Coast Day seeks fifth-grader essay contest entries by Sept. 22
Coast Day organizers announced both the annual fifth-grade essay contest and the Instagram photo contest have opened for entries.
Leading up to a virtual Coast Day Saturday, Oct. 4, the two contests ask community members to engage with environmental science on their own, and winners will be announced at the event and receive prize packages in the mail.
For more information about Coast Day and access to the virtual event, go to decoastday.org.
The Coast Day Essay Contest is open to students in fifth grade. This year’s topic asks entrants to consider what trends they see in virtual data, such as that collected by aerial photography, satellite or remote sensing. Like many people, scientists have been working from home during the pandemic, and the availability of data gathered in these ways has allowed them to continue making progress on their research.
The essay contest asks students to examine one of three data sets: historical aerial photography of Cape Henlopen, weather and climate data for the region, or sea level rise data on water levels from a NOAA tide and weather station. They then will write about what trends they see, how scientists could use the data, and what actions they could take that might affect the data in the future.
For more information about the essay contest, access to data sets and instructions for how to enter, go to www.deseagrant.org/coast-day-contests.
Through September, Instagram users are invited to post photos taken anywhere on the Delmarva Peninsula with the #decoastday hashtag to enter the Coast Day photo contest. Planet by Numbers is this year’s Coast Day theme.
The photo contest is looking for photos of Delmarva’s natural landscape that feature sequenced, fractal or other numeric patterns, such as those observed in certain leaves, pine cones and plant structures, insect and animal anatomies, as well as other subjects.
For complete rules and details about how to enter, go to deseagrant.org/coast-day-contests.
