Discovering Darwin Art and Poetry Competition

Amy Hutton’s artwork was awarded 1st place.

In celebration of the 200th anniversary evolutionary biologist Charles Darwin’s birth and to mark the 150 years since he published Origin of the Species, Grade eight to twelve learners in the Tshwane area were recently invited to enter the Discovering Darwin Art and Poetry Competition, hosted by Sci-Enza interactive science centre and sponsored by Maropeng.

The theme of the poetry competition was “Exploration and creation”, while that of the art competition was “Darwin and Africa”. The brief required learners to use their “imagination, talents and feelings to express the wonderful and mysterious world of science and how [they] experience it”.

The art competition was won by Amy Hatton, a grade eight learner at Pretoria High School for Girls, whose entry, according to the judges, showed the best technique and interpretation. Amy won R1 000.

Second prize for the art competition (R500) was awarded to Ciske Uys, a grade 10 learner at Pretoria High School for Girls, for her “great artistic interpretation of some of the scientific processes of evolution”.

Nicole Dawson, a grade 11 learner at Pretoria High School for Girls, won third prize in the art competition (R300) for “biodiversity nicely portrayed”.

The poetry competition was won by Malapile Mirriam of Hillview High School for her poem, entitled Child of African Heart. Like Amy, Malapile won R1 000.

Ciske Uys’s artwork was awarded 2nd place.

Second prize (R500) was awarded to Sebata Tebogo Thelcy of Gatang Comprehensive for her poem, Say you Didn’t do it. Zinzi Tshabalala of Ngaka Maseko High School won third prize (R300) for In the Beginning of a Journey.

Rudi Horak, manager of the Sci-Enza centre at the University of Pretoria, said: “The Discovering Darwin Art and Poetry Competition aim[ed] to let learners discover the amazing contribution that Darwin made in the field of natural science and also to allow them to relate their own experience of nature, science and the world around them to his work of exploration and scientific investigation.”

The competition winners also won a trip for their classes to Maropeng.