{"monthlySchoolDonationEnabled":true,"callToActionDisplayName":"Sequoia Middle School","outOfStateSupporters":63.0,"allowSchoolLevelGiving":true,"hasFundedProjects":true,"projectGratitudeData":[{"teacherId":470517,"projectId":10680589,"letterContent":"Well, all of the books arrived by the afternoon before our Fall Break began. Word must have gotten around by text after school that new titles arrived after lunch because a surprising number of students rushed in again to inquire! Guess how many of the new books are sitting on the counter? Only three - one heavy hardcover with photographs and info about ocean plankton, one habitat book in Vietnamese and English, and one book in Farsi and English about Isaac Newton and everything he figured out for us because we are starting our study of forces and his various laws right after the break and I want students to be surprised and derive the laws themselves through activities.\r\n\r\nI am pleased that kids still want to compare movies and books, as indicated by the quick selection of all copies of Project Hail Mary, some of The Martian we already have hundreds of, The Odyssey (graphic novel format), and the The Hunger Games series in three languages. Sciencey graphic novels in English or Spanish were hot items, especially ones about drones, animals, and microbes, and I overheard a couple kids planning when they would trade during the next week off from school. Short bilingual books about coral reefs, deserts, tropical rainforests, and the solar system in English plus Dari, Chinese, Farsi, French, Russian, and Tigrinya were even more well received than I had hoped, with students saying they wanted to either read it to their younger siblings or with help from their parents. No one complained, but I did notice quite a few students looking through the new titles - just in case there were any in their home language, too. \r\n\r\nI think you would have been pleased to see that reading books - fiction and nonfiction - has not been shunned by young teens. Several years ago I was very worried about that, but fortunately, it never materialized. Thank you for filling the science room shelves with more excellent educational, interest-piquing, and esteem-building titles!","fullyFundedDate":1790789453940,"projectUrl":"project/books-libros-sch/10680589/","projectTitle":"Books, Libros, Sách!","teacherDisplayName":"Ms. Horne","teacherPhotoUrl":"https://storage.donorschoose.net/dc_prod/images/teacher/profile/orig/tp470517_orig.png?crop=275,275,x0,y23&width=272&height=272&fit=bounds&auto=webp&t=1566689341670","teacherClassroomUrl":"classroom/horne"},{"teacherId":470517,"projectId":10284520,"letterContent":"After some delays in setting up our new aquacontroller to monitor and control equipment from home or anywhere with an internet connection, our largest reef aquarium is rocking at a stable salinity (saltiness) of 35 ppt/1.026 SG! This is all thanks to the salinity probe you helped us acquire, which for some reason does not come with the whole aquacontroller setup we acquired.\r\n\r\nMy semester marine science elective class was changed to year-long in August - a surprise to me! This actually gives us more time for activities to deepen student knowledge of general science and environmental topics. My students' understanding of \"concentration\" is conceptually sound after activities making Kool-Aid and saltwater more concentrated while tasting, and graphically from shading in more boxes on a 1000-box grid. Then, they made little model oceans in deli cups and measured the salinity daily, seeing for themselves that only freshwater evaporates, leaving the remaining water more and more salty. They have measured salinity with a swing-arm plastic hydrometer and observed a demo using a floating glass hydrometer, but mostly use temperature-compensating refractometers. When I am there alone I use a secret digital refractometer for speed checking the five aquariums and two saltwater mixing buckets, heh heh.\r\n\r\nThis new salinity probe is like a meat thermometer mounted in the display of our main tank. It constantly measures the salinity and sends it to our controller. There is also a floating sensor that moves up and down with the water level that changes due to evaporation. When it is low, it triggers a pump to refill with freshwater until it is at the correct height to maintain stable salinity. If, for some reason, the saltiness goes too high or too low, the aquacontroller sends an alert that it needs attention. Without sensors like this, I think it would be irresponsible to have tanks in my classroom year-round.