Adventures in Ethics and Science

Still grading papers (different ones, but still) and I felt the sudden need to draw some bar graphs. Surely I’m not the only one who finds bar graphs soothing.

Am I?

In any case, we’re at the halfway mark for the 2007 DonorsChoose Blogger Challenge, and it seemed like a good time to check the ScienceBloggers’ progress. First, check out the progress-toward-goal graph:

We’ve taken some big strides — there are now four blogs (Deep Sea News, Retrospectacle, evolgen, and Signout) that have exceeded their goals. Five others (The Questionable Authority, Omni Brain, Pharyngula, Thoughts from Kansas, and Thus Spake Zuska) are more than halfway to their goals.

The other eleven blogs participating in the drive are less than halfway to their goals, though, and some could really use some love right about now.

A few more bar graphs with some top-5 lists:

Number of donors per 1000 page views:
Signout (1.798)
Thus Spake Zuska (1.426)
Terra Sigillata (1.384)
The Questionable Authority (1.303)
Cognitive Daily (1.159)

Amount donated per 1000 page views:
Terra Sigillata ($372)
Signout ($258.40)
The Questionable Authority ($174.60)
evolgen ($132.90)
Thus Spake Zuska ($126.90)

Students impacted per 1000 page views:
Terra Sigillata (129.4)
Signout (101.6)
The Scientific Activist (79.27)
Adventures in Ethics and Science (45.44)
Thus Spake Zuska (43.48)

The total amount raised so far is $36,859 (plus the $15,000 in matching funds from Seed).

What do you supposed we can raise by the end of the month?

Don’t forget that Seed is offering prizes for donors, holding prize drawings for the next three Tuesdays (October 16, October 23, and October 30) for

21 “Seed Hearts Threadless” tee shirts (7 per week; design here )
21 ScienceBlogs mugs (7 per week)
21 subscriptions to Seed magazine (7 per week)
9 copies of “The Best American Science Writing 2007″ (3 per week)

To get in on today’s drawing, forward your e-mail receipt from DonorsChoose to scienceblogs@gmail.com before noon East Coast time.

If you miss this week’s drawing, don’t worry — you can still get in on the drawings on Tuesday the 23rd, and Tuesday the 30th. And don’t forget, at the end of the whole DonorsChoose drive (which is to say, after the last moment of October 31st), we’ll take everyone who ever entered the drawing and draw one final winner for an iPod Nano.

Hit those challenges and help some teachers and kids!

Comments

#1 Dave Munger
October 16, 2007

Thanks for the update! You were briefly making me feel good about CogDaily’s donor rates. However, I think you were off by an order of magnitude: we have 0.16 donors per 1,000 page views, not 1.6.
#2 Natalie
October 16, 2007

Do we need to re-enter each week for the drawings, or once you’re in do you stay in until the end of the month?
#3 Abel Pharmboy
October 16, 2007

Prof Stemwedel, I love that graphics program you have that converts precision bargraphs into artificially handwritten figures. Far more character than anything I see in PowerPoint. Can you give us information on where to get this emulation program?

And seriously, thank you and congratulations for all the good works you are doing in leading this drive in the name of teachers around the country who need help for their students!
#4 Dave Munger
October 16, 2007

I love that graphics program you have that converts precision bargraphs into artificially handwritten figures.

I think I’ve used that program. It’s called “pencil,” and it works on a variety of platforms. If you get it, you’ll probably want to purchase the software extension “ruler.”
#5 Janet D. Stemwedel
October 16, 2007

Dave, you’re completely correct — I lost that order of magnitude when entering the traffic number into my spreadsheet. Sadly, “pencil” can’t automatically update the graphs to reflect the correct numbers.

But wait! Maybe it wasn’t a mistake so much as a premonition that Cognitive Daily readers are going to come on strong over the next two weeks!

Natalie, I know that entering for this week’s drawing is sufficient to stay entered for the iPod Nano drawing at the end, but I’ll ask whether it’s necessary to re-enter to be in the pool for the mug/shirt/subscription/book drawings in subsequent weeks.
#6 razib
October 16, 2007

The other eleven blogs participating in the drive are less than halfway to their goals, though, and some could really use some love right about now.

i’m planning on cranking up my solicitations soon. we’ll see
#7 PZ Myers
October 17, 2007

Oy. I hate to see my gazillion readers placed in the denominator of a calculation. That’s just cruel.