Science Education
clock | October 12, 2007The DonorsChoose fundraiser is in full swing here on Scienceblogs.com. As always, Janet's blog is the Information Center for the drive, and you can also check Dave's graphs as well.
As you know, Seed Media Group is matching $15,000 of your donations. The Scienceblogs.com Overlords have also announced some additional prizes!
* 21 "Seed Hearts Threadless" tee shirts
* 21 ScienceBlogs mugs
* 21 subscriptions to Seed magazine
* 9 copies of "The Best American Science Writing 2007"
These prizes will be divided into three thirds and each third will be given on one of the next three…
evolgen | October 11, 2007Remember those prizes I promised if you donated to any of the ScienceBlogs DonorsChoose.org challenges? I described the prize for one lucky donor to the evolgen challenge. Now Seed has revealed what they're giving away to a few lucky contributors to any of the ScienceBlogs challenges. Janet has the lowdown at her blog -- the lucky donors will win either a t-shirt, mug, subscription to Seed, or copy of "The Best American Science Writing 2007". Also, one really lucky donor will win an iPod nano. Go read Janet's post to learn the details.
Links:
Blogger Challenge progress report (day 11) plus…
tsmith | October 10, 2007Monday's post highlighting a few of the DonorsChoose projects brought in a few more donations, so check out another round of teacher-initiated projects, and throw in a few dollars if you're able (or more than a few--I still have almost $1700 to go to reach my goal, or even another $900 to reach the total I raised last year).
Genetic Research for Immigrants
Needs: $324 (33% funded)
Asking for: Gel electrophoresis equipment (district is 94% low income, large immigrant population)
Students would have an opportunity to extract, observe and compare their own DNA with classmates in the process…
clock | October 9, 2007Darn - I'll be out of town on that date, but you make sure to show up! The October meeting of Science Cafe Raleigh will be on the 23rd at my favourite Irish pub in Raleigh, Tir Na Nog, and the speaker is Dr. Mary Schweitzer, the NCSU researcher who discovered and analyzed soft tissues in fossilized bones of T.rex:
Dinosaurs: Rewriting the Rules of Fossilization
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
6:30-8:30 p.m. with discussion beginning at 7 p.m. followed by Q&A
Location: Tir Na Nog, 218 South Blount St., 833-7795
Speaker: Dr. Mary Schweitzer
Dr. Mary Schweitzer studies dinosaur bones, as many…
revere | October 9, 2007The good news in 1995 was that American students performed better than Austrian students in advanced mathematics among students finishing highschool. The bad news was that Austria as the only on eof 16 countries American students finished ahead of, and in physics they didn't even do that. They were dead last. A couple of weeks ago Science magazine reported that the Bush administration wasn't going to let that happen again:
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), part of the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences (IES), says it is bowing out of 2008 TIMSSA…
evolgen | October 9, 2007
There are two exciting pieces of news about the DonorsChoose.org ScienceBlogs Challenge. First of all, Seed has offered to match all donations by ScienceBlogs readers for the second year in a row. Last year, Seed matched donations up to $10,000, but this year they're willing to match up to $15,000. So, start donating. We're currently 15% of our way to our goal of $1000.
Secondly, I have an offer for evolgen readers who donate to the evolgen challenge. When you donate, save your confirmation email so that you can win one of the still unannounced prizes from Seed. In the meantime, if you send…
jlynch | October 8, 2007Seed is putting up $15,000 in matching funds for our DonorsChoose Challenge, as part of their Science Literacy Grants program. You give $20, the kids get $40. What more could you ask for?
You know what to do ...
scientificactivist | October 8, 2007We're one week into the DonorsChoose Bloggers Challenge, and we're already off to a great start. Thanks to some generous donations, we've already (as of the publishing of this post) raised $295 here at The Scientific Activist (30% of our $1,000 goal). Even more impressively, the participants at ScienceBlogs have together raised over $12,500. And, we still have over three weeks to go!
So, let me thank you all for your generosity, and, if you haven't donated yet, please take a look at the projects that need funding. Even a little bit goes a long way. One project that I'd particularly like…
clock | October 8, 2007The first week of the DonorsChoose fund-drive is up and the donations are coming in rapidly to a variety of school projects via my SciBlings' challenges.
You can check out all the projects picked by my SciBlings here and my own here.
You can get to my pledge also by clicking on the thermometer on my sidebar (scroll down a little bit) and watch how the mercury in all of our thermometers rise over time. As you can see, 37% of my challenge has already been funded!
Thank you so much! If you continue being so fast and generous and we reach our goal too soon, I will add more projects to…
tsmith | October 8, 2007I've been remiss at soliciting more funding for the Scienceblogs DonorsChoose challenge. All told, Sciencebloggers have raised over $12,000 total so far to fund teacher-initiated, citizen-funded projects--$175 of that from here at Aetiology thus far, so I have a bit of catching up to do. I know you're all busy people, so I'll save you a few mouse clicks and over the next few days, describe a few of the challenges on my roster this year:
We have to see it to believe it!
