Can you draw? Yeah, me neither. But don’t let that stop you from entering the Florida Citizens for Science Stick Science contest!
The concept is simple:
Contest for ages 13 through adult:
Your job is to create a cartoon that can be used to educate the general public and especially decision makers (state legislators, school board members) about the truth behind one false argument. Choose an argument… and create a cartoon that corrects the record.Contest for ages 12 and under:
Your job is to create a cartoon that tells everyone “why understanding science is important.”
The winners receive some cool prizes, and the cartoons will be judged by "celebrity" skeptics/scientists (in quotes because they picked me as a judge, but Genie Scott certainly counts).
So, can you do better than this?
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If I’m not too embarrassed to post that, then you can certainly do one of your own and send it in. The deadline is May 31, so get cracking!
April 6th, 2009 at 10:16 am
I’m pretty sure that no matter what, Randall Munroe will win.
April 6th, 2009 at 10:23 am
I hope Randall Monroe makes a submission!
April 6th, 2009 at 10:46 am
I predict the result of this contest being patently offensive, gargantuantly ridiculous and embarrassingly proper in a multitude of manners. In short – honest.
April 6th, 2009 at 10:48 am
I thought that was banker logic.
April 6th, 2009 at 11:17 am
Xkcd is banned, right?
anyway, I´m SO in!
April 6th, 2009 at 11:23 am
Dr. Plait – totally unrelated to the post, but are you going to Fiske or SBO this Saturday, April 11, for any of the activities?
April 6th, 2009 at 11:33 am
Looks more like federal government logic to me, though congress (a) is definitely halo-free, and (b) is much less likely to compromise on taking your money away.
April 6th, 2009 at 11:37 am
That one would be a bad example of a teaching tool. It only conveys the message you intend to a reader who is already informed on the subject.
Someone who isn’t already aware of the creationism-in-schools arguments would not understand at all how this is relevant. Someone who doesn’t already realize that their “compromises” are fake would not understand the analogy you’re attempting.
I’m not saying it’s a bad comic, mind you. The joke is funny (if old). It’s only a bad way of explaining a new concept.
April 6th, 2009 at 11:45 am
Finally, a contest for the stick figure artists of the world!
Sounds like a good idea for a book showing all the finalists. I’ll bet there are quite a few good entries.
Clear skies, Alan
April 6th, 2009 at 11:53 am
Is this for U.S. citizens only? It says “contest is open to anyone who wants to enter with the exception of contest judges and their families”, but it looks all U.S.-ish (fields for “City” and “State”, but nothing about “Country”).
Thanks for any info.
April 6th, 2009 at 11:55 am
Ooh! I can actually do this.
April 6th, 2009 at 11:57 am
Another contest where the entrance requirement is to give up the rights to your work.
April 6th, 2009 at 12:07 pm
“Another contest where the entrance requirement is to give up the rights to your work.”
Yes, and I’m poised to make a bloody fortune off my stick figure drawings.
Given they want to use the winner in an educational campaign, I’m not surprised they want the rights to it. I guess folks are simply free to market their artwork elsewhere if they want.
Clear skies, Alan
April 6th, 2009 at 12:12 pm
That sounds more like realpolitik than Creationism, though. Even if I can see where you’re coming from.
April 6th, 2009 at 12:12 pm
I seem to have been beaten to the punch in making the obligatory xkcd joke. Mine was going to be “so, have you filled out the shipping label to Randall Munroe yet, or are you waiting until the deadline out of respect?”
April 6th, 2009 at 12:29 pm
Did anyone else think the logo for Florida Citizens for Science looks like an enormous pair of (lopsided) breasts reaching for the stars?
April 6th, 2009 at 12:33 pm
I am also wondering whether this is for U.S. citizens only? I’d love to give it a try!
April 6th, 2009 at 12:50 pm
Rich Berlew can do a mean stick figure too!
April 6th, 2009 at 12:52 pm
It would be a good compromise if they had non-exclusive rights to use your cartoon. Then you could still publish it elsewhere and have the right to use it as well (as long as your other uses were had non-exclusive rights, of course).
Since they say they will not use it to make money, why can’t I put it on a t-shirt to make money
April 6th, 2009 at 1:19 pm
Is there a nastiness threshold? Seriously, I don’t think I can do one of these without massive nastiness happening in those comic panels. Small animals *might* be threatened during production.
