USA Science & Engineering Festival
Kavli Science Video Contest

in collaboration with

K-12 Students: Tell us why Science is Cool!
Enter now for the USA Science & Engineering Festival Kavli Science Video Contest!
Have your video screened on the National Mall, win prize money and possibly even a trip to the Expo in Washington D.C.!

Do you think Science is cool? Do you want to share your passion for science with others? Here is your chance to inspire thousands of people to be more curious, and to care about science & engineering the way you do: create a short video that explores the question “Why is Science Cool?”

We are seeking videos that are creative, surprising, and “contagious” in terms of spreading your enthusiasm about science to others. Videos might explore a scientific concept, show us the wonders of nature, give us a glimpse into the future, show us what scientific discovery has done for us in the past or will do for us in the future, introduce us to a great scientist or engineer, tell us why you think science is so cool or simply show us why we should care about science and/or engineering.

Sponsored by The Kavli Foundation and conducted in partnership with SciVee, the contest opens on April 1, 2010 and closes on August 31, 2010.

Prizes 1st prize: $1,000*; plus $500 electronics gift certificate OR HD Camcorder (valued up to $500); plus student license for Wolfram Mathematica visualization and computational software; plus a travel stipend to travel to Washington DC for the Expo OR 2 tickets to a VIP event to meet the Mythbusters!** 2nd prize: $500*, plus $250 electronics gift certificate, plus Adobe Premiere video editing software 3rd prize: $250*, plus $125 electronics gift certificate People’s Choice Award: $250* In addition, the winning videos will be screened during the USA Science & Engineering Festival Expo on the National Mall and at other key Festival events. *All prize money to go towards science education at the students’ school, home school network, after-school program, science club or any other organization the student is representing for the purpose of this contest. The Kavli Foundation will present the winner(s) with their award check during a ceremony as part of the USA Science & Engineering Festival Expo on the National Mall on October 23 and 24, 2010). HD Camcorder and/or gift certificate(s) go directly to the student, or student team. **Amount of travel stipend will vary based on location of the winner(s). If winner is from DC area, they will get two tickets to a VIP event to meet the Mythbusters in lieu of the travel stipend.

Judging/People's Choice Award

A panel of distinguished judges will select the most outstanding videos to receive 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd prize. In addition, the People’s Choice Award will be voted on by the public. Voting for the People’s Choice award is easy. Go to the USA Science & Engineering Festival Student Video Contest site at http://www.scivee.tv/node/16370. Make sure you are registered and logged into the SciVee site and then view the videos. Click the star rating you prefer under each video that you review. A “Thank You for Voting” notice will appear and your vote will be recorded toward the total for the People’s choice award. You may only vote once for each video.

The requirements are that the video:

• be made for educational purposes

• be in .mov or .wmv digital video format

• be more than 30 seconds and less than 90 seconds long

• be suitable for public display

• does not violate copyright law (all material must be your original work)

• is all done by you, the student, or by a team of students – yes, we are encouraging team videos!

How to enter for the Kavli Science Video Contest:

1. Go to http://www.scivee.tv/uploadvideo and login to Scivee. You will need to register if you're not already a SciVee user.
   
2. Follow the video upload process:
   Mark your entry as a "video only."
   Give your video’s title, a short description, and list its authors/producers
   Choose the appropriate audience and subject areas.
3. When asked to enter “tags”, make sure you put USASEF. You may also enter other tags.
4. Click “finish” to upload your video.
5. Then come back to this page to submit your registration form (at the bottom of this page). On the registration form, you will be asked to enter the link to your video on SciVee, and the name of your file. You MUST submit a registration form through the USA Science & Engineering Festival website to enter for the contest.
   
6. Your registration form and video file must be submitted no later than 11:59pm EST on August 31, 2010.

For questions regarding the contest, please contact Stacy Jannis at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

For technical issues please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Click here to review the OFFICIAL RULES

Access free resources to create your video: free /images, free music...

Frequently Asked Questions:

Can we submit more than one entry from our school?
Yes! we are encouraging teachers to use the contest as a classroom project.

Can we submit our entry as a team?
Yes! Team projects are fun, and they encourage team building and leadership skills.

Who is eligible?
K-12 students who are enrolled in public, private, and home schools. You can also submit your entry from a non-profit organization like a youth club , science club, after-school club, or summer program. The contest is for USA students, mainly, but we will accept and encourage your submission if you are a K-12 student living in a different country other than the US. Please produce your video in English, or else provide translation or subtitles.

What does it mean that all the work must be original, no copyright law violation? Can we use recorded music? A picture of Einstein?
We encourage originality, shooting original video, and using educational photo, video, audio source material that is in the public domain or else cleared for educational use. See our source list above for ideas, or contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it if you have any more questions!

Free Resources for Your Science Video

Video clip and image sources:

http://mynasa1.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/diypodcast/index.html
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/hd/HDGalleryCollection_archive_1.html
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/index.html
http://www.fws.gov/digitalmedia
http://photogallery.nrcs.usda.gov/Index.asp
http://visualsonline.cancer.gov/
http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/collections.html
http://www.usa.gov/Topics/Graphics.shtml

Royalty free music listings

http://www.seabreezecomputers.com/tips/freemusic.htm