\r\n\r\nI, my students, and their corals, fish, and interesting creatures like crabs, shrimps, starfish, and sea cucumbers thank you for your support in maintaining healthy conditions in their largest reef tank!","fullyFundedDate":1779078270148,"projectUrl":"project/the-salty-business-of-aquaculture/10284520/","projectTitle":"The Salty Business of Aquaculture","teacherDisplayName":"Ms. Horne","teacherPhotoUrl":"https://storage.donorschoose.net/dc_prod/images/teacher/profile/orig/tp470517_orig.png?crop=275,275,x0,y23&width=272&height=272&fit=bounds&auto=webp&t=1566689341670","teacherClassroomUrl":"classroom/horne"},{"teacherId":470517,"projectId":10277224,"letterContent":"YEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSS! The new aquarium aquacontroller is, for the most part, up, running, and providing a great relief to be able to monitor it remotely! It took quite a lot of the summer break to research and plan the new setup, then untangle and remove all of the old components, then finally get to the new installation! The amazing vision I had in mind like I have seen on other reefkeepers' tanks certainly did not come to fruition, but I am over that and very pleased with how it has started! For some reason I had imagined I would end up with a slick install with all cables virtually invisible. Nope! I am surprised how many cables are showing, going in and out of covers. However, power cables are mostly in one large bundle with a separate umbilicus of probe and sensor cords to reduce interference. When I need to make changes, every cord is labeled multiple times along the lengths, which I will appreciate in the future. (Which is actually now.) Also, after receiving an eye-opening lecture on school districts, cybersecurity, and insurance, I was happy to see our aquacontroller have no issues connecting to the conveniently placed ethernet port and I can still access it remotely online. \r\n\r\nThe physical installation was not easy and held up by too much time spent on planning where to place all equipment, how many heaters and controllers, etc. I really loved our old placement of a large power strip-like unit I had installed on the wall under the tank when I set it up, protected by a ledge and thick plastic and accessed through the stand doors, that turned power on and off to each piece of equipment from the controller unit that was located away in the cabinet. By placing the new version of this outlet unit in that remote cabinet, all of those cables had to be routed out into the open, across a wall, and into the cabinet. It was much worse than I had anticipated. I have a challenge ahead when I get around to hooking up automatic dosers to add calcium and alkalinity solutions to control pH (all those kids breathing causes our tank to be an ocean acidification model) and calcium uptake by healthy, growing corals.\r\n\r\nOf course, complications arose. The excellent circulation pumps we use do not have long enough cords and do have their own controllers attached (which I do not want to use) that cannot go through cord holes. In the future I will try to modify the cords to be longer and just have a plug so they can be controlled in multiple ways by the new unit. The local company who makes our awesome lights now only supports wifi integration with the new aquacontroller, so until I learn how to use their new spectral controller they are just turning on and off automatically with no change in light intensity or wavelength color. I added redundant controllers to the heaters since that is a main tank killer as well as safety issue, but they are not working as intended (alarms going off) so I need to debug that setup. Our old low-grade PAR sensor stopped working so we cannot measure reef tank lighting properly, so we will borrow an excellent sensor from the local reef club and students can make diagrams and label the PAR levels at different areas of the tank (they have loved doing this in the past) to inform placement of coral species.\r\n\r\nWe are on a week-long school break coinciding with a heat wave, and I have been so relieved to be able to monitor the temperature from anywhere! In addition to having the tank temperature sensor, I had added a hole in the control cabinet for a room temp sensor, which can warn me of high room temp before the tank water heats up. It is quite a relief to see the temp, pH, and salinity fluctuations in normal ranges, as well as no alerts from the leak detectors! This new aquacontroller also shows power usage and alerts if it is suddenly too low (power or pumps off) or high (heater stuck on). What a great feature!