Students can address unprecedented times in this year’s theme:”Explore the issue you most

want the president and new Congress to address in 2021″

Awarding 150 Student and 53 Teacher Prizes

WASHINGTON, Sept. 9, 2020 — Amidst the variety of new educational  settings, C-SPAN’s StudentCam competition provides a unique opportunity for enrichment learning. This year, the competition’s 17^th, we’re asking students to join the national conversation on the challenges our country is currently facing with the theme: “Explore the issue you most want the president and new Congress to address in 2021.” In cooperation with our cable and satellite television partners, C-SPAN invites all middle and high school students to enter the documentary contest, which awards $100,000 in cash prizes.  

The C-SPAN Education Foundation awards 150 student and 53 teacher prizes. The grand-prize winner will receive $5,000, and multiple cash prizes of $3,000, $1,500, $750 and $250 will be awarded to students in first, second and third places and honorable mention categories. 

“StudentCam provides our nation’s youth with a platform to voice their opinions and concerns, whether they are in the classroom or learning online,” said Craig McAndrew, Director, C-SPAN Education Relations. “Considering the global pandemic, current political climate, and other matters affecting the country, we hope to hear from students as they think critically about issues that are important to them.”

Competition Guidelines

• Middle school students (grades 6-8) and high school students (grades 9-12) may compete individually or in teams consisting of two or three members. Documentaries must be the original work of students; however, teachers may provide guidance and critiques.

§  All documentaries must include C-SPAN video clips that support the chosen topic and are used effectively within the documentary.
 

§  StudentCam documentaries should comprehensively represent a variety of viewpoints related to the chosen topic, including those that may oppose the filmmakers’ points of view.
 

§  Documentaries must be between 5 and 6 minutes in length.
 

§  Entries must include sources, either in the end credits or an emailed works cited list.

§  Video submissions and entry forms can be uploaded directly online at www.studentcam.org.

• Deadline for students to submit entries is midnight PST, Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021.

The documentaries will be judged by a panel of C-SPAN representatives. High school students will compete on a regional level, with the U.S. divided into three regions: West, Central and East. Middle school students will be judged on a national basis. The grand-prize winner with the best overall entry will be selected nationally from both middle and high school entries.

Winners will be announced in March 2021, with the top winning videos to air on C-SPAN in April 2021. Competition details are available at www.studentcam.org.

Students and teachers can stay up to date with StudentCam on Twitter and Facebook @studentcam and Instagram @cspanstudentcam.

About C-SPAN Classroom:

C-SPAN Classroom is the network’s FREE membership service that works with C-SPAN’s programs on public affairs, coverage of Congress, non-fiction books and American history to create free resources for teachers, students and the public to use in classrooms, projects or for research. C-SPAN Classroom’s website provides social studies teachers with access to thousands of free resources, including short current events videos, Lesson Plans and Bell Ringers, plus Constitution Clips and On This Day in History events. Engage with C-SPAN Classroom on Twitter and Facebook.

About C-SPAN:

C-SPAN, the public affairs network providing Americans with unfiltered access to congressional proceedings, was created in 1979 as a public service by the cable television industry and is now funded through fees paid by cable and satellite companies that provide C-SPAN programming. C-SPAN connects with millions of Americans through its three commercial-free TV networks, C-SPAN Radio, the C-SPAN Radio App, C-SPAN.org and various social media platforms. C-SPAN’s robust public affairs programming includes national and international public policy conversations; signature call-in programs, such as its popular morning show Washington Journal; book and author discussions on C-SPAN2’s Book TV; a chronicle of America’s past on C-SPAN3’s American History TV; and more. The network’s video-rich website contains over 260,000 hours of searchable and shareable content, archived since 1987 for educational and reporting purpose. Learn more about C-SPAN at C-SPAN.org/about/faq/. Engage with C-SPAN on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, and stay connected through weekly and daily newsletters. 

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Contacts:

Pam McGorry, Education Program Senior Specialist

202-626-4861

pmcgorry@c-span.org

Robin Newton, Media Relations Specialist

202-626-8910

rnewton@c-span.org