With over 130 institutions worldwide using NOAA’s Science On a Sphere® (SOS), the platform provides unparalleled opportunities for global data visualization. However, teachers and students have not taken full advantage of this resource. To help close this gap, NOAA's Office of Education and NOAA Research launched a student contest for the 2017 Science On a Sphere Users Collaborative Network Workshop at the Detroit Zoo on April 25–27, 2017.