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This teacher needs your help!

Ms. Tom from Bronx NY is requesting lab equipment through DonorsChoose, the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.

See what Ms. Tom is requesting

Unearthing 380 Million Year Old Fossils

Help me give my students mallets, chisels, brushes, and mats to unearth 380 million year old fossils.

  • 3 donors
  • $582 still needed

expires Aug 26

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  • 3 donors
  • $582 still needed
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Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month

Celebrate Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month

This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.

My Project

Last year I attended a professional development held at the American Museum of Natural History called, "Local Memories: Using New York State Fossils to Unearth Past Environments." They provided us with loads of rocks shipped from Penn Dixie Fossil Park and Nature Reserve to smash. Penn Dixie is a global geological treasure that attracts thousands of visitors from across the world every year. Visitors to Penn Dixie are encouraged to collect — and keep — fossils from a shallow ocean environment that existed 380 million years ago.

Smashing these rocks using hammers and chisels and finding so many fossils in them was incredibly fun and exciting for me as an adult, so I knew my students would enjoy it just as much.

However, I think they would get more out of this experience with a softer approach that will allow them to focus on finding and extracting as many intact fossils as possible. When I gave them heavy rock hammers and rock chisels to break the large chunks of rock, many missed the finer details and wound up smashing the delicate trilobite, crinoid, brachiopod, and coral fossils into bits and pieces. Going forward, I would like to provide my students with small mallets, small chisels, brushes to wet the chunks of shale so they can see the fossils more clearly, and mats on which to work. The chunks of shale will easily be split with these lighter tools, and the extra attention to detail will allow my students to get more out of this activity. We will continue to use our rock hammers and rock chisels to smash geodes.

Ms. Tom
Grades 6-8

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Expand the "Where your donation goes" section below to see exactly what Ms. Tom 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
XANGNIER Fossil Digging Kit Silicone Mat,Dinosaur Bones Fossil Digging Kit Pad for Dig It Up Dinosaur Eggs Excavation,Fossil Mess Storage Pan,Blue • Amazon Business $9.99 28 $279.72
MotBach 2 Pack Double Head Plastic and Rubber Hammer, Double-Faced Soft Hammer(25mm and 35mm) with 4 Pcs Replacement Head(25mm and 35mm) for Jewelry, Leather Crafts, Wood, Flooring Installation • Amazon Business $9.99 14 $139.86
4 Piece Wood Chisel Sets Woodworking Tools Set, Wood Chisels for Woodworking with Steel Hammer End, Wood Tools Chisel Set Woodworking with Ergonomic Plastic Handle, 6mm, 12mm, 18mm, 24mm • Amazon Business $9.89 8 $79.12
UPINS 30 Pcs Flat Paint Brushes,Small Brush Bulk for Detail Painting • Amazon Business $6.79 2 $13.58

Materials cost

$512.28

Vendor shipping charges

 FREE

Sales tax

 $0.00

3rd party payment processing fee

$7.68

Fulfillment labor & materials

$30.00

Total project cost

$549.96

Suggested donation to help DonorsChoose reach more classrooms

$97.05

Total project goal

$647.01

How we calculate what's needed

Total project goal

 $647.01

2 Donors

-$30.00

Donations toward project cost

-$30.00

Donations to help DonorsChoose reach more classrooms

-$0.00

Young Sheldon on CBS match offer

-$30.00

Match offer toward project cost

-$25.50

Match offer to help DonorsChoose reach more classrooms

-$4.50

Excluded support for DonorsChoose

-$5.29

Still needed View calculationHide calculation

 $581.72

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. Tom and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.

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