It is with great pleasure that I congratulate the awardees
and all the participants in the American Museum of Natural History Young Naturalist Awards. This year's winning entries represent
outstanding examples of student initiative and originality and, importantly, students' ability to venture into their own communities and
examine the corners of their local universe with rigor and enthusiasm. The essays demonstrate our young people's interest in the process
of investigation, as well as underscore the value of lucidly disseminating method and conclusion to others.
This marks the fourth year of the Young Naturalist Awards, an annual program supported by
The Chase Manhattan Foundation, to recognize young people in grades 7-12 for their
excellence in the natural sciences: biology, earth science, and astronomy. Each year the
Museum's scientists and educators meet the submissions with great excitement. The Young
Naturalist Awards is part of a Museum initiative to extend our scientific and educational
resources -- which include a research staff of over 200 scientists, 32 million artifacts and
specimens, and a world class program of on-site exhibitions -- beyond our walls to a national
audience. It is one of the many Museum programs that provide opportunities to connect
young people to real scientists and real science. The quality of work apparent in the
following pages offers tangible proof that these connections are being made.
We care about what we know. The young people of today will be the stewards of our planet
tomorrow. Through the study and observation of the natural world, we acquire a sense of
responsibility and appreciation for the Earth.
Expeditions provide an excellent opportunity for such study and are a core component of
many scientists' work. Scientists from the American Museum of Natural History go on up to
100 expeditions each year to collect new evidence and to follow up on previous fieldwork.
With each careful, detailed field study, scientists add to the existing body of knowledge.
Using biology, earth science, or astronomy as a departure point, the Young Naturalist
Awards 2001 invited students to choose a scientific topic or question and embark upon an
expedition of their own. Applicants were asked to document their research, observation, or
analysis of the natural world. Scientists and educators at the Museum judged and selected
the awardees whose outstanding projects are published in this catalog.
Again, congratulations to all the participants, awardees, supporting parents and teachers.
The exceptional work of this year's awardees is an inspiration to all of us here at the
Museum and a reminder that the possibility for scientific endeavor surrounds us in our
everyday lives. We are heartened to witness today's youth continuing this tradition of
intellectual pursuit. We hope that the students participating in the Young Naturalist
Awards will be motivated by their science experiences to further question, observe, and
explore, as the scientists, thinkers, and leaders of tomorrow.
Ellen V. Futter, President
American Museum of Natural History
