Bartley student receives national drawing contest award

Izzy Lowe receiv second place in the 2014 North American Young Generation in Nuclear drawing contest

Embarrassed - that's how Bartley fourth grade student Izzy Lowe described feeling when Ameren Missouri employees presented her with a national drawing contest award.

She said she was happy to get second place for her drawing but embarrassed at the attention.

Lowe received second place in the 2014 North American Young Generation in Nuclear (NAYGN) National Drawing Contest. She used colored pencils, markers and crayons for her drawing of the CEC that was awarded second place.

Lowe's mother said her daughter draws often. Lowe said she wants to do something with art when she grows up. Recently, she said she has started sketching.

"I wanted to draw more realistically," Lowe said.

Ameren Missouri employees presented Lowe with a certificate and prizes in front of her class Friday.

Along with her certificate, Lowe received a science kit, NAYGN t-shirt featuring her drawing, calendar featuring her drawing, a pizza party for her class and science books donated to her school's library in her name.

Ameren Missouri Callaway Energy Center (CEC) employees visited fourth and fifth grade students at Bartley and Bush Elementary in the fall. They answered questions about nuclear power and gave students information about the drawing contest.

Ray Beezley, engineer at the Callaway Energy Center, was one of the presenters in the fall and he helped present Lowe with her prizes.

"It's good to educate people on the benefits of nuclear power," Beezley said. "It allows us to be engaged in the community."

For the contest, students submitted drawings of what they learned during their presentation about nuclear power. More than 100 fourth and fifth graders from Bush and Bartley entered the drawing contest. Of those, eight were selected and sent to NAYGN's national competition. On the national level, drawings were posted online and winners were selected from how many votes they received.

After presenting Lowe with her award and giving the class pizza, Beezley had a group of students participate in a dance to show how nuclear power works. One student's dance moves represented neutrons, one was steam, one spun like a turbine, one was a generator, one was the transmission lines and the final dancer pretended to do activities that require electricity.

Beezley also showed the students a model that teaches how nuclear power works.