Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation
Providing science-based solutions to protect and restore ocean health
Aside from viewing at all the incredible art that we receive during the Science Without Borders® Challenge, one of my favorite tasks is getting to meet the contest winners and their families and teachers. This year I had the pleasure of getting …
The Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation is thrilled to announce the winners of our annual student art competition, the Science Without Borders® Challenge. Every year, this international contest engages students in ocean conservation through art, encouraging them to create pieces that inspire people to preserve, protect, and restore the world’s oceans and aquatic resources.
The Foundation received entries to the Science Without Borders® Challenge from more countries than ever before. A total of 680 students from 63 countries sent in artwork illustrating this year’s theme, “The Magic of Mangroves.” This is the first time we received submissions from more than a dozen countries including Afghanistan, Kuwait, Maldives, Panama, Senegal, and Zambia. Mangrove forests are important marine ecosystems that protect the coast from storms, filter the water removing sediment and pollutants, sequester a surprising amount of carbon, and provide critical habitat for many species both above and below the waterline. The winning entries in each category are beautiful pieces of artwork as well as excellent illustrations of the benefits mangrove forests provide to people and the environment.
By all accounts, 2020 was an extremely successful year for the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation (KSLOF). It was certainly a challenging year, but also a productive one, primarily because we were able to adapt to changes imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Although we were not able to travel to share our findings at international conferences or complete some of our Mangrove Education and Restoration programs, we published a record number of scientific reports from the Global Reef Expedition, and we were here to help teachers and students with the transition to remote learning.
By all accounts, 2020 was an extremely successful year for the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation (KSLOF). It was certainly a challenging year, but also a productive one, primarily because we were able to adapt to changes imposed by …
Happy Earth Week! One of the ways we are celebrating Earth Week this year is by announcing the Science Without Borders® Challenge finalists. Each year we choose an ocean conservation theme to encourage students and teachers to learn about different important ocean topics. Our goal is for students to not only learn about the theme through art, but also create artwork that inspires others to want to learn about it too.
The theme for this year’s art contest was “The Magic of Mangroves.” Students were asked to learn about the importance of mangroves, that are not only essential to the wellbeing of the planet, but also are an essential resource for humans too. Based off responses from our student surveys, many learned a great deal about mangroves and came to appreciate them. Here is what some of our participants said:
The Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation is pleased to announce the finalists in our 2021 Science Without Borders® Challenge! This international student art contest engages students in important ocean issues through art. For this year’s competition, students were asked to illustrate …
The Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation is pleased to announce the finalists in our 2021 Science Without Borders® Challenge! This international student art contest engages students in important ocean issues through art. For this year’s competition, students were asked to illustrate …
Having first visited the Chagos Archipelago in 2006, it was an immense pleasure to return with the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation under the auspices of the Global Reef Expedition. Returning to the archipelago offered the chance to continue work that had been initiated nearly a decade earlier by other scientists—monitoring of the fish assemblages and health of the coral—but also begin new science initiatives.
Following the discovery of a rich portfolio of vintage aerial photographs for the Chagos Archipelago taken in 1963, we are examining the dynamics of the coastlines of the many islands in the archipelago in an effort to understand how low-lying atoll islands respond to rising sea level. Largely uninhabited, Chagos is one of very few places in the world where the behavior of islands can be tracked in the absence of artificial coastline modifications. That is, “natural” island behavior can be quantified.
The Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation is pleased to announce the second round of semi-finalists in our 2021 Science Without Borders® Challenge! This international student art contest engages students in important marine science and conservation issues through art. The theme of …
Two days ago, we announced the semi-finalists of the 2021 Science Without Borders® Challenge for students participating in the 11-14 year old category. Today, we are thrilled to announce the semi-finalists in the older group of students 15-19 years of age.
This international student art contest engages students in important marine science and conservation issues through art. The theme of this year’s challenge is “The Magic of Mangroves,” and students were asked to illustrate one or more of the benefits mangroves provide to people, other organisms, or the environment. They did not disappoint.
Once again, our judges were put to the test to make some incredibly difficult decisions evaluating the almost 330 pieces of artwork entered in this category. They came to a consensus to include 34 of these entries as semi-finalists. Like with the younger semi-finalists group, students used a variety of styles, techniques and media to portray the importance of mangroves. Some students created artwork that illustrates mangroves in their local community, while others drew inspiration from far off places. Overall, students in this category ranged from 13 different countries.
We would now like to invite you to meet our 15-19 year old semi-finalists:
