Fundraising challenge week 1

We just wrapped up our first week of fundraising for Florida science education with three more to go. Unfortunately, things are moving slow. We’ve only managed to round up $95 so far. Florida Citizens for Science will match that amount — getting us up to $190 — but that still doesn’t get us close to our total goal of $1,200.

Teachers really do need our help. This is not just some sappy sales pitch. It’s reality. Read this Orlando Sentinel story to see for yourself: Teachers ‘not going to get a penny’ in raises.

Though she has to watch her budget at home, Condrey spends at least $1,000 of her own money each year buying supplies for her classroom. Heathrow Elementary is in one of the most affluent neighborhoods in Central Florida, but plenty of low-income students need the pencils, paper, notebooks and other items she provides.

Condrey also buys special workbooks and other materials for her class to supplement what’s supplied by the school district. And when her allotment of paper for the copying machine is gone, she furnishes her own.

…

Kelly Leslie, a science teacher at Dr. Phillips High in Orange County for the past two years, previously taught in Pittsburgh, where she said teaching was a respectable profession at respectable pay. She makes $39,130 a year and said she’s not surprised so many Florida teachers quit.

Half of new teachers leave the profession in the first three years, said Frances Haithcock, chancellor of Florida schools. Many cite low pay as the reason.

The math is simple. When teachers suffer, their students suffer. One of the classrooms we are trying to help out during this fundraiser challenge is trying to do science experiments without basic safety equipment.

My students are extremely interested in science. With the adoption of a new science series came lots of materials to do classroom experiments, however, some basic materials were not included, such as the safety goggles, which are required for all experiments. This year I simply had to ask the students to be extremely careful and to not place their faces too close to the experiment.

I know you love science. The 68 comments so far on the “Evolution as Described by the Second Law of Thermodynamics” post attests to that. If you didn’t care, you wouldn’t be in there so often trying to educate certain other posters. This blog is not near as high-traffic as some other popular science blogs, but we still manage to draw in 120 to 200 visitors a day. If just a few of you folks out there would consider dropping five or ten bucks in the pot, we could build up a nice total in no time. And I know you folks visit plenty of other science sites, too. So, please spread the word. Chances are that there are Florida folks visiting those other sites who would appreciate knowing about this opportunity to help science education right here at home.

Week two is here. Let’s see if we can fully fund at least one of our classroom projects this week.