Donorschoose.org
Seventh grade teacher Maureen Howard is among dozens of teachers in the Spokane-Coeur d'Alene area who have turned to the online educational charity organization donorschoose.org as school budgets have tightened.
Section:Picture story
Life Sciences teacher Maureen Howard holds up a test tube to show how water and alcohol cause the human cells from a students’ spit are clumped together during a class dedicated to crime scene investigation at Post Falls Middle School, Thursday, June 2, 2011.
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The website, donorchoose.org, allows teachers to request funding for projects, detailing why they need the money and what they will buy with it, then donors chip in from all over the world.
Alison Boggs The Spokesman-Review
Seventh-grader Tyler Baker examines a fingerprint during a life sciences class dedicated to crime scene investigation at Post Falls Middle School, Thursday, June 2, 2011.
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Seventh-grader Memory Sporer finds herself a little grossed out by the sight of human cells swirling in a test tube filled with water, alcohol and spit during a life sciences class dedicated to crime scene investigation at Post Falls Middle School, Thursday, June 2, 2011.
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With the grant Howard received for the class segment, she bought crime scene investigation equipment for her life sciences classroom.
Alison Boggs The Spokesman-Review
Life Sciences teacher Maureen Howard looks at her own fingertips to see if her fingerprint pattern is whorls, loops or arches during a class dedicated to crime scene investigation at Post Falls Middle School, Thursday, June 2, 2011.
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Seventh-graders Nicole Mercade, Amee Awbrey and Kyra Dean examine fingerprints during a life sciences class dedicated to crime scene investigation at Post Falls Middle School, Thursday, June 2, 2011.
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Seventh-graders Devin Pine, left, and Gabe Christian observe what happens to fabric held over a flame during a life sciences class dedicated to crime scene investigation at Post Falls Middle School, Thursday, June 2, 2011.
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To date, 133 project in Spokane County and 39 projects in Kootenai County are listed as completed, ranging from new percussion equipment for a music class at Coeur d'Alene High School to new "Scaredy Squirrel" books for a third-grade at Grant Elementary School in Spokane.
Alison Boggs The Spokesman-Review
Life Sciences teacher Maureen Howard, right, looks at a test tube with seventh-graders Memory Sporer, left, and Kirsten Rowley, center, during a class dedicated to crime scene investigation at Post Falls Middle School, Thursday, June 2, 2011. In the tube, human cells were being extracted from saliva.
Jesse Tinsley The Spokesman-Review Buy this photo