Published: April 11, 2008 04:41 pm            

Ada students place third for Sutton Awards

NORMAN — A pair of Ada High students recently won third place awards in the annual Sutton Award. Senior Jason Sam and junior Anthony Borges won the award and the accompanying $500 prize in the competition conducted by the George M. Sutton Avian Research Center, which is affiliated with the Oklahoma Biological Survey and the College of Arts and Sciences, the University of Oklahoma.

Mrs. Kay Faulkner teaches the sciences at Ada High and made this award into an assignment. Her students were given two weeks to work on it. The competition gave students across the state in grades 10-12 the choice of writing music or poems or creating drawings over soil, water or wildlife conservation.

Borges wrote a poem over the Siberian tiger. He chose the Siberian tiger because he is really fascinated by the animals.

"I was debating on whether to write a song or poem because I'm good at writing songs, but in this case I choose to do a poem," he said.

Sam wrote a song over tree conservation. He said that he actually had planned to do a drawing, but didn't have enough time. Sam said a drawing wouldn't have worked out because he actually worked and finished his assignment all in the night before it was due.

The center's mission is to find cooperative conservation solutions for birds and the natural world through science and education.

The award recognizes high school students who demonstrate the ability to communicate a current conservation topic in a most artistic, dramatic and/or compelling way.

The Sutton Award is comprised of up to $30,000 in cash and Certificates of Deposit to be distributed to the students and gift certificates to be distributed to selected instructors of winning students as determined by the selection committee.

        

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