April 6th, 2009 at 1:55 pm
Obligtory XKCD reference:
http://xkcd.com/258/
April 6th, 2009 at 2:38 pm
Ooooh …. I submitted the following:
PDF: http://filehost.revealedsingularity.net/transFormsComic.pdf
PNG: http://imagehost.revealedsingularity.net/ScienceComic-w1000.png
(Yeah, somewhat bad form to stick the stuff on an faux-cladogram, but it gets the idea across and its a comic). Perhaps it only implicitly “corrects the record”, but I was amused by the idea.
April 6th, 2009 at 2:39 pm
I told my kids about it and they immediately went to work on their comic. It’s probably more funny than educational, but I thought it was pretty clever! That I’m their mom has nothing to do with that, I’m sure.
April 6th, 2009 at 3:11 pm
i made one… but don’t feel like entering, link below if you want to use mine.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v207/evirus/microevolution.jpg
April 6th, 2009 at 3:17 pm
Sounds like a fun contest, but my artistic ability impedes me from even drawing stickmen.
Seeing as how creationist really make no compromises the last panel should probably be more along the lines of: “You’re right, I meant to say you owe me 13,650 pesos… It’s science!!”
April 6th, 2009 at 4:09 pm
[...] in for the Florida Citizens for Science Stick Science cartoon contest. The Bad Astronomer himself has now posted about it, and so has another one of our judges Kate [...]
April 6th, 2009 at 4:35 pm
Mine is up. But I also don’t think I will submit, it isn’t very humorous.
here
and if I messed up the coding, here is the URL:
http://in-terra-veritas.blogspot.com/2009/04/stick-figure-meme.html
April 6th, 2009 at 6:02 pm
Hey, Phil, you owe me $1,000…
April 6th, 2009 at 6:35 pm
I don’t see your little stick figure graphic as being representative of creationists. Instead, I see it as being representative of government. Except for the fact that the third pane would not be so kind to the individual. It would be more along the lines of “Let’s compromise. Give me what I asked for or die.” Bow down and obey your god, the government.
April 6th, 2009 at 6:47 pm
Umm… astronut, you do realize that in the U.S. the government is of, by, and for the people…
April 6th, 2009 at 7:33 pm
[...] stick figures April 6, 2009 — Richard Stick figure science contest!: [Via Bad Astronomy] Can you draw? Yeah, me neither. But don’t let that stop you from [...]
April 6th, 2009 at 9:47 pm
That was a quote from Lincoln. You really believe that to be the case? You ought to freshen up on current events and take notice of the State intruding into your freedoms. Okay, enough of my Thomas Jefferson, classical liberal, influenced thinking … back to something related to science.
April 6th, 2009 at 11:38 pm
Except for the halos, that looks more like the recording industry than creationists. They’re always trying to fund their next welfare bureaucracy. Philip Kahn’s got the creationists nailed. To their crosses. Bryan, what do your dancing men spell out?
April 7th, 2009 at 10:10 am
Here’s my entry.
http://www.geocities.com/figlet1168/ContestEntryRM.pdf
April 7th, 2009 at 12:17 pm
I submitted one with the intent of doing several, then noticed they had a “one per member” clause. Dammit.
http://treelobsters.blogspot.com/2009/04/stick-science-contest-entry.html
April 7th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
First prize includes an autographed copy of Death From the Skies? Count me in! Now, where’d I leave my crayons?
April 7th, 2009 at 1:56 pm
zaardvark:
From http://www.flascience.org/wp/?p=990
April 7th, 2009 at 7:31 pm
Well, they did reject my comic because it argued against the bible and faith. A pity, because if they wish to promote science education, that’s exactly the kind of oppsition they’ll get. It’s only the people that view certain holy books as inerrant that have a problem with good science education. I have yet to meet an anti-evolution agnostic.
April 8th, 2009 at 7:46 am
[...] Don’t worry if you can’t draw—“All entries must be drawn using stick figures.” (HT: Bad Astronomy) [...]
April 8th, 2009 at 1:07 pm
[...] word from Brandon Haught at Florida Citizens for Science that maybe I wasn’t perfectly clear when I announced the Stick Figure Science contest. It’s not meant to bash religion, but to point out a single flaw in some antiscience argument [...]
April 15th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
[...] forget to send in your drawings to the Stick Figure Science contest! And remember the point is not to bash religion but to counter the arguments of anti-evolutionists. [...]