CONTEST GUIDELINES:    1. Select A Project     2. Read The Rules     3. Submit Your Entry

Rules and Regulations

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

Participants are expected to conduct their investigations with honesty and integrity. The presentation of another's work as your own, plagiarism, or the fabrication or use of false data will disqualify a student from this and future Young Naturalist Awards competitions.

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 if you are a citizen in a U.S.-sponsored school abroad, you are eligible to enter.
2. Sons and daughters of Alcoa Corporation and 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. Essay length must fall within the following limits:
   Grades 7-8: 500-2,000 words
   Grades 9-10: 750-2,500 words
   Grades 11-12: 1,000-3,000 words
   In addition, each essay, including all appendices, tables, charts, drawings, etc., may not exceed 20 pages. All parts of the essay must be submitted on 8.5" x 11" single-sided white paper. All pages must be numbered. Essays should have at least a one-inch margin and must be typed double-spaced in an easily legible font of 12 point or larger. Essays submitted in plastic binders, on disc, or on video will not be accepted. Important note: Keep all original artwork and photos. If you are chosen as a winner, we will need these originals.
5. All artwork must be done by the student. All photographs must be taken by the student (except in the case where the student is in the photo). Art, maps, and photographs downloaded from the Internet or from another source are not acceptable.
6. 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.
7. 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 habitats so long as they do not cause them harm, stress, discomfort, or pain.
8. Projects involving live vertebrate and invertebrate experimentation must be conducted in an ethical manner. Deliberately exposing an animal to poison or a toxic material, harming an animal or causing it stress (for example, trampling an ants' nest, putting an animal in a tank with a predator, or putting butterfly pupae in a refrigerator) is not permitted. If you want clarification of this rule, please contact the Young Naturalist Awards administrator.
9. Projects involving human subjects are ineligible.
10. Entries for the 2009 Young Naturalist Awards may be submitted as early as December 1, 2008. Entries must be received at the American Museum of Natural History no later than March 2, 2009. 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 cash awards, two for each grade level, will be awarded to the authors of the winning essays. Cash awards are as follows:
   7th grade: $500
   8th grade: $750
   9th grade: $1,000
   10th grade: $1,500
   11th grade: $2,000
   12th grade: $2,500
2. The winning entries will be published on the Museum's website.
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 resources for their classrooms.
5. The first name and project title of the finalists and semifinalists will be posted on our website the week of March 23, 2009. The winners will be notified shortly after that. Their names will also be posted on our website.

How Will My Entry Be Judged?

Your essay will be judged alongside the essays submitted by other students in your grade. Judges will grade your essay according to the following:

Scientific Investigation

Topic
Judges look for an interesting and original topic. The topic does not have to be original to the science community, just new to you. It should be a topic that excites you, one that motivates you to investigate it. Examining the microhabitat of pinecones, identifying the aspen as a keystone species, and exploring streams to determine the needs of salmon, are just some examples of interesting and original topics. Check out the winning essays of previous years to see the topics students chose and how they focused their investigations.

Procedure
Judges look for strong, solid, and thorough science. Your investigation should be conducted according to the scientific method. Your question, hypothesis, and your methods for testing that hypothesis, should be clearly defined. Data should be gathered and recorded using a clearly described and defended methodology. In some cases, a control group may be required to validate your findings.

Analysis and Interpretation
Judges look for a clear analysis and interpretation of your data. Your question and conclusion should be supported by your observations and the data you collected. You may use information gathered from outside sources (i.e., personal interviews, Internet, encyclopedia, scientific journals and books) to learn more about your topic and to help you formulate your hypothesis and conclusion. If your findings are not conclusive, you should discuss the ways in which you would change your procedure and include questions for further research.

Documentation of Research Materials
The resources you use should be documented in the bibliography. If you quote a source, you MUST give proper credit. Judges look for well-documented books, periodicals, and Internet sources. Interviews may also be listed in the bibliography. It is best to use a variety of sources, not just Internet sources or school textbooks. References must be properly listed; see How to Write a Reference List.

Presentation

Personal Voice
Judges look for an interesting, engaging essay told in your own words. Here are two examples:

7th grade: I have lived around saguaro cactuses all my life. I have seen this cactus in all its different shapes and sizes. They can grow to be almost 80 feet tall and weigh as much as several tons. Knowing that the saguaro cactus commonly lives to be about 200 years old, I realized that all these different shapes and sizes must represent the cactus at its various stages of life. I then began to wonder, what are the stages of life of the saguaro cactus?

11th grade: Beyond the beaver dam in the valley, two tremendous ancient aspens spread their gnarled limbs in a high protective canopy over me and the other smaller members of the grove. Their trunks are studded with sets of claw marks ascending to the level of the first branches. A black bear once climbed these ramets to scent-mark its territory, digging its claws into the periderm for a firm hold.

Clarity and Style
Judges look for clear and consistent focus in your writing and a logical progression of ideas. Good grammar, accurate word choice and usage, and correct punctuation and sentence structure must be used.

