2021 Science Without Borders® Challenge Finalists: 15-19 year old students
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 one or more of the benefits mangroves provide to people, other organisms, or the environment.
Entries to the Science Without Borders® Challenge are judged in two categories based on age. Here are the finalists selected from the older group of applicants, students 15-19 years old:
"Mangrove, Earth´s Tree of Life" by Ana Bastos, Age 17, Brazil
Artist's Statement: The overall construction establishes a comparison with Yggdrasil, the tree of life in the Nordic Mythology, to show that the Mangrove has a similar role on Earth as the mythical tree on its universe: protection. While Yggdrasil holds nine worlds, the mangrove protects several species and nine are portrayed. Also, in the myth there were three characters and they are portrayed as the three boats. Two of them fight for a common cause, but they can´t seem to work together, they are always going in different directions or converging into arguments, basically causing problems instead of solving. The third is powerless because it was affected by these problems. The preservation of the mangroves and their magic, their potential to create, provide and protect life, will depend on the changes in the way that the boats interact with each other and survive the tormented sea that they created.
