Maintained by Seed's editors, web editors, and the other people who make Seed tick, Page 3.14 points you in the direction of some of ScienceBlogs' finest offerings, plus the tastiest tidbits of science news and opinion from around the web.
The ScienceBlogs Donors Choose Challenge officially ended on July 1. By the final count, the ScienceBloggers raised $23,005.16 for educational projects in public-school science teachers' classrooms. The $23,005 will be joined by $10,000 in matching funds donated by Seed. And DonorsChoose has announced that it will reward individual blog challenges that met their funding goals with DonorsChoose gift certificates worth 10% of the amount raised in those challenges, sweetening the pot even more.
Nineteen of the ScienceBlogs participated in the funding drive. Six blogs--Pharyngula, The Questionable Authority, Stranger Fruit, Evolgen, Terra Sigillata, and Cognitive Daily--met or exceeded their stated challenge goals.
Janet Stemwedel, the Adventures in Ethics and Science blogger who coordinated the challenges, will help to distribute Seed's $10,000 contribution in such a way as to 'complete' as many of the remaining blogs' challenges as possible, so as to maximize the benefit from the DonorsChoose bonus gift certificates.
From our perspective here at Seed, it's been thrilling to watch the virtual community that is ScienceBlogs come together to generate real, tangible help for public science education. I think the success of the ScienceBlogs drive stands as an example of the ways in which online communities really can embody the finest elements of physical ones.
Congratulations to Janet, the participating bloggers, DonorsChoose, the many generous readers, and the science teachers and students who will complete desired projects as a result.
Readers who donated, and entered their donations in the ScienceBlogs DonorsChoose prize bonanza raffle, will be notified soon if their entries were selected as winners.
A final note: Michael Everett-Lane at DonorsChoose notes that although the challenge period is technically over, there's no disincentive for bloggers to take uncompleted challenges off their sites. Some ScienceBloggers may leave their challenges up and running. If you were thinking of donating, but hadn't yet, you haven't missed the boat. Do it. It will feel like a million bucks, even if it's only ten.
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