Save Science Education (DonorsChoose Challenge)

Think back to when you were in elementary, middle, or high school. Was there a special science teacher or a really cool experiment you did that turned you on to science? Maybe there was a field trip to an aquarium or zoo that had you bubbling with excitement for weeks afterward? Did you check out books on rocks and dinosaurs from the library? Do you remember the first time you looked through a microscope or conducted a real scientific experiment?

Here's your chance to help bring the excitement of science to today's school children. ScienceBlogs is initiating a little friendly competition to encourage its readers to help teachers make cool science happen.

Janet is the ring-leader and here's what she has to say about how it works.

DonorsChoose.org gives us a way to help teachers get the job done. A bunch of us at ScienceBlogs have set up Blogger 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.
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Here's how it works:
Follow the links above to the DonorsChoose website.

Pick a project from the slate the blogger has selected (or more than one project, if you just can't choose).

Donate.

(If you're the loyal reader of multiple participating blogs and you don't want to play favorites, you can, of course, donate to multiple challenges!)

DonorsChoose will send you a confirmation email. Hold onto it; our benevolent overlords at Seed will be randomly selecting some donors to receive nifty prizes. Details about the prizes and how to get entered will be posted here soon!

Sit back and watch the little donation thermometers inch towards 100 percent, and check the ScienceBlogs leaderboard to see how many students will be impacted by your generosity.

As for me, I'll be giving some money to the projects in my challenge because I think they are really great ideas that deserve to come true. And I'll be giving you a little incentive as well.

Any of my readers that donates $25 to my DonorsChoose challenge (and then sends science.woman (at) gmail a copy of your email receipt) will get a personalized handprint from Minnow via email or snail mail.