Loving to Learn Day 2011 -- The Contest!

Loving to Learn Day is an annual event that encourages everyone — and we mean everyone! — to celebrate their love of learning. First established at the University of Waterloo in 2006, Loving to Learn Day has subsequently spread to the University of Manitoba, the University of Windsor, the University of Saskatchewan, and several Canadian colleges. This year Loving to Learn Day falls on Tuesday, February 15, 2011.

At the heart of every Loving to Learn Day is a contest with prizes! Here's this year's contest:

CONTEST

What’s the best thing you learned in the last year?

Over the last year, you’ve learned thousands of things. Some of those things might be small like a new friend’s name or how to say “thank you” in Arabic; some might be big things, like how to put a baby to sleep, how to be less busy, or how to calculate the size of an exoplanet based on its gravitational effect on the star it revolves around; some might be facts, like how a certain type of clam is able to burrow a tunnel into solid rock; some might be concepts, like macroeconomics; some might be procedures like how to bake brownies or how to drive a standard transmission. Some of the things you learned might be joyful, like learning to love again, and some might be sad, like learning what grief is.

Out of all the thousands of things that you’ve learned in the last year, tell us about the best one. Bear in mind that “best” can mean many things: it might mean what was most interesting, what was most memorable, what made you happiest, or what had the biggest impact on your life or learning.

There are four categories in our contest:

    1. Students in grades 1 to 8.
    2. Students in grades 9 to 12.
    3. University students, staff, and faculty.
    4. Everyone else.

A few notes:

  • Anyone, anywhere can participate.
  • Submissions should be between 100 and 500 words in length, and will be judged according to how vivid, thoughtful, and expressive they are. Submissions can also take the form of an original YouTube video, up to two minutes in length.
  • After you write it, email your submission with "Loving to Learn" in the subject line to mmorton@uwaterloo.ca.
  • Include your name and your category, and make sure it arrives before 9:00 pm on Tuesday, February 15, 2011.
  • Winning submissions will be published on February 22, 2011 on this website, and winners will also receive a book prize. In past years, Kitchener-Waterloo's daily newspaper, The Record, has also published full-page articles about Loving to Learn Day contests.
  • Winning submissions from last year's Loving to Learn Day Contest are available here.

Feel free to spread the word about Loving to Learn Day, and about this year's contest! If you have any questions, please contact Mark Morton.