Today's students are tomorrow's voters. Getting teenagers deeply involved in protecting and repairing the environment is crucial. But what's the best way to get messages about green living and environmental protection across to students who are preoccupied with dozens of other things?
Put the tools of expression in their hands.
Again this year, the Bayer Corporation has partnered with
Pittsburgh Filmmakers and the
Carnegie Science Center's SciTech Initiative to sponsor the C.A.U.S.E. Challenge Student Film Festival. Competitors write, direct and produce short films (the majority are approximately 5 minutes long) about environmental issues. C.A.U.S.E. stands for "Creating Awareness and Understanding of our Surrounding Environment."
"The submission deadline was at end of March," says Bayer's Katie Kirkpatrick, "but we started informing kids in August last year. I suspect some of the kids have worked on them since then."
Tomorrow (Earth Day, of course), the winners of this film competition will be announced at the festival, which takes place at the Carnegie Science Center. Participants will gather with their families and teachers to screen some of the films and find out which are award winners. The winning filmmakers will receive cash awards, a director's chair and $1500 for their school's science and media programs.
"Over the past six years, we've awarded over $60,000 in cash and prizes to students and to their schools," Kirkpatrick says. But beyond the cash prizes and educational resources for their schools, she says, the participants also get personally invested in the subjects they're exploring in their films.
"They're going to be 18 in just a couple of years. They're going to be voting," she says. Through projects like this, "they can be informed about issues, about science and how it affects them." And that may someday impact the way they run the world.
Sign up to receive Pop City every week.
Writer: Melissa Rayworth
Source: Katie Kirkpatrick, Bayer Foundation
Image
by Miemo via Flickr