2010 Student Expo Videos Are Live!
Posted on: May 18 2010
Check out the videos of student elevator pitches and presentations:
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/ecskills21
also available at
CTstudentfilms.org: http://ctstudentfilms.org/category_home.php?cid=Educational
CCC Update April 2010
Posted on: April 09 2010
Only one month to go until the 2010 CT Innovation Expo and CT Student Film Festival! All quarterly meetings wrapped up at the end of March, and planning for May 7th and 8th is in full swing for Connecticut Career Choices students, teachers, and staff.
Students from ITRD, ECE, Bio21, Chem21, and the Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences are working diligently to meet the deadlines on their year-long projects, while Foundations of Health Science and Technology (FHST) students are just getting started on their challenge—conceptualizing a new, innovative, and green medical center. FHST students are creating multimedia presentations and designing a booth to showcase their one-of-a-kind facility and staff for judges and Expo attendees. Also presenting will be students from the Real World Design Challenge, a national engineering program, featuring Connecticut's own state champions - the Millenium Falcon team from Xavier High School in Middletown.
DM3 students will debut their films at the CT Student Film Festival on May 7th at the Palace Theater in Danbury. Student participants from urban and suburban school districts will screen their work in multiple fiction and non-fiction categories. The latest work was produced as part of the CCC Film Challenge and can be seen on http://ctstudentfilms.org. These films were created within eighty-four hours by students from Berlin, Hill Career Regional, Simsbury, East Haven, Thomaston, Danbury and Woodland Regional High School. The final submission date for participants of the Digital Media and Movie Making program is April 16.
Winning films go on to feature within a professional environment at the Connecticut Film Festival on May 7 at the Danbury Palace Theatre. Tickets for the film festival can be purchased here.
For more news and updates, check out the Expo Web site: http://ctexpo.org and follow us on Twitter @ctexpo and @ctstudentfilms!
CCC Update February 2010
Posted on: March 24 2010
Although February brought much snow and rain, CCC students, teachers, and staff had a productive month.
E-Commerce Entrepreneurship (ECE) participants met on February 5th at Southern Connecticut State University for their third quarterly meeting of the school year. Students and teachers broke into workshops in marketing, financial analysis, product development, presentation, and Web site. A new workshop group on green energy and sustainability run by Linda Kobylarz, a career development consultant and green economy specialist, was added to this month’s roster.
At the end of the meeting, presenters from each school showcased their works in progress: environmentally-friendly e-commerce services grounded in sustainable practices. Oxford High School students took home first place with their elevator pitch for “The Green Zine”. Nonnewaug High School’s Andrew Parlato also won for his individual business plan proposal.
Digital Media Movie Making (DM3) also met on February 24 at IBM in Southbury, CT. Students brainstormed new ideas for their documentaries and animated shorts. The winner of the Fall 2009 CCC Student Film Challenge, as judged by peers, was Simsbury High School’s film, “Conspiracy Busters“.
All films, including “The Vial Truth” by East Haven High School, “The Baker Conspiracies” by Hill Regional Career High School in New Haven, and all submissions to the Spring 2010 CCC Film Challenge will be screened by industry professionals in the Fictional Short category at the 2010 CT Student Film Festival in May. Student films can be screened at the CT Student Films Web site.
In March, the Information Technology Research and Development (ITRD), Bio21, and ECE programs will meet for the last time before the CT Student Innovation Expo on May 8th, 2010.
CCC Update January 2010
Posted on: January 15 2010
Participants in Digital Media and Movie Making, a Connecticut Career Choices program, braved a cold winters day and a ninety-minute delay to attend the second quarterly meeting of the year at Quinnipiac University (QU).
Professor Liam O’Brian of QU spoke live from South Africa about a student documentary project currently being filmed in Cape Town and Krugar National Park. They also communicated via the a virtual world, Second Life.
After the Skype presentation, students separated into working groups to prepare their production company for the projects that must be completed in the second semester. Faculty members hosted workshops in Animation, Directing, Virtual Environments, Producing, Production and Web Design.
Quinnipiac students gave participants a tour of the Hamden campus shortly after the breakout groups, after which pizza was provided.
“The tour was awesome,” Mary McCurley, a senior at East Haven High School, said, according to a Qunnipiac press release. “The fact that you have so many professors here who will lecture to high school kids is a testament to their dedication to their subject and teaching in general.”
During lunch, students were afforded the opportunity to interact with faculty and ask questions relating to their options after high school and prospective careers in film and digital media.
