Empire State STEM Learning Network launches

 “STEM You Can!” Video Contest

September 5, 2012 – The “STEM You Can!” video contest invites youth in grades 3-12 living in the nine-county Finger Lakes Region to create a short 3-minute video as part of a regional contest to let youth showcase their understanding of STEM – science, technology, engineering and math.  The goal of the contest is to challenge young people to understand why STEM is important to them and their future by engaging them in a creative media project that explores a STEM concept and demonstrate its impact on the world today and in the future. The contest, which launches this month, runs through March 1st, 2013.

               Participants may work as individuals or in teams of up to four, plus an adult mentor or advisor. Winning videos will be chosen on the basis of STEM content, clarity, and creativity. Prizes will be awarded for first, second and third place winners in three age-level categories and a recognition gala to showcase the winning videos is planned for late April 2013. Full details, including rules and entry forms, will be available online at http://www.empirestem-fl.org/.

Videos will be judged by a panel of business leaders and educators and the winning videos will be shown publicly via YouTube and an On-Demand channel on Time Warner Cable. Time Warner, Xerox, and Eastman Kodak Co. are among the partners sponsoring the contest sponsors. A complete list of STEM Hub Partners can be found at http://www.empirestem-fl.org/About%20Us/partners.

               “STEM is cool. It gives us astronauts, Mars rovers, biodiversity, and more,” explained Scott Knaub, regional vice president at Time Warner Cable, a co-sponsor of the initiative. “We want to advance the interdisciplinary teaching and learning of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. Educators and business leaders have identified STEM as a way to boost our region’s economic competitiveness. We know students have a passion for technology and science. We want them to articulate those passions in video so everyone ‘gets it’ about STEM.”