SciCast Blog

We’ve whittled. We’ve sifted. We’ve fallen out. We’ve made friends again. We’ve — finally — agreed on the nominations for this year’s SciCast Awards.

It’s been an epic battle. Not only have there been as many films this year as there were in both previous years put together, but the average standard has clearly gone up. Well up. It’s been unbelievably difficult to sort out a final set of categories and nominations, but here, at last, they are:

Institute of Physics Best SciCast Physics (Primary) 2010

• The Electric Lemon, by The Electricians
• What’s the Matter at St. Johns, by Year 4’s Weird Science
• The Fortugue Smythes and the Plastic Bag Kebab, by Year 5’s Weird Science
• The Last Straw, by The Extrawdinary Experimenters

Institute of Physics Best SciCast Physics (11-15) 2010

• The Doppler Effect, by Simple Science Productions
• The LeGO mAN spectrum, by Lydia and Heather
• Dark Matter — Cookie Monster Style!, by The Cookie Monsters
• Jack and Jenny’s Space Adventure, by Shuper Sheep
• The Eggsperimenters, by The Eggybreads

Institute of Physics Best SciCast Physics (16+) 2010

• Physics Tonight: Momentum, by Revolutionary Reporters
• Noise-Reducing Headphones, by Bede Bad Boys
• Why Do Cats Always Land On Their Feet?, by nomomentum
• The Leidenfrost Effect, by The HotBuds
• Conservation of Energy, by SAS Stop Motion

EngineeringUK Best Engineering Film 2010

• Let’s Talk Winglets, by The Falangists
• Surviving in Space, by It’s Space Time
• Sunny Side Up Pizza, by The Grays Media and Arts College

Gratnells’ Best Film from a Science Technician 2010

• Building an Igloo, by Chris Bell
• Diffusion Cloud Chamber, by Hobbs Girls

Best Chemistry Film 2010

• The Squeaky Pop Test, by Parkside Federation Pictures
• How do Fireworks have colour?, by Chemkings
• Crystals, by Team NEF
• Electrolysis, by BHBS Class 11Ho
• Exothermic and Endothermic Reactions, by Hannah

Best Biology Film 2010 (Primary)

• Seed Dispersal, by Class 5T Brecknock Primary School
• The Big Chew, by The Chompers
• Terrible Teeth, by Year 4
• Field of Vision, by The Fiery 4

Best Biology Film 2010 (Secondary)

• Animated Rat Dissection, by By Wrights
• A Punctured Lung, by Isaac and Daniel
• Photo-tropism-thing-a-ma-jig, by Green Hippos
• What really happens inside, by Team Whits

Best Earth Science and Environment Film 2010

• Rock Pools, by rock pools
• Thor God of Thunder, by Thunder and Lightning
• Gettin Down Wiv Global Warming!, by Radical Rappers

Flipside Most Entertaining Film 2010

• The Science Inspectors, by The Sidcot Science Inspectors
• The Marshmallow Man, by Boom
• Rockets!, by The Neutrons
• The Adventures of Carrot and Friends, by Atomic Productions
• Custard Woohoo!!, by The Crazy Chefs
• FABLAB Chickens: I’m a Worm Get Me Out Of Here! by FABLAB Sam, Ronnie, Jessica

Award for Technical & Artistic Achievement 2010

• Whose Twin?, by Vibrant Films
• Fluorescence, by Exeter School Fluorescence
• Gravity, Mass and Weight, by Oliver Madgwick
• Standing Waves, by Tom, Byrne, Amal

Judges’ Special Awards 2010

The judges wished to recognise a range of films that met the standard expected of nominees, but didn’t sit within the existing categories. A number of trophies selected from the following nominations will be presented at the Ceremony.

• Fire Balls, by Alan and Joe
• Sonoluminescence, by It’s Physics Time
• The Genetic Malfunction of Down Syndrome, by Down Syndrome
• Spooky Siphoning, by Supertastic Scientists
• Brineshrimp — Our distant cousins?, by Real Science
• Groovy Gravity, by Science Stars
• Diamonds Are A Girls Best Friend, by Diamond Girls
• Balloonium Experimento, by ReverseInertia?
• Where STEM Can Take You, by Genevieve Hinde
• How Hot Air Balloons Fly, by FALB
• Smashing Bananas, by The Smashing Bananas

SciCast Best Film 2010

The nominees for the overall Best Film award will be drawn from the winners of the categories above, and hence will be announced during the ceremony.

What happens now?

Nominees will shortly — probably before they see this — receive an emailed invitation to our glittering Awards Ceremony, which will take place at the Royal Institution in London on Friday July 16^th. If your film is listed above, and you don’t hear from us, drop us a line to theteam@planet-scicast.org.uk.

We’ll get all the films on the main SciCast website just as quickly as we can, and we’ll link through to them from here once they’re in place.

Huge congratulations to all the nominees; we look forward to meeting you at the Awards.

Our sincere thanks also to everyone else who took part, not just for your efforts but also for making the competition so tough this year. We hope you’ll agree that the nominees have earned their places, but standing out this year was extremely hard, with many of the categories very closely-contested. That couldn’t have happened without your efforts, raising both the range and standard of submissions.