Garden City student's 'creature' wins competition
Ryann Henry, a sophomore at Garden City High School, is the K-12 winner of the Future Engineers Foundation's Future Creatures Challenge. Credit: Garden City School District
A Garden City High School student is the winner of a contest that asked children to predict how vertebrate animals might look in the future due to the long-term effects of climate change.
Ryann Henry, a sophomore, took the top spot nationwide in the Future Engineers Foundation's Future Creatures Challenge, which received dozens of submissions. Participants provided two illustrations — one of their animal in its present habitat and one as an adapted animal in its predicted future habitat — and a short essay explaining their drawings.
Henry's submission was created using pencils and envisioned a "fossavoda," which was based on the fossa, a catlike carnivorous mammal found in Madagascar. Her "fossavoda" had webbed feet to help propel it through water and sensitive whiskers like a catfish to help it find food.
"I feel it's a very important issue that's going on right now," Henry, 15, said of climate change. "People are aware of it, but I think more needs to be done."
For winning, Henry received a Future Engineers T-shirt and an Amazon gift card. In addition, an endangered animal will be adopted on her behalf by the World Wildlife Fund.
Henry is a member of her school's Art Club, Italian Club and H.O.P.E. (Hands On Protecting the Environment) Club. She also studies dance at the Lynch School of Ballet in Huntington.
Michael Ebert is an education researcher and has worked for Newsday in various capacities since 2003. He was part of an 11-person team named 2008 Pulitzer Prize finalists for investigative coverage of the LIRR's platform safety issues.
