In the world an important thing is nature.
It can be our every-day teacher.
Some people like to take a nature walk
So they can hear nature talk.
Wind whistles, snakes hiss, birds sing.
Water has a sound of soft flowing.
You can learn a lot about nature
When you go on an adventure.

First-grader Shannon Briggle of the Sweetsir School in Merrimac

Welcome to the 18th annual Massachusetts Science Poetry Contest. The Contest for grades K-8 has drawn many thousands of entries from Bay State school children over the past 17 years. Prize categories include: Most Original Poem, Most Humorous Poem, Most Expressive Poem, Best Cooperative Poem and Best Long Poem.

Contest founder, Professor George Ladd says "Each year we receive more and more poems in different languages, yet the creativity of children comes through with the limited vocabulary they have to draw from." Ladd said he got the idea for the contest from a small-town schoolteacher in western Massachusetts he observed reading science poetry to her pupils one Friday afternoon. "In a conversation after school, she revealed that she did this every Friday and the children loved it," Ladd recalled. "On my drive home I came up with the concept of having students writing and illustrating their own poems."

Ladd has enlisted undergraduates in The Lynch School of Education Elementary Science Methods class to judge the thousands of entries that arrive each year. "We are continually blown away with the voices of children that reflect their thoughts," he said. Their sketches often reveal as much or more about their thoughts as do their words. We hear stories from teachers and families about how 'they never dreamed so-and-so had such talents." Contest entries display the curiosity and creative flair of children as young as 7 mulling the wonders of photosynthesis, rainbows and the life cycle of the butterfly.