2010 Student Expo Videos Are Live!

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

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

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.

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 eighty-four 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!

The Center Presents at CECA
The Center 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.

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.

New CCC Web Site Now Live!
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.