The 2007 DonorsChoose Blogger Challenge is in its last few days, which means there may be enough data to start identifying trends as to which ScienceBlogs readers are the most generous:
Category Archives: Kids and science
In case your need for nerd poetry today is not fully satisfied …
… The Ridger has posted the illustrated sonnet about Saturn’s rings that the sprogs and I crafted as a “thank you” for donating to a project in my DonorsChoose Blogger Challenge.
It’s not too late to get your own sprog artwork, or nerd poetry, or sprog-illustrated nerd poetry — and to help teachers and students in the process!
Blogger Challenge 2007 sprog thank-you art + poem: reptiles.
Jennifer is another reader who made a generous donation to one of the projects in my challenge. She wrote:
I felt like I definitely needed
a piece of art work from your very talented crew. … I’d like
something in the style of Dr. Seuss about reptiles with some
accompanying artwork.
I’ve done my best to get my Seuss on. (This is one of those instances where it’s clear how much more talented my offspring are than I!) This goes out to Jennifer with our sincere thanks for her donation.
Blogger Challenge 2007 sprog thank-you art + poem: the brain.
Ewan made a generous donation to one of the projects in my challenge and wrote me the following:
The concept of a sprog-illustrated nerdy poem was especially appealing… Could I please request a topic of ‘brain’ (ideally,
hippocampus, but that seemed a little potentially overdemanding)?
The sprogs and I are delighted to oblige. They have drawn some brains, while I offer a villanelle about the hippocampus — along with our thanks to Ewan for his generous donation!
Blogger Challenge 2007 sprog thank-you art: insects.
Dan Hough, a regular ScienceBlogs reader and the webmaster for Oklahomans for Excellence in Science Education, made a generous donation to my challenge. He requested some insect artwork from the sprogs, and said, “Please tell them from me I think they are really cool!”
Dan, the sprogs think you are the cool one for lending your support to teachers who are trying to make learning exciting for their students. Here’s the artwork with our heartfelt thanks.
Friday Sprog Blogging: matter matters we need to pursue.
The Free-Ride offspring are magnets for questions not easily answered in the framework of the grade school science curriculum. This means, I think, that the Free-Ride parents are going to have to work out some age-appropriate ways to offer explanations. And I have a feeling my molecular model kit is only going to take us so far.
For example:
Blogger Challenge update (day 23): where we are now, and where we can go.
In the last 22.5 days, ScienceBloggers and their generous readers have:
- Mounted twenty challenges to fund educational projects through DonorsChoose.
- Met (and exceeded!) the targets in five of those challenges (for which I issue a heartfelt “w00t!” to the readers of Retrospectacle, Deep Sea News, evolgen, Signout, and Pharyngula).
- Secured every last cent of the $15,000 in matching funds put up by Seed.
- Secured more than $2,000 from the Richard Dawkins Foundation to fund classroom projects in the Pharyngula challenge.
- Raised $43,079 so far (before even counting that $15,000 in matching funds).
This is nice progress … but we have 8 more days until the drive wraps up on October 31, and I think we can do more.
Friday Sprog Blogging: scaling problems
I know that a lot of features of the world seemed bigger to me when I was a kid than they do now, but I’m starting to think that it’s not just a matter of me getting bigger relative to my surroundings. The Free-Ride offspring keep reminding me that it takes a while to really get a sense of scale.
Younger offspring: I did my homework at [the afterschool program], but the teachers didn’t mark me down in the “Homework Heroes” book, so maybe I won’t get ice cream at the party at the end of the year!
Dr. Free-Ride: But you’ve been doing your homework there and getting it recorded for most of the year. I think you’ll get ice cream.
Elder offspring: You’ll get a scoop of ice cream for each page you fill in the “Homework Heroes” book.
Dr. Free-Ride: And how many days worth of homework adds up to a whole page?
Elder offspring: Twenty-five.
Dr. Free-Ride: Eh, so not getting marked down for one day is just a 4% dent in your progress toward a scoop of ice cream.
Elder offspring: It’s a lot quicker to earn each scoop of ice cream than if it took a googol days to fill each page.
Dr. Free-Ride: That would either be a really long school year or a really sad ice cream party.
* * * * *
Blogger Challenge 2007 sprog thank-you art + poem: rainforest.
A reader made a generous donation to one of the projects in my challenge in the name of Connor S. (age 8) from Conshohocken, PA. Connor S. in interested in the rainforest, so the donor requested an illustrated poem about the rainforest. The sprogs and I are pleased to provide haiku about the five layers of the rainforest:
Blogger Challenge 2007 sprog thank-you art: seascape.
Regular commenter ctenotrish made a generous donation to a project in my challenge called Starfish View of the Sea. The project was proposed by the teacher of a 6th grade bilingual science class in a Houston school with a high poverty level (88% of the students in the school qualify for free lunch). It’s an ambitious project and it still needs $322 more to become a reality.
Of course, if just 13 people could pony up $25, it would more than cover the project.
And, each of those people could hit the sprogs up for some artwork, like these pictures they did for ctenotrish: