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This teacher needs your help!

Ms. Sands from La Mesa, CA is requesting materials related to food, clothing & hygiene through DonorsChoose, the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.

See what Ms. Sands is requesting

Earth Snacks: Fungi, Bugs, and Lava Salt

Help me give my students some unique lessons on sustainability and nutrition by growing mushrooms in the classroom, baking foods using cricket flour powder, and seasoning dishes using volcanic salts.

FULLY FUNDED! Ms. Sands's classroom raised $203

This project is fully funded

My Students

The students I have the opportunity to work with are creative, innovative, enthusiastic young people who are known to thank their teachers when they leave classrooms. There are over 1,100 students on campus in grades four through eight. It wasn't always like this, but in the past few years, the school has blossomed as the result of a visionary principal, progressive staff and active parent community. As a result, there is now a lottery and long wait list for new enrollees.

Parents are coming in droves to visit the campus and see all it has to offer including a wide variety of elective classes that you would normally only have access to in high school or college.

For example, students can take Theater, Dance, Speech, Tap, Ensemble, Encore, Keyboards, Concert Band, Symphonic Band, and Art just to name a few. They can also get involved in a Community Action Team elective course, Future Teacher elective course, or be a part of ASB, Media or Yearbook. They can even learn how to use a 3D printer in a class designed to teach that skill. The students are noticeably vibrant and well-behaved. Everyone feels fortunate to be there, including me.

My Project

My culinary students are accustomed to making ordinary foods like salads, smoothies, sandwiches, etc. but I'd like to challenge them to experience growing and tasting some highly unusual and earthy ingredients like Morel mushrooms, edible bugs and lava salts.

Cultivating one's own food is both an art and a science.

Students benefit from a hands-on approach to learning about sustainability. It is important to teach students how to grow their own food and how to prepare what they harvest. There are numerous science lessons on the impact of fungi that coincide with the experience of growing mushrooms from an indoor kit.

Similarly, having a rare opportunity to consume something made with cricket powder teaches a powerful lesson about considering sources of nutrition that are plentiful and less destructive to the planet than other agricultural practices.

Finally, students can learn about volcanoes when they sample lava salt. They can also be introduced to new finishing/plating techniques using exotic salts.

Ms. Sands La Mesa Arts Academy Grades 6-8

Equity Focus

This project directly supports students at a historically underfunded school. Learn more about our Equity Focus.

This project will directly impact historically underfunded classrooms.

La Mesa, CA View local requests

More than a third of students from low‑income households Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education. Learn more

68 students impacted 3donors

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Expand the "Where your donation goes" section below to see exactly what Ms. Sands is requesting.

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TEACHERS, FEELING INSPIRED?

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Where Your Donation Goes

Where your donation goes
Materials Cost Quantity Total
Raw Garden 4 Pack (12 oz Each) Coarse,Hawaiian Black Lava, Red Alea, Green Bamboo, Himalayan Pink Coarse Salt Gourmet Variety Total 3 lbs • Amazon Business $29.99 1 $29.99
Pink Oyster Mushroom Farm - Beautiful Mushroom Growing Kit - All in One Indoor Growing Kit - Exotic Mushroom • Amazon Business $22.99 1 $22.99
Shiitake Spawn and Wax Combo - Shiitake Mushrooms Mushroom Mycelium Plug Spawn - 100 Count Plugs - 3oz Wax Grow Edible Gourmet & Medicinal Shitake Fungi On Trees & Logs • Amazon Business $20.49 1 $20.49
Chirps Cricket Protein Chips, Gluten-Free, High Protein, 5 Oz (Pack of 3) (Variety) • Amazon Business $19.99 1 $19.99
Black Morel Morchella Elata Seeds Spores Morel Garden Mushrooms Mycelium Spawn (25g) by Garden Pleasure • Amazon Business $12.98 1 $12.98
Spores Black Truffle Mushrooms Mycelium Spawn Dried Seeds Kit for Planting Non GMO 0.25 oz • Amazon Business $11.98 1 $11.98
Himalayan Pink Salt Grass-Fed Ghee Butter by 4th & Heart, 9 Ounce, Pasture Raised, Non-GMO, Lactose Free, Certified Paleo, Keto-Friendly • Amazon Business $9.91 1 $9.91

Materials cost

$128.33

Vendor shipping charges

 FREE

Sales tax

 $11.74

3rd party payment processing fee

$1.92

Fulfillment labor & materials

$30.00

Total project cost

$171.99

Suggested donation to help DonorsChoose reach more classrooms

$30.35

Total project goal

$202.34

How we calculate what's needed

Total project goal

 $202.34

2 Donors

-$188.22

Donations toward project cost

-$171.99

Donations to help DonorsChoose reach more classrooms

-$16.23

Excluded support for DonorsChoose

-$14.12

Still needed View calculationHide calculation

 $0.00

Our team works hard to negotiate the best pricing and selections available.

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DonorsChoose is the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.

As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Ms. Sands and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.

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