Hundreds of school kids gave judges plenty of food for thought when they entered a healthy eating contest organised by the University of Aberdeen’s Natural History Centre
S1 and S2s were challenged to design a placemat, featuring a plant that can be eaten, for an imaginary new restaurant.
A short description of the plant's benefits was also required for the Planet Plant contest devised to deliver aspects of Scotland's new Curriculum for Excellence by linking art, science and healthy living.
There were almost 450 entries from 14 Aberdeen City and Shire secondary schools and judges faced a tough job picking the winner and those for second and third place.
But it was the colourful creation of Rachel Webber from Cults Academy featuring pomegranates and their vitamin C levels that took the top slot.
Today she was being rewarded with a digital camera - donated by city store John Lewis – at a special ceremony taking place in the David Welch Winter Gardens at Aberdeen's Duthie Park.
Alan Findlay, Facility Manager at the Winter Gardens, was also presenting cameras to Melissa Thomson from Bankhead Academy - second with her pumpkin placemat and its vitamin A message - and Colin Sutherland from Torry Academy, who came third with his wild strawberries design and explanation of how they were used for arthritis and stomach upsets.
There were also six runners up who were each being given £25 vouchers for a local art shop. The six were Adam Harvey, Ria Paterson, Emma Murray and Danielle McAllister who are all from Oldmachar Academy; Yeugen Gozhenko from Torry Academy and Penny Stewart from St Margaret's School for Girls.
Dr Andy Schofield, the University's Academic Coordinator - Promoting Science, said: "We were absolutely thrilled with the level of entries we had for our Planet Plant competition and we had fantastic support from art and biology teachers.
"In fact the standard of entries was so high our poor judges had quite a task picking the winners and runners up!"
Judging was carried out by Charlie Hackett and Mark Duguid from Gray's School of Art and Dr Sue Bird from the University of Aberdeen Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health.
Marie Fish, Education Officer at the University's Natural History Centre, organised the competition. She added: "I am delighted to say that all of the Planet Plant entries, many giving fantastic nutritional advice, will be on display in the foyer of the David Welch Winter Gardens.
"These will be on show over the next three weeks to coincide with the Planet Plant sessions aimed at schoolchildren that have been organised by the University and taking place in the Winter Gardens."
The Planet Plant sessions are FREE and take place Monday to Friday from 10am to 4pm. Booking is not required and children, who must be accompanied by an adult, can just drop in.
The range of activities – which are fun, interactive sessions about plants - will change over the three weeks.
The first week is called Food Story and looks back at the hunter gatherers right through to what we have on our supermarket shelves. It will also examine what our ancestors ate, where our food comes from and where it goes.
A Wealth of Health runs from July 14 to 18 and examines whether we really are what we eat. It explores how plants keep us healthy, how our food plants grow and why they are so good for us.
Magical Medicines takes place during the last week. Visitors will be able to learn a little of the ancient wisdom of healing and sniff out the amazing aromas of some healing plants.
Planet Plant will be joined by a host of other partners during the next three weeks including Waste Aware Aberdeen, University of Aberdeen Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health, Scottish Co-op and Live Wire Productions.
For more information please see: http://www.abdn.ac.uk/nhc/holiday.shtml