Science Without Borders Challenge

Meet Yeonjae, Our 2022 Art Contest 1st Place Winner (Ages 15-19)

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Yeonjae is a 16-year-old student at Seoul Foreign School in the Republic of Korea. For the past two years, she has been taking lessons at a private art studio to advance her art skills, so that one day she can become a graphic designer.

After talking to Yeonjae, I found out that she didn’t know much about the ocean prior to participating in the contest. In school, she learned generally about threats to the ocean, but she explains that she didn’t really understand that ocean ecosystems, like coral reefs, are significantly threated. She expressed that conducting research really opened her eyes to ocean conservation, especially using a “Ridge to Reef” approach. Living in Korea, Yeonjae frequently visits the beach. She continued to explain, “The next time I visit to the beach, I’m going to look at a bush, plant, or tree differently. I’m going to wonder, what is the purpose of that plant? Will it help reduce runoff or sedimentation? I never would have thought of the land and sea being interconnected before participating in this contest.”

Learn more from my interview with Yeonjae about what inspired her to create her artwork, what she hopes we gain from her piece, and why she wants to conserve the ocean, and so much more.

Meet Amy, Our 2022 Art Contest 1st Place Winner (Ages 11-14)

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Each year, I can’t wait to receive the semi-finalists artwork from our Science Without Borders® Challenge, which is even more incredible in person than it is online. Our judges have the difficult job of evaluating all this incredible artwork, which is no easy task. Once the artwork is judged, I can breathe a sigh of relief. That is when one of my favorite tasks begins – contacting the winners.

This year, I had the pleasure of meeting Amy Hyobin Pyo, the first-place winner in the category for students 11-14 years old. Amy is a 12-year-old student at Tenafly Middle School in New Jersey. What I learned about Amy is that she already had a passion for the ocean before participating in this contest. Despite her passion for the ocean, she prefers art to science classes. Amy is artistically minded but shared with me that she has a new appreciation for science after participating in the art contest, stating, “I really thought science was more about studying motion and conducting labs. Now I know that studying animals in the ocean is another part of science that I really enjoy learning about.”

Announcing the winners of the 2022 Science Without Borders® Challenge!

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The Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation is thrilled to announce the winners of our annual student art competition, the Science Without Borders® Challenge. Now in its tenth year, this international contest engages students in ocean conservation through art, encouraging them to create artwork that inspires people to preserve, protect, and restore the world’s oceans. This year, students were asked to illustrate a ‘Ridge to Reef’ approach to coral reef conservation—and they delivered!

Over 500 primary and secondary school students from nearly 50 countries submitted artwork to the 2022 Science Without Borders® Challenge, sending in beautiful artwork illustrating what people can do to help coral reefs on land and at sea. Artwork in the competition was judged in two categories based on age. The winning entries in each category are beautiful pieces of artwork as well as excellent illustrations of how this ridge-to-reef approach to conservation can be used to preserve, protect, and restore coral reefs.

Vote for your favorite artwork in the Science Without Borders® Challenge!

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The Khaled Bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation has introduced a new prize in the Science Without Borders® Challenge—and you can help select the winners!

Join us on Facebook to vote for your favorite entries to our annual student art contest. Finalists with the most likes in each category by Monday, May 23rd will receive the new “People’s Choice” award along with a $50 scholarship.

A winner will be chosen from each of the categories, one for younger students 11-14 years old, and another for older students, 15-19 years old. All you have to do to participate is “like” your favorite images in our finalist galleries on Facebook:

Finalists of the 2022 Science Without Borders Challenge (Ages 15-19)!

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Last week, we proudly announced the finalists in the ages 11-14 category of our 2022 Science Without Borders® Challenge. Today, we are excited to announce the 15-19 year-old finalists of our art contest.

Contest finalists are from China, Indonesia, Korea, Thailand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The theme, “Ridge to Reef” was portrayed in the students’ artwork through a variety of different actions such as planting corals, cleaning up pollution, preventing overfishing, and planting trees. We were amazed by these students’ creativity, execution of the theme, and artistic abilities.

Without further ado, please meet our 15-19 year old finalists:

Announcing the 11-14 Year-Old Finalists of the 2022 Science Without Borders® Challenge!

