Many of the best poems the contest receives carefully describe or explain some aspect of science in a creative way. The illustrations are interesting and enhance the ideas in the poems. Students can write about any science topic. Some possibilities are: scientists and the history of science, inventions, observations in nature, plants and animals, the human body, life cycles, weather, the earth, the solar system, and space travel, constellations, time, electricity, magnetism, chemical reactions, and the laws of physics. The best poems seem to be about things the student really cares about or finds fascinating.

Many of the winning poems come from schools where at least one teacher, and often the whole school, has organized the science and writing program to include the science poetry contest. In school, each teacher (sometimes with the help of the science, reading and art teachers) will introduce poetry to students by reading aloud and then begin helping them write about their experiences with science observations or an experiment on a topic they may be studying. The teacher then leads students to condense their thoughts and knowledge into a poem structure. In middle school, the science and English (and sometimes reading and art) teachers cooperate in one grade to teach students to write poetry about a chosen science topic or experience.

If possible, show students the books with the winning poems from past contests or read one or two of the poems with the class, so students can get an idea of what constitutes a good science poem. But caution students that originality is paramount. Students should be sharing their own thoughts and experiences with science, not relying on someone else's. Encourage students to think about the science they are doing and to revise their poems to improve them. Check for grammatical errors and science accuracy.

We encourage teachers to run your own contest to select the 4-5 poems from each class you think are best to send to the statewide contest. Use the Recognition Certification to acknowledge the efforts of ALL students. The contest will send greetings to all the classes that participate, if teachers send a self-addressed, stamped envelope or fill out the fax or e-mail address on the enclosed class/student entry form.

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