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Observational Drawing

Preparing Your Entry
  • Make a scientific observational drawings that shows the 2024 theme: Seaweed / Rimu
  • The entrant needs to draw a scientific observational drawing of a species of Taranaki seaweed. You need to provide the common name, the scientific (latin) name and Maori name.
  • Example (taken from outside Taranaki): Bull kelp, Durvillaea antarctica, Kōauau
  • Drawing to be done in pencil on A4 paper
  • No shading
  • Dots and lines allowed
  • A scale MUST  be shown
  • Common name and scientific (latin) name of the species your drew, your name, year level and school to be written inside a blank 20mm margin at the bottom of the A4 page
Submitting Your Entry by June 28th
  • Only one entry per person
  • Drawings must be submitted in high resolution .pdf format. 
  • Please scan and upload your entry file. Before you upload it you will need to check it’s in the correct .pdf format, and rename it. Otherwise, the judges may not be able to open your work and you may be disqualified. (No photos of the drawing allowed)
  • The filename must be in the following format: section code – school year – xxxx . For example, if you are in year 10, and you enter the observational drawing, your filename would be: OD-10-xxx. Your school and name will be added automatically to the name of the file.
  • If you wish your work to be displayed at the fair, you must submit your hard copy, mounted on a black sheet of paper. This will ensure that your work is not damaged by the staples.
If you would like your entry displayed at the fair, please post your hard copy to Taranaki Science Fair, Unit 5, 6 Belt Road, Moturoa, New Plymouth, 4310. Alternatively, another option is to physically drop off entries at this address. Please ensure your entry is correctly labelled using the filename you used when you submitted your digital entry.
Observational Drawing

Provided is an example of a 2021 winning entry by Naomi Landreth (Yr 9) 

2021 Theme: Driftwood

Our Judge’s Tips

Visually describe what you see, supporting both scientific observation and critical thinking skills. Scientific drawing is a lesson in seeing (observation) as well as in drawing

Use pencil, eraser, ruler, pencil sharpener

Include magnification if a microscopic drawing or a scale if a macroscopic drawing

Use only lines or dots to inform your drawing, tone can be created using these two elements