Endangered Species Day

The Arkansas Ecological Services Field Office has organized the 1^st Annual Endangered Species Day Art Contest.  The art contest is similar to the national contest sponsored by the Endangered Species Coalition with several modifications.  All art work must illustrate an endangered, threatened, or candidate species that occurs or has historically occurred in Arkansas.  We will award 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd place prizes to the following age groups: K-2, 3-6, 7-9, and 10-12.  Each winner will receive a Service plaque and a VISA gift card in the sum of $100, $50, and $25, respectively.  The overall winner will receive an additional $500 VISA gift card.  In support of the art contest, we sent out informational packets to every school campus in the state (~1,400), home school groups, and the Environmental Education News mailing list (~2,800 educators).  The packets contained information and links to our contest, the national contest and the Endangered Species Coalition curriculum.

We are working with Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission to promote endangered species day, the curriculum, and art contest at teacher workshops this summer.  The goal is to host several teacher workshops next summer, guiding teachers through the curriculum and introducing them to the art contest.  We are also working to correlate the state standards to the art contest to encourage teachers to incorporate the curriculum and contest into their classroom. [http://www.fws.gov/Arkansas-es/esday.html]