Use of Visuals
Judges look for illustrations, photographs, maps, and other visuals that support and add depth to the information presented in the essay. Visuals must be properly labeled. All visuals must be student-created. This includes drawings, maps, charts, and/or graphs. Excerpts from field journals are also acceptable. Photographs must be taken by the student. Art and photos downloaded from the Internet are not acceptable and will disqualify an entry. Visuals will be more effective if they are clearly labeled, and if they are referenced in the text. Accuracy, neatness, paper format, and presentation are also considered.

How to Write a Reference List

Each essay submitted to the Young Naturalist Awards contest must include a list of references. Use the following format when writing a list of references.

• Each work is identified by three elements: author's name, title or source, and publication information.
• The title of the work should be italicized.
• The first line starts at the left margin. The second line is indented five spaces.
• Each source is listed alphabetically by the author's last name.

Books

By a single author:
Marks, Paula. The Human Genome Project. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1995.

By two authors:
Polsky, Phillip E., and Lauren Shaeffer. A Guide to Rocks and Minerals. Oxford, MS: University of Mississippi, 1999.

By three authors:
Martin, Linda, Shelia Daar, and Mary Williams. Montana's Glacier National Park. West Glacier, MT: Falcon Publishing Company, 2001.

By more than three authors:
Ferrara, John E., et al. Hyraxes and Kopjes. Los Angeles: Rainbow Press, 2000.

By an unknown author:
Exploring the Everglades. Boston: Harcourt Brace, 2003.

By an editor:
Ronan, Colin A., ed. Science Explained. New York: Henry Holt, 1998.

Encyclopedias

Trainen, Martha. "New York State." Encyclopedia Americana. 1999.

Magazines

Moffet, Mark. "Poison-Dart Frogs: Lurid and Lethal." National Geographic May 1995: 98-101.

Newspapers

McMahon, Hugh. "New Find in Long Island's Jurassic Park." Newsday 27 October 1998: B2.

Journal Articles

Chu, John. "Habitat Use and Separation Between the Giant Panda and the Red Panda." Journal of Mammology 81.2 (2000): 438-455.

Website Articles

Wenner, Elizabeth. Dynamics of the Salt Marsh. Department of Natural Resources. Retrieved from the World Wide Web on 21 December 2003. http://water.dnr.state.sc.us/marine/pub/seascience/dynamic.html

Personal Interview

Williams, Julie. Interviewed by Kolea Zimmerman. Volcano, Hawaii, 2 December 2002.

How to Avoid Plagiarism

Plagiarism is using the work of another person without giving that person credit. It leads the reader to believe that the essay is original.

What are some examples of plagiarism?

1. Directly copying, word for word, the information found in a book, encyclopedia, newspaper, magazine or a website without using quotes or citing the source (saying where the information came from).
2. Using information found in a book, encyclopedia, newspaper, magazine or a website and rewording it just a little bit without citing the source. This is known as paraphrasing.

Here is an example of paraphrasing:

Original: A wolf pack is a very tightly-knit family group. There are usually between six and eight wolves in a pack, but some have as many as 30.

Paraphrase: Wolf packs usually have between six and eight wolves. Some packs have as many as 30. The pack is a very tightly-knit family group.

How do I cite the sources I use?

1. Use quotation marks when you use another author's work word for word. In parentheses put the author's name and the date of the author's work. You must then list the work in your bibliography.

   For example:
   According to Evans, "Elevated concentrations of zinc are absorbed by the gill tissues of fish, eventually preventing their intake of oxygen from the water." (Evans, 2001)

2. If the quote is more than four lines long, then you must indent it one inch from each margin. Do not use quotation marks. In parentheses put the author's name and the date of the author's work. You must then list the work in your bibliography.

   For example:
   Scientists at the University of California at Berkeley have conducted arsenic toxicity studies in Argentina, Chile, and India and have found that prolonged exposure to elevated levels of arsenic in drinking water caused cancer and resulted in death for 1 out of every 10 people. (Smith, 2001)

3. If you paraphrase, you must also cite the source of your information. In parentheses put the name of the author and the page or page numbers from which you paraphrased. List the source in your bibliography. For example:

   Arsenic is an element widely distributed throughout the Earth's crust. It poses a great threat to humans and other animals when it shows up in drinking water. (Lester, p. 22)

Isn't the information found on the Internet in the public domain?

Much of the information published on websites is not copyrighted. It is free to be used by anyone who wants to use it. However, just because it's free doesn't mean you can copy it word for word or paraphrase without giving credit. You must still use quotation marks and cite the source if you use information from the web.

I have a hard time writing things in my own words. What can I do?

First, do not rely on one source. If you are researching a topic, consult several sources, including encyclopedias, websites, books, and magazine articles. When you read a source, take notes. On a large index card, write down the title of the source and the author. Write down the main ideas and key points the author makes. Write down any sentences you may want to use as quotes. If you have copies of articles, use a highlighter to highlight important points.

When you are finished with your research, look at the information you have gathered. Use the information to identify the main idea or ideas. Write them down. Then look at the information you have about each idea.

Begin to organize your essay. Write a topic sentence that tells the main idea. Use the information from your research to write sentences that further describe or support the main idea.

Your first draft might be a little rough, but that is normal. You can go back over your essay and refine your writing. Becoming a good writer takes time and hard work. It may seem difficult at first, but with practice your writing will improve.