You alreadyknow that the science-inclined precincts of the blogosphere are in the midst of Science Bloggers for Students 2011, in which we and DonorsChoose ask you to contribute funds to public school classroom projects which provide books, science kits, safety equipment and reagents, field trips, and other essentials to make learning come alive for students.
You may also recall that the drive this year runs through October 22nd. And, seeing as how that’s more than a week away, you maybe have making a donation on the second (or third) page of your to-do list. Or, you figure someone else will do it.
A bunch of other folks (including me!) have donated funds to get the challenge rolling — the overall total for the drive as I compose this is $13,768 — but there are so many more classroom projects waiting to be funded. Inertia may be a comfortable default, especially in the face of need so great that its enormity is paralyzing, but if you can spare a few bucks you will be doing something tangible to be a force for good.
And, it’s easy. Visit my giving page, check out the projects described there, enter the amount of money you want to give, and check out. It’s as quick and painless as buying a book or a T-shirt online.
Plus, I’m prepared to make it worth your while.
Set my blogging agenda!
“Doing Good Science” is a relatively new blog on a relatively new blog network. In my first post here, I said a little about the sorts of topics I plan to take up on the blog, but if you’re willing to step up to help DonorsChoose, I’m willing to give you more control of what I blog about — at least for the length of a post.
Until the end of the drive (October 22nd), if you make a donation of any size to my giving page, you get to assign me a blog post topic.
Is there a particular misconduct scandal you want me to examine? A matter of scientific methodology you want me to explore? An issue where the tribe of science and the larger public see the ethical landscape differently that you want me to write about? Make a donation, forward me a copy of the email DonorsChoose sends you to confirm your donation to my giving page, tell me what you want me to write about, and I’ll make it happen.
If you can spare a few bucks, you can help bring school kids the books, equipment, field trips, or other goodies that will make their science education come alive.
In the science-y sectors of the blogosphere, folks frequently bemoan the sorry state of the public’s scientific literacy and engagement. People fret about whether our children are learning what they should about science, math, and critical reasoning. Netizens speculate on the destination of the handbasket in which we seem to be riding.
In light of the big problems that seem insurmountable, we should welcome the opportunity to do something small that can have an immediate impact.
This year, from October 2 through October 22, a number of science bloggers, whether networked, loosely affiliated, or proudly independent, will be teaming up with DonorsChoose in Science Bloggers for Students, a philanthropic throwdown for public schools.
DonorsChoose is a site where public school teachers from around the U.S. submit requests for specific needs in their classrooms — from books to science kits, overhead projectors to notebook paper, computer software to field trips — that they can’t meet with the funds they get from their schools (or from donations from their students’ families). Then donors choose which projects they’d like to fund and then kick in the money, whether it’s a little or a lot, to help a proposal become a reality.
Over the last few several, bloggers have rallied their readers to contribute what they can to help fund classroom proposals through DonorsChoose, especially proposals for projects around math and science, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars, funding hundreds of classroom projects, and impacting thousands of students.
Which is great. But there are a whole lot of classrooms out there that still need help.
As economic experts scan the horizon for hopeful signs and note the harbingers of economic recovery, we should not forget that school budgets are still hurting (and are worse, in many cases, than they were last school year, since one-time lumps of stimulus money are gone now). Indeed, public school teachers have been scraping for resources since long before Wall Street’s financial crisis started. Theirs is a less dramatic crisis than a bank failure, but it’s here and it’s real and we can’t afford to wait around for lawmakers on the federal or state level to fix it.
The kids in these classrooms haven’t been making foolish investments. They’ve just been coming to school, expecting to be taught what they need to learn, hoping that learning will be fun. They’re our future scientists, doctors, teachers, decision-makers, care-providers, and neighbors. To create the scientifically literate world we want to live in, let’s help give these kids the education they deserve.
One classroom project at a time, we can make things better for these kids. Joining forces with each other people, even small contributions can make a big difference.
The challenge this year runs October 2 through October 22. We’re overlapping with Earth Science Week (October 9-15, 2011) and National Chemistry Week (October 16-22, 2011), a nice chance for earth science and chemistry fans to add a little philanthropy to their celebrations. There are a bunch of Scientific American bloggers mounting challenges this year (check out some of their challenge pages on our leaderboard), as well as bloggers from other networks (which you can see represented on the challenge’s motherboard). And, since today is the official kick-off, there is plenty of time for other bloggers and their readers to enter the fray!
How It Works:
Follow the links above to your chosen blogger’s challenge on the DonorsChoose website.
Pick a project from the slate the blogger has selected. Or more than one project, if you just can’t choose. (Or, if you really can’t choose, just go with the “Give to the most urgent project” option at the top of the page.)
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! But you’re also allowed to play favorites.)
Sit back and watch the challenges inch towards their goals, and check the leaderboards to see how many students will be impacted by your generosity.
Even if you can’t make a donation, you can still help!
Spread the word about these challenges using web 2.0 social media modalities. Link your favorite blogger’s challenge page on your MySpace page, or put up a link on Facebook, or FriendFeed, or LiveJournal (or Friendster, or Xanga, or …). Tweet about it on Twitter (with the #scibloggers4students hashtag). Share it on Google +. Sharing your enthusiasm for this cause may inspire some of your contacts who do have a little money to get involved and give.
Reading about chemistry is fun, but I reckon it’s even more fun to do some chemistry. So, if you find yourself with a few moments and the need to fill them with chemical fun, here are a few ideas:
With red cabbage and hot water, you can make a solution that will let you tell acids, bases, and neutral-pH substances apart.
Spend the afternoon classifying the substances in your refrigerator or pantry! Audition alternatives to vinegar and baking soda for your papier mache volcano!
Gather up some plant matter and see what colors you can develop on eggshells.
One interesting thing you might observe is that empty eggshells and eggshells with eggs in them interact differently with the plant pigments. Ponder the chemistry behind this difference … perhaps with the aid of some cabbage-water indicator.
Grab some markers (black and brown markers work especially well), lay down some filter paper (or a paper towel or a piece of a coffee filter), and just add water to observe the pretty effects created when some components of ink preferentially interact with water while others preferentially interact with the paper.
If you like, play around with other solvents (like alcohol, or oil) and see what happens.
Even just making canonical mayonnaise is a matter of getting oil and water to play well together, making use of an emulsifier.
But things get interesting when you change up the components, substituting non-traditional sources of oil or of emulsifier. What happens, for example, when an avocado gets in on the action?
Molecular gastronomy isn’t just for TV chefs anymore. If you have a decent kitchen scale and food-grade chemicals (which you can find from a number of online sources), you can turn potables into edibles by way of reactions that create a “shell” of a membrane.
Sometimes you can control the mixture well enough to create little spherical coffee caviar or berry-juice beads. Sometimes you end up with V-8 vermicelli. Either way, it’s chemistry that you can eat.
