The key to the success of the Annual NA-YGN Drawing Contest is your participation, by submitting drawings by 4th and 5th graders in your area. The idea is for all of you, NA-YGN members and alumni, to visit a local school and share with the students about the many ways in which Nuclear Science and Technology impacts our daily life. Then, tell the students about the drawing contest and the prizes for them and their school, encourage them to make a drawing inspired by the presentation, and collect them in a week or two.

To make your life easier, we have developed some tips and some materials that we hope you will find useful. You are welcome to use them... they will need to be edited to personalize them, actualize them and customize them, but otherwise they are pretty much ready to be used.

We would appreciate your comments on how to improve these materials and the Drawing Contest as a whole. Also, if you translate our materials to other languages or create new ones, please send those to us, so we can make them available to everyone.

Some Helpful Tips:

• It is normally a good idea to contact "formally" the principal, or a professor in the school and explain to them what the NA-YGN is all about and the purpose of the contest. We have created a sample letter that you could use for this first contact:

  [English] 36KB, Aug 2006  

            [Spanish] 36KB, Aug 2006

• We recommend that you spend about 30 minutes going over the presentation, and then give the students 30 more minutes to start (and hopefully finish!) the drawings.

• It is also very important to try to reach the teachers and have their support, since they will be the ones reminding the students about the Drawing Contest and encouraging them to participate. Furthermore, since they are in charge of the kids' education, we want to make sure they know the facts about nuclear science and technology.

• Bring the paper with you: Use preformated paper such as this example. The students should fill in the information in the form and make the drawing in the white side of the sheet. This way it will be easy to identify the drawings collected by your section and you will make sure that you have complete information for all the drawings you collect.

• Manage the long term participation in the contest: Your local section could focus just on 4th graders or just on 5th graders in the local area. This allows you to not speak to the same set of students twice, because your 4th graders will become 5th graders the following year.

• Make reference materials available to help stir the creative juices: Provide 3 copies of the presentation & a CD for the teachers to use as reference for the students.

• Make it easy for schools to participate in the contest: Leave self-addressed envelopes for the teachers to submit drawings to you after the presentation.

• Get kids involved: Goodies like rulers, pencils, highlighters have been great to reinforce the concepts with the students by asking them questions. But, make sure that the goodies you give away are not going to become a disruption for the rest of the day (teachers will not appreciate it if you give the kids noisy toys!)

• Make sure you have enough people: Two people are best, one to do the speaking at a particular time, the second to help give out goodies.

• Establish ground rules at the beginning: If you can't control the kids, you will likely not get an invitation for next year. Set the rules up front with the kids. If they talk when you talk, then who will listen?

• Stimulate their minds: After each idea-packed slide, reinforce the concepts by asking if they had to draw something, what would they draw?

• Thank the principal and the teachers: a thank you note does the job!

• Use the MS Power Point Presentation that we have created specially for this purpose. The presentation includes the speaker notes, to make it easier for you.

  [English] 1.3MB, Aug 2006

  To customize this presentation, you may need to make some minor updates:

  • If you first language is French or Spanish, you will need to translate the presentation to your language. If you do that, please send the translated presentation back to us, so we can share it with everybody else!
  • In slide 1, you will need to write your name.
  • If you are in Canada or Mexico, you will need to update slides 14 and 19 for you country.

  2006 Drawing Contest Deadline: Friday November 3rd, 2006

  Please, send the drawings via courier to:
  Michael Stuart
  5000 Dominion Blvd. 2NE
  Glen Allen, VA 23060
  USA

Any questions? Please let us know!

Contestants are aware that the North American Young Generation in Nuclear (NA-YGN) is a non-for-profit organization, one of whose goals is to communicate the public about the many ways in which nuclear science and technology have a positive impact in their daily lives and make important and valuable contributions to our society. By participating in the contest, contestants grant the North American Young Generation in Nuclear the right to print, publish, broadcast and use worldwide in any media now known or hereafter developed, including, without limitation, the World Wide Web, at any time or times, the drawing and the contestant?s name, as news or for public information and education on the benefits of the peaceful applications of nuclear science and technology without additional consideration or compensation. The drawing becomes the property of the North American Young Generation in Nuclear and will not be returned.