IGES Announces 2012 Art Contest – The World’s A Place of Living Things!

The world’s a place of living things,
From bees to frogs to birds with wings.
Some live in cold places, some swim in reefs,
And don’t forget some have many a leaf!

The world’s a place of living things,
With dots and stripes and lots of rings.
With all this variety we’d like to remind,
Every species is one of a kind!

There are many different types of life on Earth. We call this biodiversity. There are many different species, from bacteria to insects to plants to animals. But individuals within a species are also different from one another. For example, people have different hair colors and eye colors. Some are tall, while others are short. And there are some differences that cannot be seen, ones inside our cells that make us different from one another.

Biodiversity is not just the total of species in an ecosystem. It is also about how different they all are. Imagine all of the living things where you live and how different they are – people, bugs, birds, trees, fish, and frogs.

Scientists use biodiversity to help figure out how healthy an ecosystem is. The more diverse it is, the healthier it is. This is because the system would have a greater chance of surviving if one of the species disappeared. If much variety exists and one species happens to disappear, there is a greater chance of survival.

This year’s contest invites young scientists and artists to explore biodiversity. Learn about all the forms of life in a particular place – maybe it’s the Arctic, or the rainforest, or your backyard. Read stories and books. Watch videos. Then create a piece of artwork to show what you learned. And remember to enter your artwork in the 2012 IGES art contest!

For information on resources, visit our IGES Art Contest Website.

For full contest information, download the 2012 IGES Art Contest Brochure.

To enter, download the 2012 IGES Art Contest Entry Form.