State Botanical Garden opens 2010 art competition

The University of Georgia State Botanical Garden is conducting an art competition open to all Georgia college and high school students ninth grade and above, regardless of age. This competition, funded by The J.A. and H.G. Woodruff Jr. Charitable Trust, celebrates student talent by using the winning designs to create signature items for the State Botanical Garden Gift Shop. The artist of the winning design will be awarded $1,000. Other awards of $500 and $250, plus certificates of merit, will be awarded.The deadline is Dec. 10.

Artwork should be within a certain size and must be two-dimensional. Entrants should keep in mind that the goal is to create items for the State Botanical Garden Gift Shop, such as journals, scarves, t-shirts, travel mugs and other unique gift items. All two-dimensional media including pencil, pen and ink, paint, photography and computer enhanced graphics are permitted. A botanical or nature theme, including plants, birds, insects and other animals related to Georgia is encouraged. One color designs are welcome. The artwork does not need to be framed but should be signed.

For more information, see the complete guidelines at www.uga.edu/botgarden/documents/events/artcomp.pdfor contact Connie Cottingham at 706/542-6014 or connicot@uga.edu.

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Fayette County Students Inventors Win $10,000 MIT Grant

NF Note: Congratulations to the Whitewater High School students who will be working on this grant to purify water. We'll be anxious to hear the results next spring!

A group of high school students might have the solution to end the world’s shortage of clean drinking water. So impressed with their idea was the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) that it awarded them a $10,000 grant to develop a prototype.

Five students who make up the InvenTeam at Whitewater High are one of only 16 teams throughout the US and Canada to receive a Lemelson-MIT grant for the 2008-2009 school year. The students are Kavita Singh, Chris Sandwich, Jacob Cotton, Andrew Barth and Hendri deBeer.

InvenTeams are composed of high school students, teachers and mentors who collaboratively identify a problem that they want to solve, research the problem and then develop a prototype invention as an in-class or extracurricular project.

The Whitewater team decided to create a combination dehydrator and condenser that will preserve food while purifying the water that results from the dehydration process.

This team is the first in Fayette to win a grant. InvenTeam is expected to release a final list of grant winners later this month, but so far only one other Georgia team has won a grant since the program began in 2003.

Whitewater submitted an initial application for the grant last spring and received an Excite Award, an invitation to complete a final, more detailed application of the idea. The selection of the finalist teams is based on the inventiveness and feasibility of the proposed idea. A panel of MIT professors, staff and alumni, inventors, researchers, entrepreneurs and high school educators assess the applications.

The team will use the grant money to purchase materials and supplies needed to develop a prototype of their invention. They will have all school year to complete the prototype. The team will display and discuss their invention at the MIT EurekaFest this spring.

Whitewater teachers working with the InvenTeam students are Carolyn Smith, engineering and technology, and Dr. Ted Wansley, science.

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Georgia Tech and Green: Game Day Recycling Effort

NF Note: Here is another great idea from Georgia Tech. Kudos to the students who are involved with this recycling project. I wonder if any of the schools in Fayette County or any of the student organizations at our middle and high schools are going to start this type of program?

Georgia Tech students are showing their game day spirit this fall by doing more than showing up to cheer on the Yellow Jackets.

“Football games bring thousands of people to campus to tailgate and watch the game, and in the past we just threw away tons of bottles, cans and cups every game,” said Student Government President Nick Wellkamp. “With Game Day Recycling, we give every tailgate party a recycling bag and ask them to recycle their glass, plastic and aluminum. This year, there are also recycling bins in the stadium and the private boxes, so that fans are encouraged to recycle during the entire length of the game day experience.”

The Game Day Recycling program is single-stream recycling, meaning that fans can just throw all of their recyclables into one bin or bag, rather than separating items out manually.

According to Wellkamp, this makes it much easier to recycle, and organizers have found almost all fans and tailgaters willing to participate.

Different student organizations will be volunteering to distribute bags for each game. For the first game, SGA volunteered to distribute bags, and IFC gave bags to all of the fraternity houses. The result was more than 1 ton of recyclable materials collected.

Wellkamp believes Game Day Recycling is an important initiative and students are getting involved because they care about the Georgia Tech community.

“The program extends Georgia Tech’s green efforts to all aspects of the community, including alumni and fans,” said Wellkamp. “Football games are large special events that have a huge environmental impact, and recycling all of our glass, plastic and aluminum can save tons of this material from going into landfills. Students are passionate about sustainability and proud that
Georgia Tech is becoming a leader in the field of sustainability.”

According to organizers, the biggest challenge is educating people so that they do not accidentally use the recycling bags as trash bags. Their concern is that they don’t want to get contaminated materials.

Wellkamp believes the program will be a success if Tech can get sustained student involvement and get fans and tailgaters to use the recycling containers properly.

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