The Glacier Lily, the first plant to resurface after a destructive event high in the Rocky Mountains is the emblem of the Barron Prize. Photo by Wildphotons.

“The Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes is an annual award that honors outstanding young leaders who have made a significant positive difference to people and our planet. Each year, the Barron Prize selects ten winners nationwide. Half of the winners have focused on helping their communities and fellow human beings; half have focused on protecting the health and sustainability of the environment. Since its founding, the Barron Prize has won the support of the National Geographic Education Foundation, Girl Scouts of America, National Youth Leadership Council, and many other national organizations.”

If you or a friend of yours is such a young hero, perhaps you should ask an adult to nominate you! You have to be aged 8-18 at the time of nomination, and have “shown leadership and courage in developing and implementing an extraordinary service project” that has either helped other people or the environment. The nomination deadline is April 30 of every year. Nominations must be made by adults who are not related to the nominee but are very familiar with the work of the nominee, such as teachers, librarians, civic leaders, etc.

Learn more about the Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes

Wildlife Forever is a national conservation organization with grassroots projects in nearly every U.S. state. Its mission is “to conserve America’s wildlife heritage through conservation education, preservation of habitat and management of fish and wildlife,” and it is celebrating the 12th year of its conversation education program The State-Fish Art Project. The website offers a free lesson plan called Fish ON! for students in grades 4-12. You just have to email them to get your copy. Wildlife Forever recommends studying the lesson plan, then creating a piece of art for their national contest. The deadline is March 31st, so get cracking, or put it on your calendar for next year! Request a copy of the lesson plan and download the entry form.

Since I love writing, I thought I’m tell you about this annual writing contest for kids. It’s by Scholastic, and it’s open to grades K-8. The idea is to create a picture book, in a team of 3 kids, that’s 21-29 pages long. There has to be an adult Project Coordinator to help learn about other picture books and to help send everything in correctly, and the deadline is March 15, 2010. It may be too late to get your teacher to help you with it, but if you’re driven, maybe you ask a parent, or even a counselor at an after school program who’d be interested. Plus two of your friends.

You have to write the story and draw the pictures, then put it together into a book. If you’ve ever thought of becoming an author, this is a great place to start! Two Grand Prize winners in both fiction and non-fiction will have their books published.

Click here to read the contest guidelines and download an entry form.

photo by tux96

The Kids’ Science Challenge is a competition for 3rd to 6th graders put on by Pulse of the Planet. There are three contests, to come up with great new ideas in the fields of Sports on Mars, (forensic) Science, and Bio-Inspired Designs. You can work alone or in a team, and there are explanations of the contests and great resources on the Kids’ Science Challenge Website. You have to have your parents permission of course, and the deadline is February 28th, 2010! It’s amazing what can be done in four weeks, so don’t let the tight deadline scare you.

I thought this was particularly great because part of the grand prize for the Bio-Inspired Designs is a VIP tour of the San Diego Zoo! How cool would that be? The other prizes aren’t bad either, for the Sports on Mars prize, the winner gets to go to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, where they make a lot of the NASA spacecraft, and for the forensic Science category the winner gets to go to Secret Agent Camp. There are lots of other cool sciency prizes too. So why not check it out? You just need your imagination to begin!