Announcing the 2022 Federal Junior Duck Stamp Conservation and Design Program! Educators, now is the time to get your students prepared to create some innovative and beautiful waterfowl art!
Maine Audubon is collaborating with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for the 28th annual statewide Federal Junior Duck Stamp Conservation and Design Program. The program, which includes a multidisciplinary curriculum, encourages students to explore their natural world, invites them to investigate biology and wildlife management principles, and challenges them to express and share what they have learned with others.
Students will be able to submit an entry of approved waterfowl art into a statewide competition. Designs are judged in four age categories—K-3rd grades, 4th-6th grades, 7th-9th grades, and 10th-12th grades—with awards for first, second, and third places and honorable mentions. All students are also encouraged to write a Conservation Message that captures the essence of what they have learned about conservation. One message per state is judged at the national level. Last year’s winner was Zuriel Smith, 11, from Damariscotta, with this message: “When we are protecting nature, we are protecting our future.”
Click here to read more about the winners of the 2020-21 Maine Junior Duck Stamp Challenge!
(pictured above: Harlequin Duck by Best in Show 2021 winner Ariah Lowell, 12)
Project WILD and the Federal Junior Duck Stamp programs are hosting a special online program on Wednesday, November 17, from 5 to 6 pm (Eastern), to get educators excited! A one-hour webinar, November Wildlife Sketching with Rebekah Knight, will focus on nature and wildlife sketching as an educational method for advancing student learning and skill development. Participants will explore the benefits of engaging students in sketching and illustration, techniques for sketching, and activities from Project WILD and Jr. Duck Stamp curricula that involve the use of illustration (online via Zoom). More Information >
The Maine Best of Show entry will compete with contest winners from other states in a national competition. The first place national winning design is used to create the Federal Junior Duck Stamp. Proceeds from the sale of Junior Duck Stamps (which cost $5 each) support conservation education by providing awards and scholarships for students, teachers, and schools.
This program has a free downloadable curricular guide to help support learning about waterfowl habitat and conservation. The guides provide fun, age-level appropriate activities that will enhance your curriculum and students’ knowledge of wildlife and habitat.
You can download the teacher guides here and view the contest rules and entry forms here.
Submission deadline is March 1, 2022. Judging will take place at Maine Audubon on March 17, 2022. For more information, visit maineaudubon.org/juniorduck.
For questions and/or curricular support, please contact Maine Audubon’s Lead Educator, Linda Woodard at 207-781-2330 ext.213 or lwoodard@maineaudubon.org.
Please Send Submissions To:
Linda Woodard, Maine Audubon, 20 Gilsland Farm Rd, Falmouth, Maine 04105
