Past projects 23
Laser Cutting Filter for Our Craftivism
Funded Mar 7, 2025Sometimes it's the seemingly boring donations that have the biggest impact. Case in point: a laser cutter filter. A laser cutter in our Makerspace is a tool we use every day to create stencils for our art, spinners and game pieces for our educational games, and props for our short films. Yet, this essential enabler of our projects is a SMOKY one. To prevent the smoke from filling our classroom, the filter sucks it up. We literally cannot operate the laser cutter without it.
Thus, thank you so much for helping us to continue our powerful work!”
With gratitude,
Dr. Lahana
Healthy Food Chefs
Funded Nov 7, 2024The kitchen tools you provided for this culinary adventure were instrumental in its success. Thanks to your support, students gained valuable knowledge and skills in creating healthy, delicious meals using fresh ingredients and basic materials. From simple dishes like whole wheat mac and cheese to more complex recipes like chicken quesadillas and arepas, students discovered that making nutritious meals could be both fun and accessible. Even more exciting, many students found a passion for cooking and are now considering careers as chefs!”
With gratitude,
Dr. Lahana
Polymer Clay Jewelry Crafting
Funded Jul 28, 2024Thanks to your donations our work using Polymer Clay has been transformational! Our kids have used this material and these tools to create fantastical characters for their healthy vs. toxic food board games (check out the pictures). A few students, like Nivea, have taken home books about polymer clay arts and crafts. Armed with your donation, she returned to school with intricate foods with subtle colors and even shadows to be used as players in her game.
Again, thank you so much for your generosity. We will enjoy these resources for years to come.”
With gratitude,
Dr. Lahana
Laser Cutting Filter for our Craftivism
Funded May 13, 2024Sometimes it's the seemingly boring donations that have the biggest impact. Case in point: a laser cutter filter. A laser cutter in our Makerspace is a tool we use every day to create stencils for our art, spinners and game pieces for our educational games, and props for our short films. Yet, this essential enabler of our projects is a SMOKY one. To prevent the smoke filling our classroom, the filter sucks it up. We literally cannot operate the laser cutter without it.
Thus, thank you so much for helping us to continue our powerful work!”
With gratitude,
Dr. Lahana
This classroom project was brought to life by Young Sheldon on CBS and 2 other donors.Wood for Social Activism
Funded Mar 19, 2024When it comes to donations, buying wood for a laser cutter may seem a little dull. Quite to the contrary! With this wood, we cut awesome spinners for our anti-vaping board games, we made stencils for our Above the Influence (anti-drug) campaign, and students created fake vapes to use in our anti-vape commercials! Check them out:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLASBrfTI6BYIb5fwyPoH-cpjcDj0Pi_sz&si=8XCv9wb6RVN3FmoG
Thank you for the wood to enable these powerful projects. Plus, we have some wood left! Tune in for a follow-up report on the amazing work we do with it next school year.”
With gratitude,
Dr. Lahana
Coding for Autism
Funded Jan 8, 2024This year, our work promoting neurodiversity and disability rights was highly successful. Students learned Braille, became educated on issues such as accessibility in subway stations, and grew to embrace neurodivergence. Their activism took many forms including arts & crafts, media creation, and invention. For the latter, your donation of Microbits was instrumental. Using these little computers, students like David were able to create interactive art explaining the lack of elevators in MTA stations. His work was displayed prominently in the main hallway, where passersby could press a button and learn important facts on this issue (see accompanying photo). Thank you so much for your generosity and for enabling powerful social activism at The Island School.”
With gratitude,
Dr. Lahana
This classroom project was brought to life by Someone who cares about New York City and 2 other donors.Jewelry Crafting With Disc Cutting
Funded Dec 31, 2023Providing a School Makerspace with a metal disc cutter does not sound exciting. Thing is, what you have really provided is the opportunity for Makers to move beyond the purchasing and putting together of pre-fabricated jewelry components.
Instead, kids like Akira are learning the hard and satisfying work of crafting their own pieces. Indeed, the art of metal crafting is valuable for so many reasons, including creativity, career development, and applied mathematics. Akira makes a variety of bronze circles with different diameters that she diligently places together using jump rings. Her necklaces speak of honoring those who are neurodivergent.
Thank you so much for making this happen! Jewelry crafting equipment like this last for years and years-- so know that your help will impact generations of kids.”
With gratitude,
Dr. Lahana
Jewelry Crafting for Change Makers
Funded Nov 28, 2023Our social issue for November through January of 2023 was accessibility and neurodiversity. Among the many subjects of our research and activism was the fact that only 27% of NYC Subway stations have elevators. For those New Yorkers who have physical disabilities, this makes daily commutes a herculean task-- filled with frustrations and indignities. For example, some disabled people must call firefighters to bring them up the stairs when a station does not have an elevator or it is out of service.
To raise awareness of this problem and to promote positive change, students began an "End27" campaign. As part of this campaign, we created jewelry stamped with "End27". Through your generous donation, we used the metal stamps to make this message come to life on necklaces. Check out a couple of pictures to see the results.”
With gratitude,
Dr. Lahana
This classroom project was brought to life by The DonorsChoose Community and one other donor.Social Action Paintings
Funded Sep 1, 2023Paintings that bring to life students' social activism are a core activity in The Tech Cafe. Though our middle schoolers engage in a variety of self-expression, from pottery and woodwork to podcasts and filmmaking, it is painting that captures the largest group of activists.
Thus, having enough canvases is always a concern-- one that you helped alleviate with your contribution. Through your donations, we purchased dozens of canvases and students like Samiyah were able to create pieces that spoke of the mistreatment of whales in aquariums and Kamani painted an "End27" work to express her concern that only 27% of MTA stations have elevators for the disabled.
Your donations helped make this happen!”
With gratitude,
Dr. Lahana
Complete Our Recording Studio
Funded Mar 20, 2023Thank you once again for your incredible generosity in helping bring our recording studio back to life. Within this studio, our young recording artists create powerful songs about their daily struggles and triumphs. They make beats and sing lyrics about important social issues as well as record podcasts reflecting their activism.
Having a formal studio in which to do this makes all the difference. Students must qualify to record by creating their lyrics or scripts in advance. Once their preparation is complete, it is quite a sight to see as they focus in and deliver their voices to the world.
Thank you again for making this happen!”
With gratitude,
Dr. Lahana