Thursday, March 13, 2008

Massachusetts Science Poetry Contest

I’m happy to follow up on a previous post,Try your hand at science poetry, and report that the Massachusetts Science Poetry Contest is alive and well and celebrating its 20th year! I recently received an E-mail from Ashley Berrios, who is coordinating the contest this year. She told me that the deadline for contest entries is tomorrow! So, for all of you who are competing, good luck with your entries.

If you are unfamiliar with the Massachusetts Science Poetry Contest, here are some facts that I learned from Ms. Berrios:

• Although most entrants are from the state of Massachusetts, this contest is open to all students in grades K-8 - including those in special education classes - but the poems must be written in class. Teachers choose the best poems from their classes and submit them to the contest, with parental permission.

• The purpose of this contest is to integrate writing and art with science. All poems must reflect current scientific knowledge. Students can write about any scientific topic except science fiction.

• Up to grade 5, the entries must be illustrated. For grades 6-8, the author may choose whether or not to illustrate the poem (or, for these grades, they may also choose to include a photograph).

• Poems must compete in one of eight categories, including Most Original Poem, Most Humorous Poem and Most Expressive Poem.

It may be too late to enter this year’s contest, but it’s not too late to start planning for next year! Since the website is not currently up-to-date, to learn more about the contest please contact Ashley Berrios at berriosa [at] bc [dot] edu or write to:

Dr. George Ladd
Professor Emeritus
Science Poetry Contest
Lynch School of Education
Boston College – Campion Hall
Chestnut Hill, MA 02467

[Update: 3/9/09 -- The Massachusetts Science Poetry Contest has a new website! The deadline for the 2009 contest is April 3, 2009. Check the website for details!]

4 comments:

Itinerant Cryptographer said...

This sounds fun! It seems like there ought to be a whole genre of science poetry out there, but I haven't seen much of it. Maybe this would make a good topic for a future website of the week?

jublke said...

You know, itinerant cryptographer, you and I talked about this at home but I forgot to write you back here. Oops!

I did write about science poetry in a previous post, but I agree that it's certainly worth another look. :) Maybe you should post some of *your* poems here! ;-)

Anonymous said...

I entered and won 3rd place in the expresssive category and I was informed that i would receive a Book of Winners. I was wondering if you knew/ could ask where I could purchase it. thank youu

jublke said...

Hi Anonymous. Congratulations on your win! I don't know the answer to your question. You could check with Ashley Berrios. I believe she is still helping to organize the contest. Her Email address is berriosa [at] bc [dot] edu (replace the [at] with @ and the [dot] with a period and remove the spaces). You could also try writing an Email to masssciencepoetrycontest22@gmail.com
Good luck!