Kindness in Mississippi, DNA in Buffalo

This week, we’re helping purchase books for an elementary school class in Mississippi and lab kits for a high school class in Buffalo, NY, both through matching grants. We hope that readers who support quality public school education will help us by sharing or supporting our featured projects.

Project Inoculation is an ongoing volunteer effort to fund science, math, and literacy projects for public schools in low-income neighborhoods. As always, our intermediary is DonorsChoose, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation which facilitates tax-deductible donations to specific, approved projects in public schools.

We are happy to have two projects receiving matching grants this week! It’s always nice to be able to take on a project that’s a little more ambitious than we otherwise would, because some organizations have the support of teachers.

Ms. Richards teaches in Philadelphia, Mississippi, and hopes to collect a few books to help her students learn more about kindness and compassion. The 2x match is by The Compassion Project: Donations to this project are now doubled, thanks to the support of the Compassion Project. There is no more important skill to teach today than compassion: how to see the world through another person’s eyes in order to help them. Free resources for teachers and parents interested in teaching compassion are available at thecompassionproject.com.

PROJECT 1

Project: Create a positive classroom climate with kindness

Resources: Help me give my students kindness stones, activity books, and literature books to learn and promote both kindness and compassion.

Economic need: A Equity-focused school; notearly all students from low-income households.

Location: Philadelphia Elementary School, Philadelphia, Mississippi

Total: $443.92 (2x matching funds of The Compassion Project)

Still necessary: $205.51 Done, thank you! Please consider project #2 below.

Description of the project by Ms. Richards: I’m asking for a children’s book to teach lessons about kindness and compassion. Children learn through play, the experiences of others and the characters in books. I carefully chose books with characters who look like my students and share the same feelings as them. I also chose books with animal characters with relatable feelings for my students. These books will allow for conversations about the well-being of my students and how we as a class can work together to help each other, just like the characters read. My students will make text-to-them connections as well as text-to-text connections. The Kindness Stones and Activity Book will be used as a way to measure understanding of how to show and accept both kindness and compassion to and from others.

These activities can and will be done together, providing an opportunity to share ideas and school supplies.

Collaboration is essential to showing kindness to others.

The library will help students learn to be kind to books by storing them properly. This will allow other students and classes to have access to books that remain intact year after year as kindness spreads.

Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!

_{One of the requested books is Kind Ninjaof Ninja Life Hacks series by Mary Nhin, teaching children social and emotional skills. Here the book is read aloud by the author.}

Ms. Tanner teaches high school biology in Buffalo, New York. She would like to have lab kits with the supplies needed to allow her students to solve a simulated DNA analysis problem, which would fit with their studies of genetic mutation. Today we are receiving help from 2x matching funds from Michael Jordan and the Jordan Brand: Education is a key pillar of 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 elevating Black students.

PROJECT #2

Project: Detect cancer with gel electrophoresis!

Resources: Help me give my students a real-world education with hands-on gel electrophoresis experiments!

Economic need: A Equity-focused school; notearly 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 of Michael Jordan and the Jordan Brand)

Still necessary: $598.09 $432.80 ($217 from us)

Description of the project by Ms. Tanner: Every year I teach my students about the mutations that occur and cause cancer cells. Every time I teach it, students understand how it works, but cannot fully understand how the mutations that result in (cancer) occur. With these gel electrophoresis machines, I can help my students learn how gel electrophoresis is used to detect whether a person might carry the p53 gene which indicates whether a person is at risk of developing cancer, because 50% of People diagnosed with cancer have tested positive. to have this p53 gene. When students can learn about cancer and then test whether someone might be at risk, they can gain valuable real-life information that can not only help them gain the information needed to succeed in the course, but also their present real-life situations they might face. later in life.

My main goal in educating my students is not only to teach them information that will be forgotten as soon as they graduate from high school, but to give them real-life experiences that will stay with them for a long time. the future.

With these gel electrophoresis devices, I give my students the knowledge they need to succeed!

Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!

_{The Amoeba Sisters cartoon explains it all gel electrophoresis.}

Often only our #1 project from the previous week is finished, but in this case we are still working on it but the bigger project #2 is finished! A big thank you to all our readers for your support!

Project n°2, Aquaculture starts with anatomy!: Ms. Stelljes hoped to give her Mississippi high school students the opportunity to do hands-on dissections of fish and other aquatic creatures.

She writes: I’m honored to have the spotlight on other websites and everyone’s support. My goal is to provide the support and encouragement I did not receive growing up in rural South Mississippi. Mentoring and showing our students that science is an incredible field where we are always learning and discovering is a passion of mine. Especially when these students don’t have the same support at home. Your donations will continue to help these students learn and develop a scientific mindset for many years to come!

Founded in 2009, The vaccination 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 regarded by both Charity Navigator and the Better Business Bureau.

Every Sundaywe focus on helping to finance neighborhood public projects schools where the overwhelming majority of students come from low-income households. We welcome anyone who supports education in public schools – no money required!

Finally, here is our list of successfully funded projects — our series total is 1111! The Success List Log also contains additional links and information about DonorsChoose.