One Day Left for DonorsChoose Drive

I chose not to plague you with incessant reminders to contribute to our drive to raise funds for projects at DonorsChoose.org - where public school teachers propose class projects and you decide which ones to fund. Just one post at kickoff and another halfway through. We just completed the drive for our local NPR station so I know that badgering can grow on you no matter how worthy the cause.

But you readers have been incredibly responsive and generous in donating to the Terra Sig "Save the Science" projects. With a total of $2,806.47 donated thus far, we are 70% of the way towards our goal of $4,000. Eleven of our 14 proposals are fully-funded and you have helped make an impact on at least 901 students, most of whom are learning science in very challenging financial situations.

And many thanks to donors for funding my favorite project of this drive: using barn owl pellets to teach the food chain, skeletal comparative anatomy, and natural history.

Just like last year, many of our sponsored projects have benefited from one extremely generous donor who wishes to remain anonymous; thank you for sharing your good fortune not only with our projects, but also with the projects of several other bloggers!

Remember that we can all make a difference donating whatever we can - $10, $25. That's the beauty of DonorsChoose - you don't have to take on the entire burden yourself. Our three remaining projects only need $247, $364, and $565 to each be fully funded. Why do we care about making our goal, you ask? If we do, DonorsChoose adds another 10% on top of what we each donate. Talk about a stellar rate of return!

Come to think of it, isn't tomorrow payday for many people? Why not take a week's expenditures at your coffee house and support part of a project? In fact, even if you don't care for any of my remaining projects, why not send a few bucks to projects from my other fellow ScienceBloggers by dialing up the ScienceBlogs leaderboard.

Or, if you don't care to do this through ScienceBlogs bloggers, just go to the DonorsChoose homepage and select projects from schools in your area. DonorsChoose is a phenomenal charity whose mission resonates with anyone interested in education of the next generation. I am still amazed that public schools around the US do not have adequate funds to properly educate K-12 students and that teachers often support class projects with funds from their own very modest salaries, simply out of the love for their students and their dedication to the educational process. That's reason enough for me to put my money where my mouth is.

But to coax you into sending a few dollars via ScienceBlogs challenges, Seed Media Group and ScienceBlogs.com will be selecting a donor to receive an iPod Nano. Just send your DonorsChoose acknowledgment e-mail to scienceblogs (at) gmail (dot) com. Ten bucks for a raffle to win an iPod Nano is a pretty reasonable proposition, even if it weren't for the benefit of science education.

Our remaining projects are:

Marvelous Math for First Graders!

Spectacular Science Tubs

MATCH-Motivating Adolescents with Technology to Choose HEALTH

Readers of Terra Sigillata have a great reputation for being generous in this drive. Your are ranked 4th among all ScienceBlogs drives behind blogs with 5- to 100-fold greater traffic than our humble operation. Moreover, Terra Sig readers generally rank 1st or 2nd in dollars given per 1,000 visits. You're also very good-looking, intelligent, and timelessly stylish.

So, whatever you can do to help out in the remaining 24 hours or so, I'd be most appreciative.

Thank you!

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