Make the Constitution come alive with StudentCam, C-SPAN’s annual video documentary competition!

This national contest invites all middle school students (grades 6-8) and high school students (grades 9-12) to create a 5-7 minute documentary, based on the theme:

 

“THE CONSTITUTION & YOU”

Choose a provision of the U.S. Constitution and create a video illustrating why it’s important to you.

 

Competition Guidelines:

• Students may compete individually, or in teams of either 2 or 3 members.
• Documentaries must contain some supporting C-SPAN video.
• Entries must thoroughly explore a variety of viewpoints related to their chosen topic.
• Students must submit their entry form and video by January 18, 2018.

C-SPAN awards a total of $100,000 in cash prizes! Students compete for a chance to win one of 150 prizes. Teachers also have the opportunity to win one of 53 Faculty Advisor prizes.

Please visit our website for teacher tips, sample lessons and rubrics, and short video tutorials to guide you through the process of creating a short documentary. You will also find a complete list of rules and requirements, as well as all past winning videos at www.studentcam.org.

 

Teachers, if you would like to receive a FREE printed version of our 18″x 12″ poster to display in your classroom, please email us with your preferred postal address and the number of posters you would like for us to send.

• 2018 StudentCam Poster (.PDF)

 

BONUS: “Behind the Scenes” Photo Contest

In addition to the $100,000 in cash prizes that will be awarded to the winning documentaries, C-SPAN is asking students to take us “Behind the Scenes” of their documentary for a chance to win one of five $100 cash prizes. Requirements include:

• Share a photograph from the production of your StudentCam documentary on social media.
• Post to your Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or Snapchat account - upload your photo, tell us about it, and include the hashtag #StudentCam2018.
• Send an attached screengrab of your social media post along with the names of all team members and the name of your school to:
• Must submit by the main competition deadline on Thursday, January 18, 2018. Five $100 prizes to be awarded in March 2018. To be eligible, students must also enter a documentary in StudentCam 2018 competition but the documentary does not have to be one of the winning videos in order to win a prize in the “Behind the Scenes” contest.
• Limit 1 eligible photograph per team/documentary.

 

We are excited to announce the launch of our STEAM Challenge! The STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, math) Challenge is a competition that kids in preschool-8th grade can participate in. What’s great is there is no travel or expensive materials needed. Students create their projects and teachers, staff, or administrators submit their projects to be evaluated by real STEAM professionals. We will pick winners from the different age groups to receive STEAM prizes for their schools or organizations. Many schools and organizations are completing the challenges during class, during an enrichment program or club like robotics, or during after-school programming. You can visit the challenge page of our website at www.rozzylearningcompany.com/steam-challenge to learn more and sign your school up. You can also check out our flyer on the program and feel free to share it with your colleagues. You can use the coupon code rlc2017 to receive a discount on entries. Feel free to email me at or call 314-272-2560 if you have questions about participating.

“Requiem for Steam: The Railroad Photographs of David Plowden” will be on display September 1 - December 9. The exhibit features 30 meticulously crafted black and white photographs all taken by David Plowden. Plowden is widely acknowledged as one of America’s great landscape and industrial photographers. Plowden first pointed a camera, his mother’s box Brownie camera, down a railroad track in 1943 when he was eleven years old. For the next sixteen years Plowden photographed steam locomotives at every opportunity. He earned a degree in economics from Yale University with the hopes of working in railroad management, spending a year as an assistant to the trainmaster on the Great Northern Railway in Minnesota. At work, he learned railroading and rode trains, then used his days off to photograph some of the GN’s last steam operations. He worked as an apprentice to photographer O. Winston Link and studied with Minor White and Nathan Lyons before striking off on his own. In 1959-60, he pursued the end of steam on the Canadian Pacific Railway, having been granted open access to the entire system. His devotion took him to the most far-flung reaches of the CPR’s Atlantic Region where he quite literally bore witness to some of the last breaths of steam on North American mainlines. The photographs in “Requiem for Steam” preserve the living beauty of his beloved locomotives while continuing to show the railroad’s presence in the ever-changing American landscape.The Center for Railroad Photography & Art (www.railphoto-art.org), David Plowden, and the Temple Railroad & Heritage Museum have collaborated to present this exhibition. Photo Caption: Central Vermont Railway Extra 464 North Meets Extra 472 South, Amherst, MA 1954. Photograph copyright David Plowden, courtesy of the Center for Railroad Photography & Art