What’s this, then?

This project is to raise money so that I can attend the BSCS AP Biology Leadership Academy, which I was accepted to.  Even though I was accepted, the cost associated with my attendance is somewhere around ~$2500 (tuition, travel, and lodging).  It will not be possible for me to attend without assistance to fund at least a part of the overall cost.

I teach kids science.  And I love it.  It’s the greatest job in the world, and I have been lucky to have been able to do it for the past ten years of my life.  Most of the joy of the job comes from helping students learn how to analyze and understand the world from a scientific perspective.  Some of the joy of the job comes from creating materials for use in my classes, and using the tools of the larger internet to share the materials that I create with anyone who wants them for free.  My materials have been used by thousands of teachers, and benefited many more thousands of students.  Attending the Leadership Academy will help me continue to provide my students with high-quality instruction, and allow me new perspectives to continue to create and share materials with the world.  You can be a part of awesomeness!

What We Need, Why We Need It, & What You Get

In October of 2012, our house was damaged by Hurricane Sandy.  The rebuilding effort has been largely completed, and while insurance paid for a lot of it, we have still depleted our family savings to the point where I just do not feel comfortable spending $2500 of our savings to be able to attend the Leadership Academy.  Tuition for the academy costs $1500.  Travel to Colorado costs $500 and lodging for the duration of the academy costs an additional $500.  This is the entirety of the funds that I am requesting for this project.  

Wonderful Perks!

To encourage folks who might be interested in contributing to the cause, I am offering a series of cool perks:  

• All donors (at the level of $1 and up) will have their names (or the names they wish) added to the "Wall of Awesome" page on my personal blog.  The Wall records the good deads of all Awesome Folks who donate to my various projects.
• For $25 I will tweet anything you want me to tweet (that is within the bounds of decency as dictated by me).  If it can be said in 140 characters or less, my twitter feed will be yours for one glorious moment.  
• Contributions of $50 will get you all previously mentioned perks AND you will be provided with a limited-edition 8 by 10 glossy photo of Zwiebel, the world’s greatest hairless cat.  
• For $100 dollars, you will get a zwiebel mug in addition to a photo and all the rest of the previously mentioned items.
• For $150 dollars, you will get all of the prior shwag, and I will put your picture (or any other image you would like and possess the rights to) into one of my widely viewed and used AP Biology Prezi presentations and credit you ostentatiously within the body of the presentation.  Imagine the possibilites...you could be the Prezi representative for the entire species...    
• For a contribution of $200 dollars (or more), you earn everything mentioned above, and I will present you with all of it when you come over for lunch in my soon-to-be-rebuilt house (you are responsible for the cost of getting to my house, lunch to take place once construction concludes).
• For a contribution of $500 (or more), you will recieve all of the previous perks, plus a tin of my wife's chocolate chip cookies (widely regarded as among the finest ever crafted), to be given to you at our lunch date.

What if you don’t raise all the money?

If I don’t reach my fundraising goal, I will hopefully come close enough that I will be able to swing the difference to attend the Leadership Academy.  If not, I will donate all of the proceeds raised to DonorsChoose.org (a project of my own choosing, not funded by me).

What if you raise more than you are looking for?

If I raise more money than I am looking for, I will place it in a savings account, to be used to fund other requirements of the BSCS AP Biology Leadership Academy (travel to the NABT annual convention, travel to Colorado and tuition in the summer of 2014).  If I raise more than double the amount of money that I am looking for, I will either donate it to DonorsChoose.org, or give it to BSCS to be used to fund other teachers participation in the AP Biology Leadership Academy.

The Impact

I truly believe that collaboration and sharing are the cornerstones of good teaching.  To that end, all of the materials that I create are provided to the entire world for free, to be used for any non-profit, educational purpose that anyone wishes to use them for.  It is an approach that helps my students, and also helps countless other students.  I have created a wide variety of materials for both AP Biology and Chemistry, and I give them all away to tens of thousands of unique visitors to my websites every year.  My AP Bio Prezi's have been reused and modified thousands of times, and translated in to a variety of languages other than English.  I have collaborated with teachers both in NY, and throughout the country, and I produce curricular materials at a regular pace throughout the year.  

Attending the BSCS AP Bio Leadership Academy will provide me with another perspective on the course, and allow me to approach the materials that I create with a fresh outlook, and a refined understanding of just what types of activities will help my students (and the teachers who I interact with every day).  

Plus, I live my professional life almost entirely in public.  Between the course blog that my students publish every year, and my own personal blog, you will be able to see the impact that your contribution has over the years to come, and you'll feel good about the fact that you kicked in a few bucks to help out.  

I can contribute $0.  How can I help you?

You don't need to contribute any money to help me.  If you can dig what I want to do, and where I'm coming from, I would be super happy if you could share this campaign with your social network.  The more folks who know about this project, and see things from a similar place, the more likely it is to get funded.

Indiegogo provides a few share tools that you can click to make sharing this project as painless as possible.  In many ways, your willingness to endorse this project among your  internet friends and neighbors is more demonstrative of support than money could ever be.