The 2023-2024 World of 8 Billion student video contest is now closed. Winners will be announced on May 21, 2024!

Winners

second-place Icon 2nd Place

2022 High School Winners

Ocean Health

Ghost Nets

Kaviya Chidambaram & Nora Bruxvoort

Broomfield High School Broomfield, CO

Kaviya Chidambaram and Nora Bruxvoort are in the 11th grade at Broomfield High School in Broomfield, Colorado. The video project was assigned as part of the population unit in their AP Environmental Science class. They enjoyed creating the video and, because of the encouragement from their teacher, Ms. Rayner, they decided to submit it to the contest. They already knew about population issues, including how population growth is linked to climate change, soil health, and food insecurity, but learned more about its impacts by participating in the contest. Nora was surprised by how much plastic pollution comes from abandoned fishing nets and Kaviya was surprised by “how directly our consumption was related to the amount of plastic in the ocean.”

When looking for different ideas for their video, Nora watched “Seaspiracy.” A big part of the movie focused on fishing nets and gear that ends up in the ocean, which sparked their interest in the topic. Their video’s whiteboard animation style was inspired by the YouTube channel AsapSCIENCE. They shared that it was fun to draw the pictures for the video, but the editing and re-recording took a lot of time. Kaviya and Nora also shared that the production of the video was the most challenging part of the process, specifically matching their voices with the script and drawings. They suggest that future participants pick a topic they are passionate about because it made it feel easier and was more fun for them. They would like to see a deeper dive into overconsumption and consumerism as a topic next year. Nora shared that we need to “get people more conscious about how much we waste every day.” 

In her free time, Kaviya is an aerialist, loves cats, the color maroon, dancing, and picnicking. She is interested in working in environmental policy so she can make change on a greater scale. Her mom is her role model because she is kind, passionate and works really hard. “She is a first generation college student, came to this country really young and I admire how she has made a place for herself in this country.” 

Nora is a competitive rock climber, loves to travel, camp, and hang out with her cat, Cleo. She is inspired by her dad because he started his own business where he emphasizes the importance of sustainable business practices and her mom because she is an ultra-runner, running races that are over 100 miles. Nora plans to study environmental science in college, possibly focusing on the preservation of the national parks or climate change science.

 

 

Ghost Nets

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