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April 15, 2015  |  By SOW_Admin In Spotlights

Bringing Science and Technology to Tutoring

Since I began working at School on Wheels almost four years ago, the program team and myself have spent a lot of time developing curriculum. From the games in the Tutor Toolkits to the apps we have on the iPads, we’ve always worked hard to make sure that once homework is finished, the kids who attend tutoring are able to practice necessary skills through fun activities and games. The resources that we’ve developed have been heavily focused on math and language arts as these are the two subjects that students are most often tested on, but we found ourselves asking – what about everything else?

Over the last two years we’ve worked to expand our offerings beyond math and reading by adding new curriculum pieces like the Creativity Kit and offering enrichment opportunities in science at all of our partner locations. Dow Agrosciences has been one of our main partners in our endeavor to bring science to tutoring. Since 2012, they’ve brought their science ambassadors to each tutoring location and have worked with our students to complete hands-on experiments related to agriculture and DNA and chemistry.


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Each time the Dow science ambassadors come to tutoring, we receive an overwhelming response from our students – they love it! So we knew that we had to find a way to give our students more science.

This spring, thanks to a generous Dow Promise Grant, we’ve done just that! Throughout the winter, our program team worked closely with Dow scientists to figure out the best way to integrate science experiments with the technology pieces we already have in place – the iPads. Through this partnership, we worked to identify the best apps from a wide variety of scientific fields and the best hands-on activities to extend what they learned using the iPads.

Over spring break, we were able to bring together all of these pieces to have the science activities ready to launch at tutoring in April! Overall, we added nine new science apps covering a wide variety of topics including neuroscience, chemistry, physics and anatomy to each iPad and created four hands-on activities to extend what they’ve learned! We are excited to test out these new activities with our students and are happy to have Dow ambassadors joining us to educate students and tutors on these new curriculum pieces.

In addition to helping us extend our science curriculum, our partnership with Dow has allowed us to bring printers to tutoring and purchase additional iPads so more students are able to utilize them for homework and enrichment activities.

None of this would have been possible without our continued partnership with Dow Agrosciences. They have truly gone above and beyond to help bring science to our kids, and we know that this will have a long-term impact on our students! Thank you!

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School on Wheels’ mission is to provide one-on-one tutoring and educational advocacy for school-aged children impacted by homelessness.

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School on Wheels Corp is a 501(c)(3) under federal tax guidelines. | EIN: 35-2151003

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Advocate and Engage

Why is School on Wheels important to you? What role has education played in your life? When you tell your story and share your connection to School on Wheels, you can help your friends, family, and co-workers understand the complexities of family homelessness and give them the tools to be part of the solution, too.

Help us bring attention to the critical issue of family homelessness and help others learn how education can break the cycle of poverty and homelessness. We offer information and insight on our social platforms so be sure to follow along and engage with us online or offline.

Connect with us on social to help raise awareness and support for #SharetheLoveIndy and School on Wheels!

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Donate

Every dollar makes a difference. A gift that’s meaningful to you is meaningful to us and positively impacts our programs.

A one time $10 donation provides a week’s worth of incentive prizes at one site for kiddos who accomplish milestones. A monthly recurring donation of $10 adds up to provide a month’s worth of tutoring for one child, plus a week’s worth of after school snacks at one site!

Make a one time or recurring donation that’s right for you online or check out other ways to give to School on Wheels here.

Would you rather send a check or give over the phone? Contact Amber Ewing, VP of Development, at amber@indysow.org or 317.202.9100.

Attend Events

We have three February events that make doing good extra fun. Attend one or all three and bring your friends!

Sweat for School on Wheels
Shred 415 in Carmel
12:15 pm on  February 3
$20 per person. Email indy@shred415.com to claim your spot today.

100% of proceeds will support School on Wheels 

Shop for School on Wheels 
Kendra Scott at Keystone Fashion Mall
1-4 pm on February 9

20% of proceeds will support School on Wheels

Sip for School on Wheels
Sun King downtown
6-9 pm on  February 25

$1 of each pint will support School on Wheels

Find full event details on our Facebook Events page. RSVP and invite your friends.

Create a Facebook Fundraiser

Anyone can set up a #SharetheLoveIndy Facebook fundraiser for School on Wheels! It’s more involved than adding a donate button to a post, but it’s still simple and is so much more impactful. Click the video above to learn how to create a Facebook fundraiser on your desktop or follow the steps below to get started!

  1. Open Facebook and select Fundraisers from the column to the left of your newsfeed.
  2. Click “Raise Money”
  3. Now choose “School on Wheels Indianapolis” from the non profit category.
  4. Choose how much you want to raise and when you want your fundraiser to end.
  5. Now you get to name your fundraiser and tell your story! Share why you chose the goal you did and why you care about School on Wheels. People give to people and your story will motivate your friends to support your goal.
  6. Finally, select the School on Wheels photo you want as your cover photo, click create and you’re ready to go.

Our video above will walk you through all the steps. If you need help crafting your message or creating your fundraiser, contact Claire Brosman at claire@indysow.org or 317.202.9100. Good luck!