Recent News

(Originally published by the USA Science & Engineering Festival)

April 15, 2010

Science is cool and The Kavli Foundation is challenging K-12 students across the nation to explain why.

The first ever USA Science & Engineering Festival will be held October 10-24, 2010 in Washington, DC. This two-week celebration of science based in the nation’s capital, includes events ranging from student brown bag lunches with Nobel Laureates to a two-day Science Expo featuring close to 500 science and engineering organizations.

Students nationwide are invited to submit entries for the video contest, with cash awards and prizes for the top entries. The best videos will be shown at the Festival’s Expo on October 23-24, 2010, where hundreds of thousands of science fans are expected to gather on D.C.’s National Mall. The first place winner will also receive a travel stipend to attend the Expo. Rules and a submission form can be found here.

USA Science & Engineering Festival Kavli Science Video Contest

• Who Can Enter – Individual students or groups from K-12 schools, home school networks, after-school programs, science clubs or any other organization the student is representing for the purpose of the Kavli Science Video Contest. All prize monies must go to an educational institution rather than an individual student.
• Types of Videos Eligible - Videos should explain Why Science is Cool and may explore a scientific concept, provide a glimpse into the future or show us what scientific discovery has done for us in the past, or whatever else the inspires the entrant. USA Science & Engineering Festival videos must be 30-90 seconds in length, educational and suitable for general public screening.
• Selection of Winners - Winning videos will be chosen by a distinguished panel of judges that includes Brian Schwartz, founder of Science & the Arts at the City University of New York Graduate Center and Sheri Potter, a founder of the Coalition on Public Understanding of Science (COPUS).

Following in the footsteps of American Idol, America can vote on a People’s Choice Kavli Science Video Award through SciVee, a Web 2.0 site which helps scientists share their work with the general public.

• Deadlines and Prizes – The contest is open now and all entries must be submitted before midnight on July 15, 2010. First prize is $1,000 plus a $500 electronics gift certificate or HD Camcorder (valued up to $500) and a travel stipend to travel to Washington DC for the Expo. Second prize is $500, plus a $250 electronics gift certificate, third prize is $250, plus a $125 electronics gift certificate. The People’s Choice Award prize is $250.
• Reward for Multiple Entries - Organizations from the DC area that submit a minimum of 10 contest entries are eligible to apply for a bus grant. The grant can be used towards bussing a group of up to 50 students, teachers and family members to the USA Science and Engineering Festival Expo on October 23 or 24^th.

The USA Science & Engineering Festival is hosted by Lockheed Martin and sponsors include Life Technologies Foundation, Clean Technology and Sustainability Industries Organization (CTSI), Larry and Diane Bock, ResMed Foundation, Farrell Family Foundation, Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Northrop Grumman Corporation, Agilent Technologies, Amgen, Celgene Corporation, The Dow Chemical Company, National Institutes of Health, Illumina, The Kavli Foundation, Intel Corporation, You CAN Do the Rubik's Cube, Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc., Genentech Inc., MedImmune, Sandia National Laboratories, Project Lead The Way (PLTW), K&L Gates, Baxter International, NuVasive Inc., FEI Company, Case Western Reserve University, Biogen Idec Foundation, LifeStraw®, Microsoft Corporation, Silicon Valley Bank, Bechtel Corporation, SpaceX, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory and Research in Motion.

Current media partners include Popular Science and Science Illustrated, New Scientist, EE Times Group, SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, POPULAR MECHANICS, ScienceBlogs, Technology Review published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Discovery Communications, Forbes Wolfe Emerging Tech Report, Career Communications Group, FAMILY Magazine, Sigma Xi, and SciVee, Inc.