Lindblad Expeditions-National Geographic is offering the Young Explorer Challenge.
The year-long educational contest is open to young people from the ages of 8-17 who travel on a Lindblad-National Geographic ship in 2014. The adventurers are invited to chronicle their voyage by creating and submitting multimedia Powerpoint journals that capture their journey. Each voyage has a team of esteemed naturalists, historians, undersea specialists, Lindblad-National Geographic-certified photo instructors, along with scientists and researchers.
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Nine winners in all (one per age category in each of the three ship categories: (1) National Geographic Sea Bird and National Geographic Sea Lion; (2) National Geographic Endeavour and National Geographic Islander; (3) National Geographic Explorer and National Geographic Orion on the Lindblad -National Geographic fleet), will receive the top prize of a Lindblad-National Geographic mini-expedition aboard National Geographic Sea Lion from Seattle, Wash. Winners will board the National Geographic Sea Lion for a two day exploration of Puget Sound and the San Juan Islands. Alongside National Geographic Photographers and experts, they will hike, kayak and explore the spectacular Pacific Northwest. The prize includes meals, transportation and double occupancy accommodations for the ship nights, and round-trip air transportation for each winner and his or her parent or guardian.
Submissions must be sent in within four weeks of the entrant’s ship disembarkment date. Each submission must include no more than 15 photographs accompanied by captions or by an essay that tells the story of their adventure in fewer than 450 words. Original art is also encouraged, as are maps, so long as they too are original or free for public use from the Internet. Journals should be clear, cohesive, creative, passionate and well-organized.
All presentations will be reviewed by a team of judges that will include Lindblad-National Geographic staff along with specially-chosen experts who will assign a numerical score to each entry. The age categories for the prizes will be 8-10; 11-13 and 14-17. In addition to the top prizes, second-prize winners in each category and age range will win The National Geographic Atlas and The Complete National Geographic in DVD. Third-prize winners will receive The Complete National Geographic in DVD. All entrants will receive a Lindblad-National Geographic expeditions T-shirt along with a certificate of participation.
Judging will be completed in February 2015, with notification of the winners made by the end of that month.
For more information, visit www.expeditions.com.