Teachers and students can celebrate Georgia’s wildlife by participating in the annual Give Wildlife a Chance Poster Contest.
Students can share their plant and animal discoveries through art in the 23rd annual conservation poster contest, sponsored by the state Department of Natural Resources.
This year’s theme, “Everyone Can Be a Citizen Scientist,” encourages students to explore, observe and record data about the natural world.
Citizen science projects offer the public a chance to contribute to important scientific studies. Project BudBurst, Project FeederWatch, NestWatch and other citizen science opportunities help students learn about the state’s native plants and nongame animals, according to an announcement from the DNR.
Entries in the state-level contest must be postmarked by March 27. The event is sponsored by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources’ Nongame Conservation Section, the State Botanical Garden of Georgia and The Environmental Resources Network, or TERN, a friends group of the Nongame Conservation Section.
The contest is open to kindergarten through fifth-grade pupils in public schools, private schools and homeschool groups. Participants enter at the local school level with drawings that depict their observations of Georgia’s native non-game animals and plants.
Top school-level entries proceed to the state contest at the State Botanical Garden of Georgia in Athens. First-, second- and third-place winners are chosen there for four divisions: kindergarten, first and second grade, third and fourth grade, and fifth grade.
The top 12 winners’ artwork will be showcased on the DNR Wildlife Resources Division Flickr Web site (www.flickr.com/photos/wildliferesourcesdivision), and displayed at the Go Fish Education Center in Perry from April 26 to May 12.
The goal of the Give Wildlife a Chance Poster Contest is to generate a greater knowledge and appreciation of Georgia’s diverse and increasingly threatened nongame wildlife and their habitats, according to the DNR announcement.