The IOI-Malta Operational Centre of the University of Malta is launching two great new competitions for Primary and Secondary School children and youngsters. Children will be asked to contribute projects (in the form of a lesson, an essay, poem or story, a web page, a database or collection that can be shared online, a set of notes on a selected topic, or a PowerPoint presentation) and news items and reports that relate to the sea for online publication on the IOI-Kids website at www.ioikids.net....

IOI-Kids is a website dedicated to the sea for primary and secondary school children and youngsters. It offers a virtual and interactive learning experience, where students can increase their knowledge about the marine and coastal environment through the use of interactive games, fora, surveys, lessons, informative articles and audiovisual media.

IOI-MOC is established under the University of Malta and is an affiliate centre that forms part of the International Ocean Institute, an international, non-profit and non-governmental organization that seeks to promote the concept of peace in the ocean and its management and conservation for the benefit of future generations. IOI-MOC endeavours to develop and implement research and studies related to the sea, and to promote education, training and public awareness .

The competitions are in line with our mission to raise public awareness on the marine environment. We believe that this will be also a great opportunity for students to use their research and investigative abilities and express their creativity and artistic talents.

Contributions will be initially shortlisted by a selection committee and later evaluated by online voting on our IOI-Kids website. Final placings will be subsequently made by a Selection Panel. For full details about the competition, including details about themes and format of submissions, kindly refer to the attached brochure.

With this letter we invite you to promote this competition in your council by bringing it to the attention of residents in your locality. You may wish to give publicity via the council’s newsletter, noticeboard and/or mailshots. For your information, we have not, at the time of writing this letter, finalised sponsorships. Full details about the prizes will be announced at a later stage. We are, in any case, targeting to award winners some very attractive prizes.

This is the second time that the IOI-Malta Operational Centre is launching a competition for school kids. An artworks competition entitled “Youth & the Oceans - The Artworks Competition,” which asked participants to submit artworks in the form of paintings or drawings covering specific themes relating to the sea, was held in 2006 with great success, with over 300 entries from children from all around the Maltese Islands.