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Every year, the NOAA Marine Debris Program coordinates an annual art contest for students in kindergarten through eighth grade to help share the message about the impacts of marine debris and what we can do about it. Check out previous winners and calendars on our website. Feeling inspired? You can bring the art contest to your classroom!
Have you participated in the NOAA Marine Debris Program Art Contest before? We want to hear from you! Reach out to md.artcontest@noaa.gov to share your experiences, suggestions, and questions, with our team. We look forward to improving this opportunity for students across the country!
Is this the first time you’re participating in the art contest? To help you make the most of this opportunity, we've gathered some tips and tricks for getting your students into the creative spirit. Check out our Before, During, and After Activity highlights below! Each entry must be composed of a piece of artwork and a description (on the entry form). A NOAA awards panel will collect all entries and select 13 winners to be featured in a marine debris calendar. Entries will be judged on the creativity, artistic presentation, and relevancy to the theme of:
- How marine debris impacts the ocean and the Great Lakes environment.
- What you are doing to help prevent marine debris.
Before: Introducing the NOAA Marine Debris Program Art Contest
Before starting their artwork, it can be helpful for students to learn more about marine debris. There are multiple ways to incorporate the Art Contest into an educational experience where students can use creativity to demonstrate what they learned with their submissions.
You can explore all of the Marine Debris Program’s educational resources with this searchable tool! Many resources feature art or multimedia elements, which you can select with “Subject - Art” or “Special Categories - Multimedia.” Try different filters to explore the many ways to introduce marine debris in the classroom! Here, we’ve outlined a few particularly successful lessons and activities that work well with the art contest.
Combine standards-aligned science lessons with art principles through the Washed Ashore Integrated Arts Marine Debris Curriculum (Grades 5-9).
- While this unit plan is focused on creating mosaic mask sculptures out of recovered debris, the lessons could be easily adapted to create submissions for the art contest.
Mix and match project-based learning lessons and activities from the University of the Virgin Islands’ “Keeping Our Coastlines Clean” curriculum, concluding with the Solutions lesson "Making Connections through Art" (Grades 5-12).
- Choose from lessons and activities covering marine debris Composition & Abundance, Sources & Transport, Impacts, and Solutions. The curriculum also includes 15 spotlights, which highlight U.S. Virgin Islands-specific marine debris research, local researchers, community-led prevention efforts, and natural disaster impacts from marine debris.
Integrate studying ecosystems and wildlife with marine debris through the Winged Ambassadors classroom activity package (Grades 6-8, with extensions for grades 9-12).
- This 5-lesson unit features standards-aligned, inquiry-based lessons focused on albatrosses, which ingest plastic trash along their migrations. The lesson set concludes with an opportunity to share the messages learned throughout the unit - a perfect opportunity for integrating the art contest!
Scaffold an effective public awareness and art campaign with "Communicating for a Clean Future" from the lesson collection Turning the Tide on Trash (Grades 8-12).
- This stand-alone lesson is found on page 87 of the curriculum, but you can combine it with other lessons as appropriate for your learning environment.
Informal education groups can coordinate students to reach out to local businesses or other community members to reduce single-use plastics and raise awareness about marine debris with the Trash Shouldn't Splash toolkit.
- This toolkit has resources to help students organize their own art contest, but you could also support the community to submit artwork to the NOAA Marine Debris Program contest.
During: Encouraging Your Artists
You can reinforce lessons learned in the classroom with engaging and creative activities! The art contest is a great way for students of all ages to express how they connect to the topic of marine debris and encourages them to be a part of the solution.
- Is there a story they can tell with their artwork? This might look like comic book panels, incorporating speech bubbles, or featuring memorable characters.
- Can they demonstrate any of the topics they've been learning? Maybe about ecosystems, engineering, or other topics?
- Try using different colors and media like paint, crayon, or colored pencil.
- The impacts and prevention of marine debris can look like many different things to many people—so creativity is encouraged!
After: From Art to Action!
Student’s artwork can serve as a classroom reminder of the issue of marine debris, and the impacts trash has on our ocean, Great Lakes, and waterways. By amplifying your students' artwork, you can inspire the entire community to take action!
- Celebrate student work by creating an art wall display
- Host a community art show to share learning with others
- Turn artwork into informational posters to help the community reduce single-use plastics (check out inspiration in the Trash Shouldn't Splash toolkit!)
- Compile artwork into a storybook for others to read and learn about marine debris
While the official NOAA Marine Debris Program art contest is only open to students in kindergarten through eighth grade in the U.S. states and territories, art is still a great communication tool for students of any age in any location!
Have you participated in the NOAA Marine Debris Program Art Contest? We want to hear from you! Reach out to md.artcontest@noaa.gov to share your experiences, suggestions, and questions, with our team. We look forward to improving this opportunity for students across the country!