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The Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation is pleased to announce the finalists of the 2022 Science Without Borders® Challenge, our annual student art competition. This year we asked students to create a piece of art that illustrates one or more actions that governments, non-profits, park managers, and indigenous communities can take to preserve coral reefs using a ridge to reef approach to conservation. We are thrilled with the entries that we received!

We received 510 qualifying pieces of artwork from 49 different countries, so picking the finalists was a difficult decision. Ultimately, finalists were chosen based on how well the artwork exemplified this year’s theme, the quality of the artwork, and the creativity and originality of their artwork.

We hope you will be as impressed with the submissions we received as we were. Without further ado, here are the finalists for Ages 11-14 of the 2022 Science Without Borders® Challenge:

ANNOUNCING 2022 SCIENCE WITHOUT BORDERS® CHALLENGE SEMI-FINALISTS – AGES 11-14

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Recently, we announced the semi-finalists of the 2022 Science Without Borders® Challenge for students participating in the 15-19 year-old category. Today, we are overjoyed to announce the semi-finalists for younger students who are 11-14 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 “Ridge to Reef,” and students were asked to illustrate one or more actions that governments, non-profits, park managers, and indigenous communities can take to preserve coral reefs using a ridge to reef approach to conservation. They did not disappoint.

Once again, our judges were put to the test to make some incredibly difficult decisions evaluating the almost 300 pieces of artwork entered in this category. They came to a consensus to include 35 of these entries as semi-finalists. Like with the older semi-finalists group, students used a variety of styles, techniques, and media to portray the theme. Overall, students in this category ranged from 10 different countries.

We would now like to invite you to meet our 11-14 year old semi-finalists:

ANNOUNCING 2022 SCIENCE WITHOUT BORDERS® CHALLENGE SEMI-FINALISTS – AGES 15-19

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Thank you to all the students who applied to the 2022 Science Without Borders® Challenge! We received some truly incredible and inspiring artwork again for this year’s theme titled “Ridge to Reef.” Students were asked to illustrate one or more actions that governments, non-profits, park managers, and indigenous communities can take to preserve coral reefs using a ridge to reef approach to conservation.

Overall, we received 510 qualifying pieces of artwork from 49 different countries. In the 15–19 year-old category, we received 211 submissions. The themes and styles of artwork varied greatly. Some students took a more realistic approach when illustrating the ridge to reef actions that they would take to conserve coral reefs, while others used symbolism and artistic metaphors to convey their messages.

Our judges chose 34 incredible pieces of artwork in the 15-19 year-old group to become semi-finalists. These artists span 11 countries around the world including some that contain tropical coral reefs, such as Indonesia, Kuwait, and the Philippines; and countries that do not have any such as United Kingdom and New Zealand.

Without further ado, please meet our 15-19 year old semi-finalists:

One month left to apply for the Science Without Borders® Challenge!

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There is still time to participate in our international student art competition, the Science Without Borders® Challenge! Students must submit their artwork by March 7 for a chance to win up to $500 in prizes. 

This year the Science Without Borders® Challenge theme is “Ridge to Reef.” This type of conservation approach works to conserve coral reefs by addressing issues across the entire watershed, from the top of the land down the streams, through mangrove forests and seagrass beds, and out to the reefs themselves. For this year’s theme, we are asking students to create a piece of art that illustrates one or more ways people can use this conservation approach to protect coral reefs. 

Science Without Borders® Challenge | Q&A Sessions Jan 20 & 26

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It’s time to apply for our annual student art contest, the Science Without Borders® Challenge! This international contest engages students and teachers in ocean conservation through art. This year, we are asking students to submit artwork that illustrates how people can preserve coral reefs using a “Ridge to Reef” approach to conservation. The Challenge is open to primary and secondary school students 11-19 years old, with scholarships of up to $500 awarded to the winning entries.

We are holding virtual Q&A sessions on January 20th and 26th for students and teachers who want to learn more about the Science Without Borders® Challenge. Join us for one of these sessions to have all of your questions answered about the contest, hear directly from some of the judges about what types of art we are looking for, and what you can do to increase your chance of success (hint: your artist’s statement matters a lot, it lets us know how your art relates to the theme).