Students from David Meisner’s 6th grade class and Pat Pietersen’s kindergarten class at Emily Dickinson Elementary School in Redmond have won $5,000 through the “Mission: 10,000 Rockets” contest, a national design contest sponsored by Microsoft through Artsonia,

The world’s largest online kids’ art museum, Artsonia, www.artsonia.com, will display the students’ artwork.

Emily Dickinson was the only school on the West Coast to receive this award.

The “Mission: 10,000 Rockets” contest encouraged students in grades K-12 to design a rocket of the future, acknowledging that “every great invention starts with a simple drawing,” according to Microsoft Bing director Stefan Weitz. See a video clip at:

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/3629983/mission_10_000_rockets/%C2%A0/

The $5,000 awarded to Emily Dickinson students will be given to the PTSA Art program to support art being made available to all students through the Dickinson/Explorer Community School PTSA.

Explorer is a Lake Washington School District Choice School which shares a campus with Dickinson.

Microsoft has also arranged to publish a book containing 10,000 of the rocket designs submitted from students around the country. The book will include photos of the three rocket design winners and photos from the students from the eight schools which were awarded the $5,000 prizes from Microsoft.

The eight schools will each receive one-eighth of the proceeds from the sale of the book to further support their art programs.

“This program is a wonderful way to get parents and family members more involved in art education,” said Kristi Nobles-Fisher, a PTSA parent volunteer at Dickinson.

The 27 entries submitted by the Emily Dickinson students for the “Mission: 10,000 Rockets” contest will be displayed at a school science fair held at Dickinson, 7040 208th Ave. NE in Redmond, from 7-8 p.m. Thursday, March 25.

Anyone can view the school gallery online at www.artsonia.com/schools/dickinson4.