2025 PACS National Chemistry Week Poem Contest

“The Hidden Life of Spices”

As part of the celebration of 2025 National Chemistry Week (NCW), the Princeton Section of the American Chemical Society (PACS) sponsored the 2025 NCW Illustrated Poem Contest for students in Kindergarten through 12th grade in schools within the Princeton Section. For this contest, students within the Section were invited to write and illustrate a poem that fit the 2025 NCW theme of “The Hidden Life of Spices”. Notices of the contest were sent to all qualifying schools.

We received entries in the K-2nd; 3rd-5th and 6th-8th grade categories.  Contest winners in each of these categories were selected by four Princeton Section members who volunteered to serve as judges. Selection criteria were:

- Artistic Merit - use of color, quality of drawing, design, and layout

- Poem Message - fun, motivational, inspiring about yearly theme

- Originality Creativity - unique, clever, and/or creative design and

- Neatness - free of spelling and grammatical errors

And the winners are!

K to 2nd Grade Category

-       First Place - Juliette Barker, Stuart Country Day School, “Spices of Color”

3rd to 5th Grade Category

-       First Place - Sara Malz Laugeni, Stuart Country Day School, “Hidden Life of Spices”

-       Second Place - Abigail Brookshire, Stuart Country Day School” Secrets of Spices

-       Honorable Mention - Lorelei Barker, Stuart Country Day School, “Cinnamon”

6th to 8th Grade Category

-       First Place - Luke Greenberger, Princeton Charter School, “The Secrets Of Spice”

The First Place Princeton Section’s category winners have advanced to the ACS National Illustrated Poem Contest. The National Award decisions will be announced in mid-November