Needs: $286 (34% funded)
Asking for: 10 microscopes and slides for a class of 7th graders (district is 88% low income).…
clock | October 6, 2007OK, I live here, yet I had to learn from Brian that the AMNH dinosaur exhibit is coming to the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in downtown Raleigh. The exhibit will be open from October 26, 2007 till March 2, 2008 and I will make sure to go and see it while it is in town (and take pictures if they'll let me and then blog about it). If you come from out of town to see the exhibit, don't forget to also see the dinos that are on permanent display at the Museum: the Acrocanthosaurus (the only skeleton of its kind displayed anywhere - and it is not a cast either but the real thing) and…
jlynch | October 5, 2007Dave over at Cognitive Daily has posted a comparison of traffic (upper graph) with DonorsChoose donations (lower graph) so far in the drive. This blog is the third bar in from the left.
Certainly we’re not doing too bad relative to others, however I fail to see how we can let Chad over at Uncertainty Principles (2nd bar on the left), who gets slightly less traffic, so greatly lead us in donations (approximately 4x!). I mean ... people, he’s a physicist!
You know what to do ...
jlynch | October 4, 2007Good news here. We’ve managed to fully fund our first proposal - thirty first graders in a magnet school in Chicago (one with 95% high poverty) will be benefiting from your generosity so far. On behalf of their teacher, I thank you.
Of course, we’re not done yet. As an incentive, consider these extracts from letters I received from teachers last year whose students benefited from our efforts:
I cannot thank you enough for funding this project for my students! I told them that our new aquarium is on its way, and they can scarcely contain their excitement. Your generosity will enhance their…
jlynch | October 2, 2007But first a DonorsChoose update ... We’re currently at $190 and seventh among the Scienceblogs challenges. We can do better!
I’m working on some prizes to give to random donors. Stay tuned.
There appears to be a slight problem in that some donations are not being attributed to this challenge. If that happens to you (or has happened), please let me know and I’ll have the DonorsChoose people fix the problem.
Link to the challenge.
And now, your TIS ...
Births
1716 - Giovanni Battista Beccaria, Italian physicist
1802 - John Gorrie, American scientist
1904 - Charles J. Pedersen, American…
jlynch | October 1, 2007One day in and we’re already at 4% of our target. Given that we’ve thirty days to hit it, this is clearly a good start. Many, many thanks to our donors so far. But let’s not rest on our laurels, m’kay?
I get between 600 and 1000 individuals visiting a day, so if everyone gave a $5 we’d be set. And a donation of $1 a week (i.e. $52) would certainly be a great donation.
Some of my Sciblings are offering enticements to readers to donate. Would I stoop so low? Do I even have anything to entice you, gentle reader, with?
Link to the challenge.
sciencewoman | October 1, 2007Think 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…
evolgen | October 1, 2007
Some of you may recall that last year we held a sort-of fundraiser to support science education. The program was organized through DonorsChoose.org, a non-profit dedicated to getting money to teachers to support in class projects. Each teacher submits a proposal requesting funds for their desired project, and prospective donors select which project they would like to support with their donation -- hence, Donors Choose. Last year evolgen readers raised over $500 ($881 to be exact), and ScienceBlogs readers in total raised over $15,000 (with Seed chipping in another $10,000).
This year we've…
clock | October 1, 2007Perhaps you remember June last year when a bunch of us sciencebloggers held a fund drive for science education through DonorsChoose.
Well, we are doing it again this year, more of us, and for a longer period of time - throughout the month of October. As was the case last year, the central information place is Janet's blog and she has just posted all the details so go and take a look.
You can check out all the projects picked by my SciBlings here and my own here. You can get to my pledge also by clicking on the thermometer on my sidebar (scroll down a little bit) and watch how the mercury in…
tsmith | October 1, 2007Last year, a number of us here at Scienceblogs participated in a fundraising challenge to help an organization called DonorsChoose. This is a charity that brings together proposals submitted by teachers out there in the community, and individuals who are looking for a way to help out our schools and students. As the name suggests, donors can peruse the many proposals on the site, and donate to ones they find interesting.
19 of us participated in 2006, and our readers (together with a generous donation from Seed magazine, and bonuses from DonorsChoose.org itself) collectively raised over $34…
scientificactivist | October 1, 2007It's that time of the year again, when us bloggers take a moment away from our posturing to actually do some good for this world. Yes, that's right: today DonorsChoose is kicking off its 2007 Bloggers Challenge. And, just like last year, several of us at ScienceBlogs have put together our own challenges to raise money for science classrooms.
Last year's challenge was such a success here at ScienceBlogs (raising $26,938.80 for science classrooms) that we're doing it again this year... for twice as long! The challenge starts today and will continue until the 31st of October. So, please,…