(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . The Inoculation Project 11/13/2022: Middle School English and Robots [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2022-11-13 For our new project this week, we have something we don’t see all that often: a 3x matching offer (meaning the donor will double-match whatever amounts we give, yielding three times what we originally donated). This North Carolina middle school teacher wants to help her students work on grammar and vocabulary, to supercharge their ability to read and write well. PROJECT #1 Project: Building Vocabulary One Word at a Time Resources: Help me give my students a class set of vocabulary journals and a class set of grammar notebooks. Economic need: An Equity Focus School; nearly all students from low‑income households. Location: West Edgecombe Middle School, Rocky Mount, North Carolina Total: $613.81 (3x matching funds from “a local family foundation”) Still Needed: $ 553.81 $340.28 ($114 from us) Project description by Ms. Garrow: The items on my list currently have a home waiting. Just need a bit of help getting the items. The donations to this project will help to improve my students' understanding of and competency in authentic, meaningful reading and writing. Students will use the vocabulary notebook at the vocabulary station to build understanding of words they may not currently know. My students will use the grammar notebooks at the writing station to work on using their grammar correctly. I really need your help to make this idea become a reality. Thank you so much for your donation to help my students succeed. DONATE HERE Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference! If you don’t work on your grammar and vocabulary, you run the risk of annoying Weird Al Yankovic! x x YouTube Video And indeed, also our DKos friend Crashing Vor (see his YouTube channel for more music!) x x YouTube Video Our longer-term project is a big one, but we’re doing splendidly with it! These El Paso middle-school students will love working with Lego’s Spike Prime robotics kits, whenever we finally get it fully funded. PROJECT #2 Project: Enhancing STEM Knowledge and Skills Resources: Help me give my students Lego Spike Prime robotics kits to enhance their STEM knowledge and skills. Economic need: An Equity Focus School; nearly all students from low‑income households. Location: Guillen Middle School, El Paso, Texas Total: $954.65 Still Needed: $ 769.65 $694.65 Project description by Dr. Morales: My students are lifelong learners and have an incredible amount of energy. They are very inquisitive and enjoy applying mathematics and science to real world examples. Robotics allows them to do so. The Lego Spike Prime robotics kits will allow my students to enhance their STEM knowledge and skills with an authentic example. The Spike Prime robotics kits would also put my students on a trajectory towards college and career readiness. My students will utilize the engineering design process to document their robotics experience. In addition, they will make presentations to our school community. The acquisition of these Lego Spike Prime robotics kits would be a win-win for our students and school community. DONATE HERE Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference! A brief overview of what’s in the requested Spike Prime kit made for classrooms. x YouTube Video And a quick look at a sample project. x x YouTube Video Our first project from last week was completed! Many thanks to our readers! Project #1, Freedom Writer's Unit: Ms. Bonelli teaches high school English in Dallas, and she’s trying to inspire her reluctant readers with materials that they can relate to. She’s chosen a classic real-life story about a high school class 20 years ago whose teacher inspired them to read and to write journals. She writes: I am beyond grateful that you have sowed a seed for the current generation of students. While education is in constant evolution, it is a necessity to ensure that our practices and curriculum align with the times. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for believing in my vision.​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ 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 combats the anti-science, anti-education push in conservative America by funding science, math, and literacy projects in red-state 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 1001! The success-list diary also contains links and additional information about DonorsChoose. 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