York. She’d like 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. We have help today from 2x matching funds from Michael Jordan and the Jordan Brand: Education is a key pillar of the Jordan BCC and we are proud to support teachers and their students in equity-focused schools. Black educators are essential to advancing equity in our communities and impacting the lives of every student, and all teachers play a role in uplifting Black students. PROJECT #2 Project: Detect Cancer With Gel Electrophoresis! Resources: Help me give my students real life education with gel electrophoresis hands-on experiences! Economic need: An Equity Focus School; nearly all students from low‑income households. Location: PS 363 Lewis J Bennett School of Innovative Technology, Buffalo, New York Total: $598.09 (2x matching funds from Michael Jordan and the Jordan Brand) Still Needed: $ 598.09 $432.80 ($217 from us) Project description by Ms. Tanner: Every year, I teach my students about mutations that happen resulting in cancer cells. Each time I teach it, students understand how it works, but can't fully grasp how mutations happen that result in [cancer]. With these Gel electrophoresis machines, I can help my students learn how gel electrophoresis is used to detect whether a person might have the p53 gene that indicates whether a person is at risk of developing cancer as 50% of those diagnosed with cancer have been tested positive for having this p53 gene. When students can learn about cancer, then test whether a person might be at risk, students can gain real-life valuable information that can not only help them learn the necessary information for passing the class, but also to give them real situations they might face later in life. My main goal while educating my students, is not to just teach them information that will be forgotten as soon as they graduate high school, but to give them experiences in real life that will stick with them long into the future. With these gel electrophoresis machines, I am giving my students the knowledge needed to help them succeed! DONATE HERE Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference! The cartoon Amoeba Sisters explain all about gel electrophoresis. x x YouTube Video Often, just our #1 project for the previous week is completed, but in this case, we’re still working on that but the larger #2 project was completed! Many thanks to all of our readers for your support! Project #2, Aquaculture Begins With Anatomy!: Mrs. Stelljes was hoping to give her Mississippi high school students the chance to do hands-on dissections of fish and other aquatic creatures. She writes: I am honored to have the spotlight on other websites and everyone’s support. My goal is to provide the support and encouragement that I did not receive growing up in rural South Mississippi . Mentoring and showing our students that science is an amazing field where we are always learning and discovering is a passion of mine. Especially when these students may not have that same support in their homes. Your donations will continue to help these students learn and develop a scientific mindset for many years to come! 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 1111! 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