FilmMAKER Challenge

The Digital Promise filmMAKER™ Challenge, supported by Chevron, was an opportunity for middle and high school students to learn real-world skills about product design and filmmaking through a set of activities, projects, and challenges. These experiences culminated in a final project: redesigning an everyday object to make it more sustainable, accessible, or beautiful and creating a documentary video that tells the story of the process.

While the 2016-2017 Challenge has closed, we encourage you to use these resources to host a filmMAKER Challenge at your school:

• The filmMAKER Challenge guide contains activities, projects, and video challenges to help students build the skills they need for the Challenge.
• The filmMAKER Challenge Webinar series was created to help teachers lead the challenge with their students and features experts in design education and film production.

Out of 69 student teams who entered the contest, four were selected to present their designs at flagship Maker Faires. Watch their videos below as well as a gallery of some of the other great submissions.

Rancho Minerva Middle School (Vista, CA)
Students designed an SD chip holder that will allow their school’s IT staff to load software and deploy laptops to students more efficiently. After several prototypes and iterations, they began 3D printing SD chip holders for other schools in their district.

Edmunds Middle School (Burlington, VT)
Students designed an affordable mitten that will keep the homeless population of Burlington warm in the winter. They researched and tested the heat retention properties of several available materials versus the cost of each before making their prototype.

South Fayette High School (McDonald, PA)
Students from South Fayette High School designed an app to improve the experience of shopping for groceries. It includes the ability to find information about products, receive help from supermarket staff, and instantly checkout and pay for your purchases – all from a mobile phone.

South Fayette High School (McDonald, PA)
Another group of students from South Fayette High School designed a pill dispenser that secures with a biometric lock and only dispenses the correct dosages when activated. This device could help to prevent prescription drug overdoses by children and others.

Gallery

filmMAKER challenge is made possible by Chevron.