Microsoft announced the Bing “Earth Day Photo Contest for Students

On Friday at the NCCE teacher conference here in Seattle, Microsoft announced the Bing “Earth Day Photo Contest for Students.” Bing is inviting students of all ages in the United States to “Explore the World Through Photos” to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Earth Day on April 22nd.

The winning student photo submission will be the featured photograph on the Bing homepage on Earth Day. We think this photo contest will capture the imagination of students, parents, and educators. It will motivate students to take a look at their world through the lens of the camera and share it online through the contest homepage: http://www.earthdayphotocontest.com/.

Parents and teachers tell us that students are inspired by the amazing array of photos featured on Bing…now it’s the students’ turn to inspire us. In addition to the grand prize winner seeing their photo on Bing.com, we’ve pulled together some great prizes for both students and their schools. Winners across the four age groups (ages 5-10, 11-13, 14-17 and 18+) will win a trip for two to Seattle to take part in a Bing editorial team meeting where we pick images for future homepages. Additionally, each winner will receive equipment from HP and Canon to help build digital photo resources at their school. Prizes for individual winners and their schools across the four age groups will total over $70,000.

· 1st place prizes: Individuals receive an HP Pavilion desktop and monitor and a “Digital Photo Lab” for their school.

· 2nd place prizes: Individuals receive an HP Pavilion desktop and monitor and a “Digital Photo Kit” for their school.

· 3rd place prizes: Individuals receive an HP Pavilion desktop and monitor and a “Digital Photo Starter Set” for their school.

Even better, we think, is that we’re partnering with DonorsChoose.org to give away “GivingCards” during the voting stage from April 13 – April 19. Bing will give a $5.00 GivingCard for DonorsChoose.org to the first 20,000 people who vote each day. Voters can then decide what classroom projects (like math, science, art, reading) will benefit from Bing’s donation. If you do the math, we’re talking up to $100,000 a day to help schools across the country. Each day you can return to the site to cast another vote and have an opportunity to pick up another GivingCard.

To find out more about the contest, visit http://www.earthdayphotocontest.com/,where you can sign up to receive a reminder when we open the contest to submissions on March 29. Teachers will also be able to order free posters for their classrooms in coming days, as well as take advantage of other resources on the site.

Finally, the Bing team is partnering with the USPS Education Marketing and Sales team on the photo contest and they are making a tremendous investment in education. Sig Behrens at Microsoft is the executive sponsor of the photo contest.

Let’s all go show that we can get the students, teachers and administrators in our schools and universities excited about this contest and using Bing as their decision (and learning) engine.

Thank you!