Christchurch students take away the prizes in the Eureka! Video Awards

The inaugural Eureka! Video Awards proved to be a great success for students from Christ's College, Christchurch and Cobham Intermediate, also Christchurch.

One of our Judges, Weibke Finkler who teaches film making at the Otago University School of Science Communication was so impressed by the quality of the top two entries that she said they showed more competence in some areas than first attempts she has seen from post-grad students at the film school.

Jim Greenhough, of Execam and the Eureka! programme film maker, said "all four videos demonstrated really good technical production quality, imaginative use of transitions, bullet points and graphics (though they do need to check their spelling)".

Year 12 Christs College student, Fawzan Sugarwala, produced a video about base isolation technology which the Judges said was "a great illustration of the application of science". 

Fawzan scored 5.8 out of a possible 8 and earned himself a merit grading. He used the Canterbury earthquakes of 2010 and 2011 as the platform for his exploration of what base isolation can do to mitigate the worst impacts of shaking on buildings.

Fawzan's production was best video in the Years 11-13 category and as a result he wins the Category prize of $1000. A further $1000 is awarded to his school for the purchase of video making equipment or software.

Jack Prebble is a year 8 student at Cobham Intermediate. His video, Technology in the Community - Linc-Ed about an on-line system for teacher/parent communication, showed how technology can significantly improve parent's knowledge about their children's academic progress. 

The judges commented that his video demonstrated simple and well executed film making and included well-timed good interviews.

Jack scored 5.2 out of 8 and took out the Years 7-8 Category. He also won $1000 for his effort with another $1000 going to his school for purchase of film/video making equipment or software.

No prize was awarded this year for the Years 9-10 Category.

The Eureka! Video Awards were supported by Weta Digital this year. Ken Museth, Weta's Head of Simulation Research and Development and Luca Fascione, Senior Head of Technology and Research joined Weibke Finkler, Jim Greenhough, Emily Hall, Otago Science Teaching Coordinator and Steve Broni, the Director of the Otago University School of Science Communication, as our Judges.