Contest: Create a Diorama/Model on Geography

On another website (secularhomeschool.com), a parent lamented that it was hard to find contests that were kept-up-to-date and available for different age groups. My immediate thought, “Hey, I could do that.” So, I’m going to run a contest for a little under a month and see if there is any interest to keep it going. Here’s the dish:

Theme

Build a 3D model or diorama that showcases some aspect of geography. In this case, the term geography is used broadly to encompass man-made and natural geographies such as cities, buildings, land, countries, and political boundaries. Please do not feel limited to the items that I have listed. If you are concerned that your project may not work under these guidelines, please feel free to e-mail me and ask.

Rules

1. During the time period of 18 November 2010 to 15 December 2010, submissions can be made for this contest to emeraldsforeyes@gmail.com.

2. One submission can be made per child. This means that if your family has three children, three projects may be submitted.

3. Age limit: 4- 18 years old.

4. Parents may help their children plan and execute the project, but they should not be doing all the work. This can not effectively be policed, so please use integrity.

5. You do not need to be a homeschooler or a secular homeschooler. The project must be submitted by a child between the ages of 4 years and 18 years. That’s it.

6. Submit 1-3 photographs of your model or diorama (please, no photographs of your children or identifying information such as a house address) to the above e-mail address. Include a brief description of how the project was completed and what the subject is. If you got the idea for the project from a book or website, please feel free to include that. You may also include your website and your child’s first name. Please include your child’s age. If you have a blog or website, the project will be linked back to your blog or website (unless you request otherwise).

Categories

Categories will be judged on age ranges: 4-8 years old, 9-13 years old, 14-18 years old. If I get enough submissions, I will create more categories and post them. If I get less than 4 submissions per age group, it will be collapsed with another age group.

Judging

For this contest, I will be the sole judge. If there will be future contests, I may look into creating a panel of judges. Judging is arbitrary and at this time, there are no set criteria (although that may change in the future). Popular vote will be considered and as such, each submission will be posted as it’s own blog post to this website during the time period of December 16th – December 20th. Winners will be announced on December 24th.

As I am the judge, while my child will make a submission, he will not be entered into the contest portion.

FAQ

Feel free to ask questions in this post and I will update to include the answers.

1. What is a diorama or model? A diorama is a three-dimensional representation of another object. It can be full-size or miniaturized. A model is also a representation of another object. For the purposes of these contest, these can either be one item (i.e. a building) or a scene. It must be three-dimensional.

2. Is there a size limit? No. As long as you can take a picture of it, it can be any size you want.

3. Can I donate an item to be used as a prize? Sure thing! If it is kid appropriate and educational, we would love to have items donated to use as prizes. Of course, we will link back to you and give you heaps of praise.

4. How will future contests be created? I will ask for a suggestion of type and theme from every person who makes an acceptable entry into this months contest. Then, I will use a random number generation to pick the type and the theme. The contest will be announced after the end of this contest.

Prize

The winner of each category will receive a $25 gift certificate to Usborne Books and More (link to my website). Any cost that you accrue over $25 will be your cost (yes, this includes shipping and handling). For full disclosure, I am a consultant for Usborne Books and More. If you live out of the contiguous United States and win the contest, we will discuss shipping. It will take longer for you to receive your prize (as I will not be able to directly ship the book to you).