Finally, schools presented and selected one animated logo that was produced as part of unit three in the DM3 curriculum. Students and faculty were able to text their vote to an online poll, where Simsbury High School came out victorious to win the award for “Outstanding Animated Logo”.
Steven Maldonado, a senior at Career High School in New Haven, said he enjoyed his time at Quinnipiac, the press release said.
“I will leave here with new skills and techniques,” he said. “It gave me a new perspective on things.”
Participants will use their newly-honed skills to create a public service announcement, a news report, a documentary short, an animated sort and a fictional short; the winning submissions will be posted on http://ctstudentfilms.org.
Thanks to Quinnipiac University for their time and support!
The next DM3 meeting will be held on Feb. 24 at IBM.
CCC Update December 2009
Posted on: December 18 2009
Congratulations to students who completed the CCC Film Challenge in November and submitted films within the eighty-four hour production period. All films are now featured on the front page of CTStudentFilms.org. The next challenge is scheduled for March 2010!
E-Commerce Entrepreneurship students from Berlin, East Haven, Lyme-Old Lyme, Hartford Pathways to Technology, Manchester, Nonnewaug, Northwest, and Stonington attended the second meeting of the year at CCSU on December 17th. The students worked on their presentation, marketing, Web design, and digital communication skills in a variety of breakout groups. They also gained some more experience developing theoretical green-themed products and services. The audience at large selected a number of winners for the 30-second commercial challenge and best two-minute business "elevator" pitch.
On December 14th, students in the Bio21 course met at Central Connecticut State University. The students participated in working breakout sessions related to engineering design, digital simulations and prototyping, WordPress skills, presentation skills, marketing and effective leadersh
On December 11th, the E3/DMC students from the New Haven Metropolitan Business Academy and Bethel High School met for the first time at Manchester Community College. While working in collaborative groups the students engaged in a challenge to solve a global issue while creating a sustainable world. The keynote speaker was was Laurel Kohl, Education Specialist from the Institute for Sustainable Energy at Eastern Connecticut State University. Laurel gave a presentation about the importance of building a sustainable world. Students will meet again in February of 2010.ip. These sessions help to prepare the students for the second phase of their year-long project that begins in January. At the end of the day, selected students from each school presented their biomimicry projects to the audience.
Ten schools in the ITR&D course also met at CCSU on December 4 to showcase green-theme computer games created by individual students. The top five games, as judged by peers, were pitched by their designers to the full audience, who voted by text message to select the winner. Click HERE to play one of the final games!
CCC Update November 2009
Posted on: November 12 2009
CT Student Film Challenge Now Closed!
The Connecticut Career Choices (CCC) Film Challenge took place from November 13th to November 16th. The Challenge is now closed and no other submissions are being accepted. This statewide film competition is open to all Connecticut high schools. Independent organizations interested in participating should contact us directly. Selected films will appear at the Connecticut Student Film Festival in May, where the winning submission will be announced. See http://ctstudentfilms.org for more information. Submissions that were uploaded within the specified time can be viewed here. http://ctstudentfilms.org/category_home.php?cid=CCC%20Film%20Challenge
Congratulations to all those who produced and completed their film within 84 hours!
CCC Student Quarterly Meetings Underway
A new academic year has seen the start of the quarterly meetings, which are already a great success! E-Commerce Entrepreneurship met at the University of New Haven, on October 30th, where 150 students from 10 schools used CCC's "Build-A-Business" brainstorming cards to compete in a business design competition. Another 150 students from 10 more schools met at IBM in Southbury on the 30th for a "Make-A-Movie" design competition in the Digital Media Moviemaking Program. Not to be outdone, five schools in the Bio21 program met at Manchester Community College (also on the 30th!) for a working session to learn more about biomimicry and develop product and technology proposals. Prior to these meetings, 150 students from 10 more schools met at IBM in Southbury for a "Grow-A-Game" design challenge in the IT R&D. With more meetings scheduled for December and energy building amongst the hundreds of budding designers, the semester looks to be an exciting one!
Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences Update
In September the Academy program kicked off its pilot year at Bethel High School and Metro Business Academy in New Haven, and results have been excellent! CCC is submitting a grant to underwrite the cost of making the Academy a truly one-to-one computing initiative for all students. With the help of new netbooks, we know that our Academy students will really push the envelope in showing us all what is possible. Stay tuned for more news.
