Hi,
The Royal Astronomical Society have the following schools competition for 2005.
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GLOBAL WARMING NEWSPAPER COMPETITION FOR SCHOOLS
CALLING ALL YOUNG PEOPLE WITH AN INTEREST IN ASTRONOMY & GEOPHYSICS
Global Warming makes the headlines every day!
Ice Sheets are melting. Glaciers are shrinking. Storms are unpredictable. Oceans are rising. Ocean Currents are changing. Coral Reefs are in danger. Carbon Dioxide levels are increasing.
Your task is to write about the causes and effects of Global Warming and to be critical of the reports and evidence you find.
Competition Rules:
Our highly successful interdisciplinary competition has been running for eight years. It is an excellent opportunity to forge cross-curricular links and to use the Internet and your library to search for material.
This year, we invite school pupils to create a newspaper or write a feature article to discuss and criticise the media topic of the moment – Global Warming.
The Newspaper Competition is open to pupils in the age ranges 7-11 and 11-14 years.
The Feature Article Competition is open to pupils in the age ranges 14-16 and 16-19 years.
Groups or committed individuals may enter, but based on past experience, we strongly recommend that the Newspaper Competition be undertaken by groups of pupils. We cannot accept more than two entries per class.
A winning Newspaper entry is likely to contain:
* Good, relevant, witty headlines and lead stories.
* Reports on Global Warming relating to:
- the evidence that it has been taking place in recent years.
- the possible human causes.
- the part volcanoes and the oceans might play.
- the part the Sun might play.
- the part other astronomical events might play.
- the possible future effects on animals and plants on the land and in the oceans.
- the possible future effects on humans.
- the changes that could be made to reduce the problem
- at a personal level.
- as a country.
- how the climates of Mars and Venus illustrate the problem.
* An illustration showing an effect of Global Warming.
* A cartoon warning about the dangers of Global Warming.
* An original poem about the consequences of Global Warming.
* One or two advertisements on how an individual can help reduce it.
* The reactions of people in the street to the problem.
A winning Feature Article entry is likely to include many of the points mentioned above. The article must be not more than 2000 words long, must contain diagrams and/or images, and should be in the style of magazines such as Astronomy Now or New Scientist.
For prizes, there will be a range of books, CD-ROMs and certificates.
Entries must arrive by 30th September 2005.
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More details can be obtained from
www.rasweb.org.uk/rascms/index.php?Itemid=109
The competition is not officially open to Republic of Ireland schools however the RAS has told me that they have always taken guest entries. If you know a school that might be interested in taking part please first have them contact the email address on the website above and let them know you would like to make a guest entry.
Cheers,
~Al
