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Please read the following rules and regulations before beginning your project. Review them with your parent, teacher or mentor. Follow the rules and complete the forms as required. Failure to do so may disqualify your entry.
Ethics Statement Eligibility 1. If you are a student in grades seven through twelve and are currently enrolled in a public, private, parochial, or home school in the United States, Canada, the U.S. territories, or in a U.S.-sponsored school abroad, you are eligible to enter. 2. Sons and daughters of American Museum of Natural History employees or consultants are not eligible to enter the Young Naturalist Awards. Entry Rules 1. Each student may submit only one entry. 2. The essay must be the work of a single student. Group essays are ineligible. 3. Essays based on studies conducted by a class, a summer institute, summer camp, pre-college student research program, or environmental program are eligible as long as the student conducted his or her own research and expanded the investigation to include his or her own topic question. The essay must demonstrate the student's independence and creativity.
4. Essays lengths must fall within the following limits: 5. Each essay must include the YNA entry form. Students should complete Part I. Part II must be filled out and signed by the supervising parent, guardian, teacher, or mentor. A student who attended a summer institute, pre-college student research program, or worked in an environmental program or on a class investigation, and who based his or her essay on that experience, must have the teacher or supervisor of that program fill out Part III giving descriptive evidence of the student's independence and creativity. 6. All investigations must be conducted according to state and national laws and regulations. For example, the collecting of specimens, even fallen leaves, in many state and national parks is prohibited. Students are allowed to observe plants and animals in their natural habitat just so long as they do not cause them harm, stress, discomfort, or pain. 7. Projects involving live vertebrate experimentation are ineligible. Projects involving invertebrate experimentation, which affect an animal's health or well being by causing stress, discomfort, pain, or death, are also ineligible. 8. Projects involving human subjects are ineligible. 9. Entries for the 2004 Young Naturalist Awards may be submitted as early as June 1, 2003. Entries must be received at the American Museum of Natural History no later than 11:59 p.m. EST on Friday, January 9, 2004. We recommend that students submit their entries as early as possible to avoid missing the deadline. Late and/or incomplete entries will not be accepted. Awards
1. Twelve scholarship awards, two for each grade level, will be awarded to the authors of the winning essays.
Scholarship awards are as follows: 2. The award winners will be invited to a ceremony at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City in the spring of 2004. Airfare and one night's lodging for each winner and a family member will be provided by the Museum. In addition, the winning entries will be published. 3. Up to 36 finalists will receive a cash award of $50 and a certificate of recognition. Up to 300 semifinalists will receive a non-cash award and a certificate of recognition.4. The teachers of the top twelve winners will receive a collection of books for their classrooms. 5. The first name and project title of the finalists and semifinalists will be posted to our Web site on January 31, 2004. The winners will be notified in early March. Their names will also be posted to our Web site.
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