CCC Presents at CECA
CCC was well represented at the recent meeting of the Connecticut Educators Computer Association (CECA) meeting in Hartford on October 26th. Presentations featured "Virtual Worlds for Teaching and Learning," "The Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences," "Innovative 21st Century Science Curricula," and "The CT Student Film Festival." Michael, Dan, Carolyn, and Matt were all on-hand to share student work and guide scores of session attendees through the amazing work of our 21st century CCC students.
Welcome to the New CCC Web Site!
Posted on: October 02 2009
CCC is pleased to announce the launch of our new Connecticut Career Choices Web site, which already contains more than 100 pieces of work by our 21st Century CCC students. This student work portal will continue to grow, featuring examples of exceptional images, documents, and games, as well as video clips that link to the CCC Student Film Web site, which was launched in early spring.
The Bio21, Digital Media Moviemaking (DM3), E-Commerce Entrepreneurship (ECE), Foundations in Health Science and Technology (FHST), and Information Technology Research and Development (ITRD) courses each received major updates and revisions.
CCC also rolled out two new ninth-grade courses for the inaugural year of the Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences: Earth Energy Essentials (E3) and Digital Media Communications (DMC).
Teachers from every program attended our annual Summer Institute, hosted this year at Naugatuck Valley Community College, and began with a day at the new Connecticut Science Center.
Registration for the CCC Film Festival goes live on Friday, October 2nd. Visit the CCC Student Film Web site to register and find out more!
2009 CT EXPO: A Huge Success!
Posted on: June 14 2009
THE OPENING CEREMONY
The 2009 CT Student Innovation Expo welcomed more than 1,300 middle and high school students on May 9 for its most successful event yet at the CT Convention Center. In addition to the “cool stuff made by students” and “the energy in the room,” these were among the many comments from students, teachers, and visitors:
“The Expo brings everyone together in a way you could not on a regular basis.”
“It’s an opportunity for students to present high quality, authentic work.”
“Today was a great way to showcase the incredible amount of talent Connecticut students have to offer.”
And this one…
“I had the best time of my life.”
The opening ceremony began with an enthusiastic welcome from Lt. Governor Fedele, a strong promoter of education and technology. It was followed by an inspirational keynote from Lewis Gordon Pugh, who embarks on polar adventures (such as becoming the first person to complete a long-distance swim at the North Pole) in order to raise awareness about global warming and change environmental laws.
EXHIBITION BOOTHS and PRESENTATIONS
Almost 60 student booths were set up inside the CT Convention Center to display, market, and discuss student team projects. Students greeted visitors and judges, explained research, demonstrated Web sites and multimedia, and proudly promoted student-created films, computer learning games, and a variety of products. All projects contained a green theme, from a push for environmental responsibility and sustainable energy to solutions to pressing global health problems exacerbated by the environmental crisis.
Student teams in each program or course gave oral presentations or “elevator pitches” to a select panel of judges who represented business organizations, institutions of higher learning, and experts in the fields of health and science. Each panel scored presentations as they would in the real business world.
AWARDS
While it was difficult to choose winners from such an outstanding group of presentations and projects, scores were tallied and awards given in a variety of areas, including the “AT&T Greenie Award,” exhibition booth, oral presentation, game design, white paper, business plan, ePortfolio, team leader, team player, multimedia, marketing, Web site design, Battelle Business Innovation Prize, CCC Internship Award, and more.
The CT Student Film Festival also held its own Oscar-style award ceremony to recognize an outstanding director of photography, editor, documentary, public service announcement, CT Film Festival Career Development Award, and more.
For a complete list of awards and winners, go to the CT EXPO site.
PARTICIPANTS
Middle and high school students from these districts displayed their innovative work: Berlin, Bethel, Bloomfield, Bridgeport, Bristol, Brookfield, Danbury, Derby, East Haddam, East Hartford, East Haven, Fairfield, Glastonbury, Hartford, Litchfield, Manchester, Meriden, New Britain, New Canaan, New Fairfield, New Haven, New London, New Milford, Newtown, Norwalk, Oxford, Plainville, Regions 6, 8, 9, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, Simsbury, Southington, Stamford, Terryville, Thomaston, Waterbury, West Hartford, Windham, and Woodstock. CCC student participants were joined by Connecticut Pre-Engineering Program (CPEP), Connecticut Project Lead The Way (PLTW), the CT Community Colleges’ College of Technology Regional Center for Next Generation Manufacturing (RCNGM), and the Connecticut Technology Student Association (TSA).
Everybody just showed leadership in this project. We were all devoted to it and determined to succeed and make it happen. 