Madison Physics & Astronomy: Video Contest

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Here in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at James Madison University, we are excited by new opportunities to learn and explore new physics phenomena. We want to get you excited as well, so we are asking you to create a video to compete for cash prizes for you and your school. Here's how it works: your team creates an original video which demonstrates and explains something related to physics. You submit it to us for judging (details below) and the top 5 teams will be invited to JMU for an awards presentation. All finalists will receive a monetary prize.

Eligibility

This contest is open to all high school students. You are free to work individually or in teams of up to 5 people. If more than five people contribute to a project, only 5 will be eligible to receive prize money and attend the awards ceremony. In order for an entry to be accepted, all standard lab safety practice must be employed. Furthermore, videos must be free of objectionable content.

Submission

To submit an entry in this contest, a video less than 3 minutes in length must be emailed to Scott Paulson. Alternatively, videos can be placed in a dropbox account. Email Scott for instructions for dropbox submissions. The first 3 seconds of the video must be a title screen which includes the text JMU 2012 PHYSICS VIDEO CONTEST an appropriate screen is downloadable in PDF format here. The deadline for submissions is 9:00 a.m. EST May 14, 2012. All standard video formats will be accepted. Upon receipt, your video will be reviewed to ensure it meets guidelines and an "official entry" will be posted (by JMU Physics and Astronomy) to youtube and JMUtube . You will receive email notification of your videos acceptance and the links to your entry. In addition to the video your email should be titled "Video Contest" and must include the following information:

In addition to the video your email should be titled "Video Contest" and must include the following information:

Title of video
Name(s) of entrant(s) (up to 5)
School
Faculty Sponsor

Judging

Videos will be judged by a panel of three JMU physics professors and one physics student. Videos will be scored in 4 categories:

Creativity- here we are looking for an unusual phenomenon or a new twist on a classic. A straightforward explanation of a block sliding down an inclined plane wouldn't fare too well here.
Educational value- make sure you don't spend all of your effort on a great demonstration without telling us how it works. A group of your peers should learn some physics watching your video. The better job you do explaining your effect, the better your score here. Remember your target audience should be a group of your classmates
"Wow factor"- This is an overall impression of how entertaining, interesting, shocking, or inspiring your video is. A clear explanation of an interesting phenomenon shouldn't be explained in monotone by a student at a chalkboard. Quality of editing and audio, while not of highest important will impact your score here.
Popularity - spread the word about the contest and your video. The number of hits on the youtube site for your video will determine your score in this section.

Prizes

Prizes will be awarded to the top 5 videos as follows:

1^st Prize: $500 divided among the team members, and $300 for the host class to use on physics educational materials.
2^ndPrize: $300 divided among the team members, and $200 for the host class to use on physics educational materials.
3^rd Prize: $100 divided among the team members, and $100 for the host class to use on physics educational materials.
Honorable Mention (2 prizes) $50 each to be divided among the team members.

Winning team members (and parents) will be invited to an awards banquet where all of the winning videos will be screened. The banquet will take place on JMUs campus on Saturday, May 26. While here there will be an opportunity for interested students to learn more about the physics program and research going on at JMU.

FAQ For Students

Are you serious about the laboratory safety part? Very. Any video which violates lab safety rules, common sense, or appears to have unethical use of live subjects will not be accepted for the competition.

What is an appropriate topic for my video? Anything in which you can find interesting physics. It can be a further explanation of something you've learned in class, or it could be something beyond the scope of your class. Any branch of physics is fair game, as long as you can explain what is happening to the target audience.

Who owns the rights to my video? By submitting a video in this contest, you grant JMU physics and astronomy all rights to the video, including use in marketing and advertising materials. You are still free to use the material for your own purposes.

Do you have any helpful tips? Yes! I'm glad you asked. Take advantage of resources that are out there. There are many free software programs that can be used to help demonstrate physics concepts in entertaining and educational ways.

One of our favorites is Tracker . Tracker can be used to extract position of an object in a video and export the data in a spreadsheet for motion analysis. Here is a great example of using Tracker to model phyics.

Another nice piece of freeware is Audacity which can be used to analyze sound waves. Remember those annoying vuvuzelas from the world cup a few years ago? Here is a nice demonstration using software like audacity to filter out a vuvuzela, and teaching some good physics along the way.

Another tip - not all of the effort has to be on the tape. Don't be afraid to spend some time setting up the video if there's a worthwile payoff. Here we see a nice demonstration of critical mass and a chain reaction. As they say in their video, 3 hours of work for 10 great seconds of video. But we agree that it was worth it!

Finally, we have 4 criteria for judging, but at the end of the day, we're physics professors. Incorrect physics is a big strike against you. Get the physics right! And try to make it educational. Show it to your little brother. Did he learn something watching it? If so, you're probably on the right track.

FAQ For Teachers

What are the benefits to my students? This contest can be used to promote 21st century skills by creating cross discipline teams of physics student and tech/media student to create and enter a video project. Physics student would be in charge of science content and materials and media student in charge of editing and appearance.

How can I fit this into my curriculum? The short answer is any way that makes sense for you. We have a handful of suggestions depending on your needs:

Create teams of physics students - each team must pick a concept from the course to illustrate in their video. This becomes a course long project. Devote as little or as much class time as you choose
Create an after school club to generate interest and energy in the video competition and your physics course.
Build it in - devote a day in class every two weeks or so for video project work.
Extra credit on their own time - give extra credit to anyone who submits a video project.