VIRGINIA STUDENTS WIN TOP PRIZE IN NATIONAL CONSERVATION CONTEST

WASHINGTON—Seventh graders at Dublin Middle School in Dublin, Va., have won first prize in a nationwide contest, “Wild World,” which tested students’ awareness and understanding of conservation issues. The contest was developed by the National Geographic Society, World Wildlife Fund and Ford Motor Company.

The seventh-grade class won the top prize of $10,000 in educational materials and a visit by marine biologist and National Geographic Society Explorer-in-Residence Sylvia Earle and World Wildlife Fund Chief Scientist Eric Dinerstein.

Contestants were challenged to use the “Wild World” ecoregions map—which was sent to all U.S. schools in January this year—and the map’s Web component, www.nationalgeographic.com/wildworld, to compare and contrast their own ecoregion with one of the Global 200 priority conservation areas, as determined by World Wildlife Fund scientists. The contest was part of the broader “EarthPulse” initiative, a multifaceted public awareness campaign launched by the National Geographic Society in alliance with Ford Motor Company to address pressing conservation issues facing the planet.

Dublin Middle School’s winning entry was an online comparison of freshwater and saltwater ecoregions in Virginia and Hawaii.

Second prize, $6,000 in educational products, went to the eighth-grade class at Bloomsburg Christian School in Bloomsburg, Pa. Their entry online compared the forest ecoregions of the Blue Ridge and Madagascar.

Two schools tied for third place and each have won $3,000 in educational products. Eighth graders at B.F. Grady Elementary School in Albertson, N.C., created a scrapbook comparing the river basins of the southeastern United States with the floodplain of the Amazon. Keiller Middle School eighth graders, in San Diego, Calif., drew a comparison between the California woodlands and chaparral and the Amazon moist rain forests.

“The winning entries demonstrated a fairly sophisticated understanding of ecoregions, and an enthusiasm and concern for conservation that goes to the heart of our EarthPulse initiative,” said Sylvia Earle, one of the Wild World contest judges.

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May 2001