\r\n\r\nNow that I have time to breathe, I was starting to look into the postings of reef club colleagues regarding their aquacontroller settings. I knew some are brilliant, some are Silicon Valley techies, and some worked for the company that created this very aquacontroller and changed reefkeeping everywhere (that was since bought up along with most other reefing products, outsourced, and is no longer as innovative.) People are doing some amazing things with their aquacontrollers to fit their situations. I also know I can get help if I get stuck with my programming and logic. Interestingly, in the spring one experienced member tried to solve an aquacontroller use issue, made some changes, decided to try using AI to find his error, got surprisingly helpful returns, went further with it, and made extensions and videos to share. Clearly, help is out there for me, both human and machine.\r\n\r\nFrom looking into this and since our marine science class was changed to year-long instead of a semester, I decided kids should get some computer coding experience. Before our school schedule changed a few years ago, all 6th grade students had a quarter-long coding elective and projects they did at least every semester in all grades of science class, as well as computer electives in the upper grades. All of that was slashed and our district no longer allows use of the platforms we used. Until I learn what options are available to us, I can have students write the code for our aquacontroller. Students loved doing this in the past. I am hoping to salvage parts of our old system and those of friends because it would be great to get it going in a simple way on other tanks and let kids figure out and present changes to the group.\r\n\r\nThanks to you, this whole, ongoing adventure is possible! Without a stable system that can be monitored and controlled remotely, I think it is stressful and somewhat irresponsible to keep ocean creatures in a classroom.","fullyFundedDate":1778278361039,"projectUrl":"project/protecting-our-aquariums-with-remote-mon/10277224/","projectTitle":"Protecting Our Aquariums with Remote Monitoring and Control","teacherDisplayName":"Ms. Horne","teacherPhotoUrl":"https://storage.donorschoose.net/dc_prod/images/teacher/profile/orig/tp470517_orig.png?crop=275,275,x0,y23&width=272&height=272&fit=bounds&auto=webp&t=1566689341670","teacherClassroomUrl":"classroom/horne"},{"teacherId":9562174,"projectId":10330482,"letterContent":"Thank you for giving my seventh graders board games for our Logic Days! These are screen-free days when students put away their technology, gather around a game, and think together.\r\n\r\nAs they play, students practice reasoning, analyzing choices, solving problems, and explaining their thinking. They also learn to listen to one another, try a new strategy when something doesn't work, and handle both wins and losses with kindness.\r\n\r\nYour gift gives my students a fun way to build skills they use in science and beyond. We're excited to make Logic Days a regular part of our classroom. Thank you for making them possible!","fullyFundedDate":1782329026699,"projectUrl":"project/science-thinking-with-board-games/10330482/","projectTitle":"Science Thinking with Board Games","teacherDisplayName":"Mr. Dane","teacherPhotoUrl":"https://storage.donorschoose.net/dc_prod/images/teacher/profile/orig/tp9562174_orig.jpg?crop=1:1,smart&width=272&height=272&fit=bounds&auto=webp&t=1717823989169","teacherClassroomUrl":"classroom/9562174"},{"teacherId":10070730,"projectId":10265163,"letterContent":"Thank you so much for supporting my middle school math classroom! Your generous donation has given my students materials that help them collaborate, participate, and feel more confident in math.\r\n\r\nThe vertical boards and markers have allowed students to work together, show their thinking, and learn from one another. The playing cards help me create random groups so all students have opportunities to participate. The board games provide positive incentives and help build a fun and supportive classroom community. The drawer cart is such a great help in keeping our classroom materials and student work organized.