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Agrium and Unocal Alaska are committed to giving back to our community. Teaching environmental awareness and fostering stewardship is the key to encouraging the next generation to think of the environment as part of everything it does. For more than a decade, the annual Caring for the Kenai contest for local high school students has been challenging participants to develop effective ways to preserve and improve the environment. Because we all are environmental decision makers.
Many environmental problems on the Kenai Peninsula mirror those found in communities worldwide. Caring for the Kenai offers students the chance to step outside the walls of the classroom and develop practical, applicable solutions.
Ask the question, "What can I do, invent, or create to better care for the environment on the Kenai Peninsula, or to improve the area's preparedness for a natural disaster?" Identify a problem and develop a solution. Research, perform scientific experiments and conduct personal interviews. Learn as much about the topic as possible. Then, as an individual or team, write an essay that explains the problem and your proposed solution.
| March 15 |
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Entries due from student to teacher |
| March 18 |
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Contest deadline - Entries due at contest headquarters |
| March 25 |
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Entry screening completed |
| March 26 |
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Preliminary judging |
| March 27 |
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Finalists notified |
| April 6 |
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Semi-finalist display |
| April 12 |
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Oral presentations for final judging, KCHS Little Theatre |
| April 19 |
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Finalists’ VIP banquet & awards |
Contest finalists share $5,000 in U.S. savings bonds, attend an awards banquet and receive a jacket. If there is no finalist from a school, an honorable mention award will be given to the highest scoring student and he or she will receive a jacket.
| Student Awards |
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| 1st place |
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$1,500 |
| 2nd place |
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$1,000 |
| 3rd place |
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$800 |
| 4th place |
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$600 |
| 5th place |
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$450 |
| 6th place |
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$300 |
| 7th-12th place |
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$150 |
Team entries will divide the winnings among team members.
School Awards
Program sponsors Agrium and Unocal Alaska distribute $5,000 to science departments at all participating high schools.
Caring for the Kenai is open to all Kenai Peninsula high school students. If you have questions about the contest, ask your science teacher, or call the Program Coordinator at (907) 262-4949. Submit your project with an entry form to your science teacher, or deliver your project and entry form to Caring for the Kenai.
Caring for the Kenai®
Sikorski Consulting
P.O. Box 385
Soldotna, Alaska 99669
info@caringforthekenai.com
(907) 262-4949
The song "What's the Solution?" showed how to use the arts and mass media to promote environmental awareness. More than 2,000 CDs were given away to tourists visiting Alaska.
One contestant developed an interactive computer program on how to preserve the Kenai River. At a White House presentation, the EPA Administrator honored the student with the President's Environmental Youth
Award. The student's site can be visited at www.kpbsd.k12.ak.us./quest/cfk/caring.html
An entry to create a polyculture greenhouse went on to receive a $78,000 grant from the Alaska Science and Technology Foundation and has been a successful business for over 10 years.
Another student debuted her winning environmental education curriculum on ABC's "Good Morning America."
A team of seniors designed, permitted, acquired funding, and performed the labor required to complete the habitat enhancement program of the Soldotna Creek Park.
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