Afarensis is a 3.5-2.8 million year old hominin from the Kada Hadar member of the Hadar formation in the Middle Awash, Ethiopia. He is approximately 41 inches tall, weighs approximately 60 pounds and has a cranial capacity of a whopping 410 cc (approximately). Afarensis is currently considered to be transitional between apes and humans and displays some traits of both. Since he spends a lot of time on the couch watching monster movies, some observers question whether he is an obligate biped (although no one has observed him climbing a tree). He also has a blog called 
The ScienceBlogs/DonorsChoose raise-money-to-help-science-classrooms-a-thon!
Although I am not an educator or an academic, science education is important to me. One of the reasons I blog is to try and explain the methods and techniques of anthropology - and related subjects - to people who do not know that much about the field. I have even started a second blog devoted to providing educational resources relating to evolution to teachers and students. So it is with great pleasure that I announce the following challenge...
Those of us who blog here at ScienceBlogs think science is cool, important, and worth understanding. If you're reading the blogs here, chances are you feel the same way.
A lot of us fell in love with science because of early experiences in school -- teachers who made science intriguing, exciting, maybe a little bit dangerous. But tightening budgets are making it harder and harder for public school teachers to provide the books, equipment, and field trips to make science come alive for kids.
DonorsChoose.org gives us a way to help teachers get the job done. A bunch of us at ScienceBlogs have set up Bloggers Challenges which will let us (and that includes you) contribute to worthy school projects in need of financial assistance. We'll be able to track our progress right on the DonorsChoose site. And -- because we like a little friendly competition -- we'll be updating you periodically as to which blogger's readers are getting his or her challenge closest to its goal.
You don't need to give a barrel of money to help the kids -- as little as $10 can help. You're joining forces with a bunch of other people, and all together, your small contributions can make a big difference.
Who's In:
Here are the ScienceBlogs bloggers who are participating with Bloggers Challenges:
A Blog Around the Clock (challenge here)
Adventures in Ethics and Science (challenge here)
Aetiology (challenge here)
Afarensis (challenge here)
Cognitive Daily (challenge here)
Evolgen (challenge here)
Gene Expression (challenge here)
Good Math, Bad Math (challenge here)
Island of Doubt (challenge here)
Mike the Mad Biologist (challenge here)
Neurotopia, version 2.0 (challenge here)
Pharyngula (challenge here)
Pure Pedantry (challenge here)
The Questionable Authority (challenge here)
The Scientific Activist (challenge here)
Stranger Fruit (challenge here)
Terra Sigillata (challenge here)
Uncertain Principles (challenge here)
The World's Fair (challenge here)
How It Works
Follow these links to the DonorsChoose website.
Pick a project from the slate the blogger has selected (or more than one).
Donate.
(If you're the loyal reader of multiple participating blogs and you don't want to play favorites, you can donate to multiple challenges!)
When Donors Choose sends you a confirmation email, forward it to:
sb.donorschoose.bonanza@gmail.com
This is your contest entry.
Sit back and watch the little donation thermometers inch towards 100 percent. Once the Challenge ends, we'll select winners at random.
Contest you say? What's that about?
Just in case you're on the fence about helping the kids, we thought we'd provide some incentives. They are:
Subscriptions to Seed magazine
ScienceBlogs mugs
What We Believe But Cannot Prove, edited by John Brockman
The Republican War on Science, by Chis Mooney
Rebuilt: My Journey Back to the Hearing World, by Michael Chorost
Subscriptions to TIME magazine
Blogging in a Snap, by Julie Meloni
Galileo's Daughter, by Dava Sobel
The Scientific Renaissance: 1450-1630, by Marie Boas Hall
Paleoanthropology (1st ed) by Milford Wolpoff (gently used)
Administrative Details
The contest will run from June 15 to July 1. Email your entries by July 1! Prize notification will start by July 5.
Comments
I made my meager contribution in dollars but dropped a link to you on my university listserv. 270 people (most anthro majors/professors) who subscribe to the UTA Anthropology list will hopefully read my shameless plug before they press delete. :)
Perhaps one or two will be moved to offer a donation.
Posted by: cfeagans | June 18, 2006 1:31 AM
Cool! Thanks!
Posted by: afarensis,FCD | June 18, 2006 10:21 AM