\r\n\r\nThese resources have made a meaningful difference in my classroom. Thank you for investing in my students and helping create a classroom where they can take risks, make mistakes, explain their thinking, and grow as mathematicians!","fullyFundedDate":1778035799919,"projectUrl":"project/engaging-math-minds-with-teamwork-and-to/10265163/","projectTitle":"Engaging Math Minds with Teamwork and Tools","teacherDisplayName":"Mrs. Saboor","teacherPhotoUrl":"https://storage.donorschoose.net/dc_prod/images/teacher/profile/orig/tp10070730_orig.png?crop=202,202,x0,y32&width=272&height=272&fit=bounds&auto=webp&t=1751669453715","teacherClassroomUrl":"classroom/10070730"},{"teacherId":9194416,"projectId":10224862,"letterContent":"What an absolute treat it was to start the year off with full supplies and materials to keep us organized and engaged in scientific inquiry! The pictures are worth a thousand words; watching students be able to use their microscopes comfortably at their desks thanks to the power strips was such a treat. We even got to see some of our leopard gecko's shed under the microscopes thanks to some timely molting! Students are hard at work at their whiteboards thanks to the bumper crop of expo markers. The conversations and energy that students have when they get the opportunity to stand to learn and develop their own ideas fully has meant our students are using the brains fully no matter what we are learning. \r\n\r\nI'm so excited to get rolling with our plant growth experiments in a short month and a half, and to use our pulse oximeters in the upcoming unit. Students are infinitely more engaged when they can investigate their own bodies and develop their own questions about the world around them. I have you to thank for making that possible!","fullyFundedDate":1778035800251,"projectUrl":"project/plants-pulses-and-preparation/10224862/","projectTitle":"Plants, Pulses, and Preparation","teacherDisplayName":"Mrs. Sophie State","teacherPhotoUrl":"https://storage.donorschoose.net/dc_prod/images/teacher/profile/orig/tp9194416_orig.jpg?crop=1000,1000,x0,y0&width=272&height=272&fit=bounds&auto=webp&t=1753161577658","teacherClassroomUrl":"classroom/9194416"},{"teacherId":10492398,"projectId":10261357,"letterContent":"On behalf of our entire school community, I want to express my deepest gratitude for your generous donations to support our math program. Your contributions directly impact our students' ability to develop strong foundational skills and build confidence in mathematics. Whether through new instructional materials, technology resources, or enrichment opportunities, your support enables us to create a learning environment where every student can thrive.\r\n\r\nThe resources your donations provide make a tangible difference in our classrooms every single day. Teachers are able to implement more engaging, hands-on learning experiences, and students gain access to tools and interventions that help them overcome challenges and celebrate their successes. Your investment in math education reflects a deep commitment to student achievement and prepares our learners for future academic and career opportunities.\r\n\r\nThank you again for believing in our students and for standing alongside us in this important work. Donors like you are essential partners in our mission to help every student succeed in mathematics and beyond. We look forward to sharing updates on the positive impact your generosity continues to have on our school community.","fullyFundedDate":1778001602397,"projectUrl":"project/helping-students-succeed-in-math/10261357/","projectTitle":"Helping Students Succeed in Math","teacherDisplayName":"Mr. Randall","teacherPhotoUrl":"https://cdn.donorschoose.net/images/placeholder-avatars/272/teacher-placeholder-10_272.png?auto=webp","teacherClassroomUrl":"classroom/10492398"},{"teacherId":470517,"projectId":10294607,"letterContent":"I have heard this saying many times: \"Students don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.\" This is most definitely the case in middle school classrooms. Setting up a caring classroom from the beginning of the year takes time, but teachers know it is time well spent. Learning is much easier for students if they are comfortable being in the class, trust the teacher will keep order, feel it is a safe place to take risks and make mistakes, and the teacher is attentive to students' needs and worries.