10/22/2024 Update:
We’re already over halfway through the 2024 Maine STEM Film Challenge season!
With November right around the corner, it’s getting closer and closer to the film submission deadline (Nov. 18) for the MSFC! We hope teams are having a great time designing their films and hopefully learning more about their chose STEM topic along the way.
In preparation for the final stretch, we will be hosting three Zoom webinars to go over what the submission process looks like – great for new teams to attend. Here are the dates, times, and registration links:
October 29th, 2024 at 3:00pm (registration link)
October 31st, 2024 at 4:00pm (registration link)
November 5th, 2024 at 11:00am (registration link)
More dates may be added depending on demand. The first half of these sessions will cover challenge resources, submission process, and timeline clarification. After that, the webinar will be open for any & all questions you and your team may have.
Here are the key dates for the upcoming season:
- November 11th, 2024 – Registration & topic submission deadline
- November 18th, 2024 – Final projects due
- December 7th, 2024 – Film Festival @ University of Southern Maine, Portland & Award Celebration, available via livestream
Have questions or interested in submitting a film? Send all inquiries to msfc@maine.edu
We hope your fall semester is going well, and good luck!
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Are you interested in receiving updates & info about the challenge? If you’d like to stay in the loop, please pre-register! This lets us know that you’re interested in participating, and adds you to our correspondence list. Pre-registration is not a commitment to submit a film, it just signs you up receive challenge updates, links to resources, and invitations to webinars!
Join the STEM Outreach program at the University of Southern Maine for the 4th annual Maine STEM Film Challenge! This program will have students in the K-12, as well as college, making, editing, and sharing their videos!
There will be awards for best in age; and best overall. Depending on the number of entries, there will be more as well.
Teams can be from 1 to 10 members in size, and can be from a school; a family; a homeschool group, or anything in-between.
Of course for the program, all entries must be done by the students and they must be shareable with the MSFC.
Video submissions are due November 18th, 2024 – this is when team registration is due as well.
The Maine STEM Film Festival and Awards will be held December 7th, 2024 at the USM-Portland Campus. This is a great opportunity to celebrate the accomplishments made by the film challenge teams – but not required to attend. We have teams from all over the state of Maine compete.
What is STEM?
Q: What are the STEM Fields that I could do a film about? A: The field has No Limits!
Well, almost. It has to be related to STEM and it can’t be a skit or an extension of a local science project you did (like growing beans in class). But you can do a film on the way beans germinate, sprout, and grow. Facts folks, facts.
To remind everyone, STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. In our case, we are also asking you to incorporate ART, so you may see the acronym STEAM as well.
Here are a FEW of the possible variations available. PLEASE, films must be generic enough that your average youth or adult can understand what you are talking about. It is on YOU to provide the media that can transition people to a point of awareness. Also we expect grade appropriate videos and skill demonstration, so a 2nd grade team won’t be judged the same as a college team. Same general idea, but skill assessment will be different.
“Our Friend the Beaver” may be exactly as correct as “Understanding the Impact of the American Beaver on Ecological Development of Wildlife Parks” Depending on your age and intent.
There is also a LOT of overlap. A person studying genetically modified corn is likely studying agriculture, chemistry, biology, microbiology, molecular physics, and who knows what else.
Resources
DISCLAIMER:
None of these resources have been checked, confirmed, etc. Check them out for yourselves. These were mostly the result of Googling the web and reporting back the results. We use Pinnacle Studio Ultimate from Corel, but that is a paid for software package. If you know of some great resources, email msfc@maine.edu and put “MSFC Resources” in the subject line.
NOTE: Any links are just recommendations from resources we found online, unless they say they are made by us.