2019-2020

Merrimack Valley

Winners

Elementary School

Katherine’s Artist Statement: My drawing shows how a storm is made. It shows heat rising from the earth that is mixing with cold air from the atmosphere. The next part is a thunder cloud with lightning hitting a tree. Then storm starts to decrease because the cold air is not letting hot air into the cloud. The last clip is what the landscape looks like when the storm ends. My storm comes from the ground and the sky and ends in the ground and the sky.

Haley’s Artist Statement: The earth is heating up. And there are huge storms because of it. We can help. Save the earth by using clean energy.


Middle School

Cameron’s Artist Statement: I addressed the challenge question by putting the answers to the questions in the wave. In my artwork, I am trying to explain about strong storms, so I chose a hurricane and hoped to show that climate change has caused worse storms. I created my artwork in a cartoon, mainly to catch people's eye. I hope people learn more about storms and another way that climate change causes problems. I learned that the waters are getting warmer, and that is causing stronger storms, because warm water gives storms energy. What inspired me was the word "storm" because my mind immediately went to "hurricane" and I had a great idea to make a huge wave crashing on the beach.

Juliana’s Artist Statement: My work is about the natural ways that plants and animals have to keep cool in extreme heat. The fact that elephants have multiple ways to cool down really inspired me when I was making the artwork. My intention was to show people the natural ways to cool down themselves like sitting in the shade, using a fan, swimming, etc. The water sweeping away all the electronic fans and coolers shows that we don’t need them. I hope people will better understand that instead of damaging our planet by using electronic cooling devices, we can use what Mother Earth provides us. During my research, I learned that the hairs on an elephant are like the spikes on a cactus as they both release heat. From now on, I am going to practice the natural ways to cool down myself when I am hot.

High School

Anna’s Artist Statement: The poster represents how the exhaust fumes from our cars lead to the development of large storms, and in this case a hurricane. An average car emits about 4.6 metric tons (10,141.3 pounds) of carbon dioxide a year, 404 grams released per mile. Every gallon of gasoline burned creates about 8,887 grams (about 20 pounds) of CO2‚‚. Automobiles also produce methane and nitrous oxide from the tailpipe, and although these gases are small in comparison to carbon dioxide, the impact of these emissions produce higher global warming potential than CO2. Global warming produces a massive increase in temperature, which in turn creates massive hurricanes along with other natural disasters. To help this, fuel-efficient vehicles use less gas to travel the same distance, burning less fuel and generating fewer emissions. Cleaner fuels, like those made from cellulosic biofuels, can reduce emissions by 80 percent compared to gasoline. Electric cars and trucks use electricity as fuel, producing fewer emissions and when the electricity comes from renewable sources, all-electric vehicles produce zero emissions to drive. The poster is representing how this everyday use of a car is actually very harmful to our environment and should encourage others to change the way they transport, either by taking the bus, carpool, etc.

Abigail’s Artist Statement: For the Cool Science project, I was inspired by the second prompt “We have all experienced a very strong storm. Where does the energy to make a storm come from? Where does it all go?. Throughout my research process, studies show that the pollution from the factory smoke stacks cause dust and other particles to ascend into the atmosphere. When these particles ascend, it results in less sunlight further causing the ground to become moist. As the earth moistens, the water will eventually evaporate and fall into the water cycle making clouds. These accumulated clouds increase and as they multiply rapidly due to the factory industry, they become the foreshadowing mass of the newly immersed and intense storms. I believe that if we join together in an attempt to get rid of factory plants, we may just be able to help ourselves and wildlife from these terrible storms.

Merrimack Valley

Runner-Ups

Elementary School

Chase’s Artist Statement: I learned a lot about Global worming, these are the steps to do. Step 1 ride bikes. Step 2 ride scooters. Step 3 walk.

Emmett’s Artist Statement: What I hope people will learn from my artwork is how important the ozone layer is in protecting us from natural disasters. There are three steps to how a storm gets its energy. First, the sun radiates energy, which becomes heat, onto the Earth. Some of that energy bounces off the ozone layer while the rest stays on our planet. Second, all of the heat and energy can cause extreme storms, from droughts to hurricanes. These storms can hurt many people and cause severe property damage. Finally, the leftover energy begins to dissipate across that area until there is barely any energy left. If people keep doing things that destroy the ozone layer, more and more energy will enter the Earth's atmosphere, causing more extreme weather. This can be incredibly dangerous to people today as well as future generations.

Middle School

Yuxuan’s Artist Statement: I addressed the challenge problem by searching what does hurricanes and tropical storms mean, and then I searched about the cause of storms. I found two sources very useful, https://www.sciencealert.com/images/2019-08/HowHurricanesForm.jpg, and https://weatherstreet.com/weatherquestions/What_causes_hurricanes.htm. I am expressing the idea that the water in warm ocean evaporates, and heat up the cool gases in the atmosphere. Then, huge storm clouds come together The clouds spin with the rotation of the Earth which makes an organized system. The spinning of the clouds and the wind will speed up when there are enough warm water to continue this process which ends up as a storm/hurricane. When the storm counters lands, it will abate slowly. I think it is very cool to have a storm in the middle while I draw the process next to it. Also, I drew the process to form a storm from left to right so that its in chronological order. I hope that people will realize that if Global Warming keeps going on, storms will happen more frequently due to the rising temperature in the ocean. It will destroy a peaceful land and will ruin the home of thousands of people. Therefore, we must stop using plastic products and save energy for our planet. It was fascinating that a storm can be easily formed just based on some warm water and wind. Therefore, it inspired me to save more energy and recycle reusable stuff so that Global Warming can eventually stop, which also reduce the chance for a storm to form. I encourage everyone to do the same.

High School

Jordan’s Artist Statement: I chose to create an artwork based off of question 3 on how weather can become extreme. The message I want to get across is that if we continue at the pace we’re going water will start to warm from greenhouse gas causing the ocean to rise in sea level, more storm surges and floods. My artwork shows the destruction of a national monument, to really reflect the impact of climate change today. The Golden Gate Bridge is an international landmark almost every person knows which will create a bigger impact to the audience when shown the destruction of it. What inspired me to make this was wanting to express my concern for this issue by creating awareness of the problem

Cassidy’s Artist Statement: My poster represents how environmental and economic costs of global warming are becoming increasingly clear as is the need for action. From catastrophic flooding to hurricanes, droughts, and fires. Utilities and oil & gas companies can play a critical role in the transition to clean energy As You Sow works with some of the largest oil & gas companies and coal-burning utilities, emphasizing the need to transition from fossil-fuel based energy to clean energy sources. This transition not only reduces the human and environmental harms associated with extracting and burning fossil-fuels, but substantially reduces or eliminates the growing financial and competitive risks associated with high carbon energy. Clean tech is at the heart of a responsible, sustainable energy future. It is essential for reduced reliance on fossil fuels for generating electricity and transportation, as well as for promoting energy efficiency. In conclusion I hope people learn what oil and gas utilities are doing to our planet.

Kathlina’s Artist Statement: For my cool science project, I did question 3. The question asked how can weather become sometimes extreme. To that answer, weather can have unpredictable outcomes. Where gases trap the heat causing a heat wave. Those types of gases come from our cars. Winters that become stronger is coming from the North (or South) due to their vortex growing weak and unstable, causing the vortex to migrate. For my project I created a city that is completely covered in snow and showing extreme outcomes with the polar bears. Summing up that these storms are becoming dangerous as the years go by. My statement was the arctic air can shift towards the U.S making our blizzards increasingly harsh.