Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences coordinates international online video competition “ScienceClip” (press release)

Science and technology should be both fun and engaging topics, and the use of creative teaching elements is one way to make this goal a reality. With CREATIONS, a collaborative project funded by the EU which promotes creative teaching in science and technology, sixteen partners from ten European countries have come together in pursuit of this goal. The project, which began two years ago, strives to inspire future scientists across Europe to engage with these challenging topics and, at the same time, strengthen their higher level communication skills. One way of accomplishing this is an online video competition, which project partners have developed to give young people in European schools an outlet to create videos on a scientific topic of their choosing. “We’re convinced that this approach will spark more interest in science and technology among young people than conventional teaching approaches”, says Alexander Gerber, Professor of Science Communication at Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences.

The international video competition is coordinated by the Faculty of Technology and Bionics of Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences, one of two German partners in CREATIONS, together with the University of Bayreuth. Participants are divided into three age groups – 11 to 13, 14 to 16 and 17 to 19 years old – and can submit videos or animations individually or as a team. A distinguished jury will decide on the winners, judging each submission according to its creativity, originality, visual appeal as well as amount and quality of scientific content. “We’re eager to see the creative and artistic approaches of young people, as their take on the natural sciences and engineering is often vastly different than educational systems expect,” says Professor Gerber. Jury members will have to be a bit patient, though, as videos can be submitted online through June 1, 2018.

Following a tiered selection process, six winners will be announced on September 16, 2018: one from each age group, for two genre categories as well as a grand prize winner. The prize ceremony is planned for December 2018. The grand prize will be a trip to fellow project partner CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, in Geneva, Switzerland.