\r\n\r\nThe items you have supplied to our classroom have already helped us get off to a positive start! Students notice the tissues and cough drops placed by pencils and pencil sharpeners on both sides of the large classroom. They know there are granola and protein bars now filling one of the drawers of our personal care and hygiene filing cabinet in our adjacent science supply room. Putting a different small motivational poster up on our front whiteboard every few weeks silently sends various positive messages of hope and perseverance from teacher to students and gets them thinking about themselves. For years, students have paid attention to our Michael Jordan poster listing how many failures in basketball games he has had despite his fame, as well as to a similar one about Edison's quest for light bulb filament. With this summer's World Cup raising soccer to a fever pitch on campus, I added a small Lionel Messi poster near the door expressing effort and perseverance. I see so many students reading it as they are heading out and pointing out to peers how many years Messi practiced his skills daily.\r\n\r\nSince my Aquatic Studies class has been changed from a semester to year-long course and is comprised of both 7th and 8th graders, the ocean-themed card and board games are proving to be great ways to loosen up reticent students and get them laughing, then talking. This paves the way for fun exploring of marine science topics and more careful aquarium care.\r\n\r\nI am looking forward to giving every student in 8th grade science classes their astronomy-themed pencil (we will study the topic this year) after a quarter or two. I will attach one of several messages to each pencil that fits each student - great work, effort, participation, improvement, or motivation. Every year I see some students carefully remove the taped-on message and stick it inside their science notebook cover. This makes my heart happy, and I hope it does the same for you, since your help with this project makes you a partner in creating the classroom climate for all of these kids moving through their middle school years.","fullyFundedDate":1785257214821,"projectUrl":"project/building-classroom-community-from-day-on/10294607/","projectTitle":"Building Classroom Community From Day One","teacherDisplayName":"Ms. Horne","teacherPhotoUrl":"https://storage.donorschoose.net/dc_prod/images/teacher/profile/orig/tp470517_orig.png?crop=275,275,x0,y23&width=272&height=272&fit=bounds&auto=webp&t=1566689341670","teacherClassroomUrl":"classroom/horne"},{"teacherId":4803665,"projectId":10239885,"letterContent":"We are so grateful for the support that made our campus beautification project \"Roots of Belonging\" possible! Students had the opportunity to plant flowers and seeds throughout our campus, helping transform our school into a place that feels more welcoming, beautiful, and—most importantly—like theirs! Watching students get their hands in the soil, choose where to plant, and take pride in caring for something they helped create was incredibly meaningful. It gave them a sense of ownership and belonging on our campus.\r\n\r\nAs the school counselor, I was especially grateful for the conversations that naturally grew out of this project. While planting and working together, students opened up, shared stories, laughed, talked about their lives, and connected in ways that don't always happen during the school day. The garden became more than a beautification project—it became an opportunity to build relationships, practice teamwork, slow down, and create a stronger sense of community. Thank you for helping us create a space where students can literally put down roots and feel that they belong.","fullyFundedDate":1778035799608,"projectUrl":"project/roots-of-belonging/10239885/","projectTitle":"Roots of Belonging","teacherDisplayName":"Mrs. Stewart","teacherPhotoUrl":"https://storage.donorschoose.net/dc_prod/images/teacher/profile/272x272/tp4803665_272x272.jpg?width=272&height=272&fit=bounds&auto=webp&t=1505610792312","teacherClassroomUrl":"classroom/4803665"},{"teacherId":1109389,"projectId":10334416,"letterContent":"Our middle school students returned from summer break still recovering from World Cup fever! Many students had enjoyed playing soccer before, but thanks to your generous donation of balls and goals, so many more students have access to playing the beautiful game!\r\n\r\nYour direct support has provided over 800 students on our campus access to soccer equipment! At all times of day - before school, during breaks and lunch, in PE classes, and after school - kids are running around kicking the soccer balls, using the goals, engaging in skillbuilding with the timers, and having fun together. Thank you for reminding our school of the power of sport!","fullyFundedDate":1781490609813,"projectUrl":"project/soccer-soccer-soccer/10334416/","projectTitle":"Soccer! Soccer! Soccer!","teacherDisplayName":"Mrs. Mendoza","teacherPhotoUrl":"https://storage.donorschoose.net/dc_prod/images/teacher/profile/272x272/tp1109389_272x272.png?width=272&height=272&fit=bounds&auto=webp&t=1457556430837","teacherClassroomUrl":"classroom/emendoza"},{"teacherId":9562174,"projectId":10256163,"letterContent":"Thank you for helping provide my 7th-grade science students with the everyday materials they need to be successful. Your support provides organizing folders, pencils, and construction paper that students will use throughout the school year for labs, notes, data tables, CER writing, vocabulary activities, and science modeling projects.