Do you understand how Solar Cells work? Can you explain it to a 10 year old?

Show us! We CHALLENGE you to explain how a solar cell works by creating a short video. The videos will be viewed by Durham middle school students and judged by a panel of professional science communicators at the Nature Research Center, NC Museum of Natural Sciences. 

The Solar Cell Challenge is NCSSM's contribution to the NC Science Festival and is in the spirit of 'The Flame Challenge' (see below) - which means that you must be creative and engaging, while at the same time offering scientific accuracy and depth of understanding accessible to young minds. For more info on the Flame Challenge see http://www.centerforcommunicatingscience.org/the-flame-challenge-2/

What are the prizes? 

First Place - Video screening in the Daily Planet; Video featured on the NCSSM home page and Science home page; Mendocino motor kit http://wn.com/mendocino_motor

Second and Third Place -  Video screening in the Daily Planet; Video linked to NCSSM home page and Science home page.

Fourth and Fifth Place - Video linked to NCSSM home page and Science home page.

All Participants - Great experience in science communication and the opportunity to inspire budding scientists.

RULES:

1. Video must be no longer than 3 minutes total (short videos are encouraged).

2. Video must be your original work.

3. Video may be made by an individual or teams of up to 5 NCSSM students.

4. Any copied images or music must be attributed. You are encouraged to use Creative Commons.

5. Videos with any profanity or inappropriate graphic images will be disqualified.

6. Creators will post their video to YouTube titled in the followng format: Solar Cell Challenge/NCSSM/ [video name]

7. Submit the url from YouTube and the creator names to the Challenge https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dFI1LU1KalFQcHpnb09...

8. Submission Deadline Feb 25th, 2013

Videos will be judged in March by a panel of celebrity judges led by Brian Malow, Curator of the SECU Daily Planet http://naturalsciences.org/nature-research-center/brian-malow

Winners will be announced in April during the NC Science Festival

The winning videos will be screened in the Daily Planet during the NC Science Festival - "The centerpiece of the Nature Research Center is the SECU Daily Planet, an immersive, three-story, high-definition, multimedia space that presents spectacular scenes from nature and is the site of live programming on breaking science news." http://naturalsciences.org/nature-research-center/daily-planet

Technical support (video cameras, video editing) will be provided by LitCom, SmartBar.

Students in the RecTec course will be composing 3 min musical pieces that can be used for soundtrack.

Questions? contact Dr. Sheck or Amy Xu