85% of Aralia Students Place in Top Writing Competitions
Our students consistently place in top competitions, achieving outstanding results. Aralia students earned 10 awards from the Blue Planet Awareness Contest. Additionally, our students received 106 awards in the Scholastic Writing Awards, including 41 Gold Key Awards.
1. What is Blue Planet Awareness Contest?
The Blue Planet Awareness Contest is a free art competition for middle and high schoolers, with chances to win cash prizes and scholarships! The contest focuses on raising awareness of climate change and activism for climate justice. Hosted by Bow Seat since 2011, Blue Planet Awareness Contest is an excellent opportunity for students to express their knowledge and stance on the climate crisis through artistic, creative communication, learn how climate change impacts your family and community, and become advocates for positive change (Blue Planet Awareness Contest by Bow Seat).
2. Who Is Eligible to Participate in the Blue Planet Awareness Contest?
The Blue Planet Awareness Contest is open to students ages 11–18 worldwide, participating individually or in groups. Students must enter the division corresponding to their age and provide an adult sponsor’s contact information. College and university students are not eligible.
Participants are separated into two divisions. Depending on your age, you submit your artwork into the Junior or Senior Division and only compete with other students in your age range.
- Junior Division: Ages 11-14
- Senior Division: Ages 15-18
3. When Is Blue Planet Awareness Contest 2027?
The Blue Planet Awareness Contest submission deadline is June 7, 2027, and winners will be announced in November 2027.
This contest is free to enter.
4. How can I enter?
The Blue Planet Awareness Contest has seven categories based on art mediums. Students can submit up to one piece of artwork per category for seven submissions. Explore the categories below and see which best matches your artistic talents and interests.
Visual Art: Handcrafted
Mediums include Drawing & Illustration, Painting, Sculpture, Land art, Mixed media & collage, Printmaking, Film photography, Ceramics, and Fashion and Jewelry.
Visual Art: Digital
Mediums include Graphic design, Digital illustration, Coding art, GIFs, Digital photography, Data visualization & infographics, 3D modeling, and printing.
View student work in both Visual Art categories.
Creative Writing
Examples include Fiction or Creative nonfiction.
View student work in Creative Writing.
Film
Examples include narrative films, live action films, hand-drawn or computer-generated animation, documentaries, and experimental films.
View student work in Film/Video.
Interactive & Multimedia
Mediums include Websites or apps, Social media Campaigns, Games (video games or board games), Installations, Podcasts, TikToks.
View student work in Interactive & Multimedia.
Performing Arts: Music & Dance
Examples include Original compositions, Song parodies, Dance performances
View student work in Performing Arts.
Poetry & Spoken Word
Examples include Free verse, Formal verse, and Spoken word poetry
View student work in Poetry & Spoken Word.
The details for submission requirements are below. After reviewing these important details, contact expert teachers at Aralia for competition preparation.
Unlock Your Writing Potential: Students in Our Writing Competition Preparation Class Are More Likely to Secure Awards
5. What is the Blue Planet Awareness Contest theme?
While the goal of the contest is to educate the world on climate change and amplify student voices, the Blue Planet Awareness Contest has a slightly varying theme each year. The 2027 theme is “Nature of Truth.” Participants are invited to explore environmental disinformation and its impact on environmental action. Through art, writing, performance, film, or multimedia, contestants can raise awareness and encourage critical thinking about misinformation in natural and digital environments.
Read more about the 2027 Blue Planet Awareness Contest Theme or check out past years’ themes.
6. What Are the Submission Requirements?
Students can submit individual or group work, or they can also enter as a class or a club. Students are required to submit an English reflection of 100–300 words. Your reflection should answer the following questions:
- Why did you choose your medium, and how have you used it before?
- How did you develop the idea for your piece?
- What inspired your work and creative process?
- What did you learn about Nature of Truth: Environmentalism in an Age of Disinformation?
- What message do you want viewers to take away?
The use of Artificial Intelligence tools such as ChatGPT is strictly prohibited.
Bow Seat has very specific submission requirements (see example below), so check the fine print for your specific category!
7. Awards and Prizes
The competition has various cash awards for winners in all categories. Additionally, winners get to showcase their talents at an exclusive Bow Seat online exhibition.
Main Prizes
These are awarded in all categories for both divisions.
Award | Cash Prize |
Gold | $1,000 |
Silver | $750 |
Bronze | $500 |
Pearl | $250 |
Distinguished Honorable Mention | $50 |
Honorable Mention | $50 |
Special / Additional Awards
These are more specific, either by theme, eligibility, or category type.
- We All Rise Prize: $5,000 total for U.S. students who identify as Black, Indigenous, and/or Latine, with five $500 awards per age division.
- Voice of the Sea Award: Two $500 awards recognizing outstanding spoken word poetry, one for each age division.
- Bay State Award: Massachusetts students can receive up to three $100 awards per age division.
- Hometown Award: Boston students can receive up to three $100 awards per age division.
Publishing, Art Exhibitions, and Special Opportunities:
In addition to earning cash awards to use towards tuition, your passion, art materials, or anything you choose, winners will also get their artwork exhibited with Bow Seat. This is an excellent opportunity to take your artwork from your drawing table and put it in front of hundreds of viewers!
Check out Upcoming Events & Exhibits and read more information on Bow Seat’s Awards.
8. Blue Planet Awareness Contest Creative Writing Ideas
Whether you choose fiction or creative nonfiction, your writing should bring a personal voice and fresh perspective to the theme, Nature of Truth: Environmentalism in an Age of Disinformation. Explore how environmental disinformation shapes what people believe, how it affects the natural world, and what we can do to uncover the truth.
One way to begin is by recalling a moment when you encountered environmental information that made you question what was true. Maybe you saw a social media post about climate change, heard conflicting claims about pollution, or discovered that a familiar environmental story was more complicated than it seemed. What did you believe at first? What changed your perspective?
Another way to start is by imagining nature as a witness to the spread of disinformation. What would a river, forest, or ocean say about the stories people tell about it? Or, imagine a future where environmental truth has been buried beneath digital noise. Who would uncover the truth, and what would they do with it?
You can also begin with a small object, image, or piece of media that reveals a bigger environmental story. Maybe it’s a plastic bottle, a misleading headline, or a photograph of a polluted beach. What does it reveal about the relationship between information, human behavior, and the environment?
9. How Do I Prepare for the Blue Planet Awareness Contest?
Before you start your research, make sure you thoroughly go through the Bow Seat Resource Studio to gain a comprehensive understanding of what climate change means and its damaging impacts on our ocean.
Can’t think of an issue you’d like to explore? Reflect on how climate change has left noticeable traces in your own life. What’ve you noticed about the difference in seasons this year compared to last year? For example, something clearly noticeable in Aralia Education’s hometown of Boston, we got much more rain and a lot less snow this past winter 2023-2024. Why might this have happened, and how does that affect agriculture or shipping routes in Massachusetts?
Check out the Blue Planet Awareness Contest results from Aralia Education’s students!
Further reading:
10. Get Personalized Support From Aralia’s Award-Winning Teachers
To help students craft powerful and award-winning submissions, Aralia offers a dedicated Blue Planet Awareness Preparation Class. With guidance from expert teachers, students will explore the contest theme in depth, analyze past winning works, and develop strong writing skills tailored to the competition’s requirements.
Blue Planet Awareness Contest Preparation (formerly Ocean Awareness Contest)
The Blue Planet Awareness Contest Preparation is designed to guide students through the process of creating a polished creative writing piece to submit to the contest.