\r\n\r\nThese supplies may seem simple, but they have a meaningful impact on our classroom. Students will have a place to organize and track their learning, materials to create and communicate scientific models, and pencils available so that no student has to worry about coming to class without one. The larger folders will also help me organize curriculum materials for the 18 units we cover during the year, making our classroom more organized and efficient.\r\n\r\nThank you for investing in our young scientists and helping make sure they come to class prepared and ready to learn. Your generosity allows us to spend less time worrying about supplies and more time asking questions, investigating phenomena, building models, and discovering the world around us. We are incredibly grateful for your support!","fullyFundedDate":1778035800084,"projectUrl":"project/next-year-science-blasting-off-for-the/10256163/","projectTitle":"Next Year, Science Blasting Off for the Moon","teacherDisplayName":"Mr. Dane","teacherPhotoUrl":"https://storage.donorschoose.net/dc_prod/images/teacher/profile/orig/tp9562174_orig.jpg?crop=1:1,smart&width=272&height=272&fit=bounds&auto=webp&t=1717823989169","teacherClassroomUrl":"classroom/9562174"},{"teacherId":470517,"projectId":10316284,"letterContent":"The new school year is off to a great and active start, thanks to the supplies you provided! Aquatic Studies and 8th grade science students have been using pencils and the awesome colored pencil sharpener daily. From sketching corals and aquarium creatures to annotating notes and graphs, students use these supplies often. The dry erase markers have already been used to trace routes around water on inflatable globes to notice that all of Earth's named oceans are connected, as well as connecting how graphs generated by motion sensors and a graphical analysis tool reflect different types of motion. This is a much more effective way for students to build conceptual understanding of aspects of speed, acceleration, and direction of travel than me having them copy down some notes right away.\r\n\r\nKleenex and cleaning wipes are used daily with over 200 students spending time in my classroom. The unobtrusive and chemical-free plug-in insect sticky traps keep tiny flying bugs out of our hissing cockroach and walking stick bug terrariums as well as our countertop hydroponic plant system. Tape is used frequently in lab activities, and laminating pouches provide seat tags on student tables, reusable lab directions and color-printed graphs, and aquarium test kit color scales.\r\n\r\nThese everyday materials make the school day run smoothly, allow me to use our class time efficiently, and provide materials students need to record their daily observations and findings. All of this comes together for some solid science wondering and learning!","fullyFundedDate":1785257210871,"projectUrl":"project/back-to-basics-with-kleenex-and-writing/10316284/","projectTitle":"Back to Basics With Kleenex and Writing Tools","teacherDisplayName":"Ms. Horne","teacherPhotoUrl":"https://storage.donorschoose.net/dc_prod/images/teacher/profile/orig/tp470517_orig.png?crop=275,275,x0,y23&width=272&height=272&fit=bounds&auto=webp&t=1566689341670","teacherClassroomUrl":"classroom/horne"}],"pageName":"schoolpage_4159","usesDonorsChoose":true,"infoPageType":"school","demographicsInfo":{"numStudents":895,"numTeachers":36,"percentFrplEligible":51,"percentAsian":18,"percentBlack":3,"percentWhite":24,"percentIndigenous":0,"percentLatinx":38,"showFreeAndReducedPriceLunchInfo":true,"showDemographicsInfo":true,"sourceTooltipString":"the National Center for Education Statistics","percentHawaiianImputed":0,"percentMultiracialImputed":15,"gradesServed":"6 - 8","studentTeacherRatio":"24.9:1","demographicsDataSource":"MDR School","equityFocus":true,"titleOne":false,"metroType":"SUBURBAN","ncesMetroType":"SUBURB_LARGE"},"inStateSupporters":37.0,"schoolId":4159,"financialInfo":null,"twitterShareText":"Learn more about Sequoia Middle School on @DonorsChoose:","schoolName":"Sequoia Middle School","canonicalPageUrl":"schools/california/mount-diablo-unified-school-district/sequoia-middle-school/4159"}