Film Festival entries submitted online

The 2010 Lee County Student Film Festival has seen some amazing things. First, this year’s event has students participating from more than 40 public and private schools across the county. Second, for the first time in history, all the entries (160) were submitted online in a format very similar to the popular YouTube Web site. And third, in the 25-year history of this contest, this year has seen the most entries ever 160, said Joe Donzelli, a public information spokesman with the school district.

“I am thrilled with how far this contest has come, and it’s really due to the creativity of our students,” said Al Shilling, assistant director of emerging technology and virtual education. “And what makes this year even better is it’s all online, which really resulted in the huge increase in entries.”

The video entries, which range from elementary through high school, were uploaded www.myitowntv.com, a Naples-based Internet television and community resource Web site. After posting their videos, students viewed and critiqued other school and grade-level videos from around the District, creating a virtual video production classroom.

The videos will be judged by local video professionals based on editorial and technical content. Students in the elementary, middle and high school grade categories will be awarded first, second and third place at an awards ceremony scheduled for 7 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday, May 20 in the Lee County Public Education Center School Board meeting room, at 2855 Colonial Blvd., Fort Myers. Winning videos will be featured on the District’s website (www.leeschools.net) as well as broadcast on the District’s education station TV99 (Comcast channel 99.)

Students in two Lehigh middle schools qualify for Duke program

Duke University has released the results of its 2009/10 Talent Search, known as the Talent Identification Program (TIP.) Duke University conducts the program, which seeks to identify academically talented middle school students in a 16-state area.

One aspect of TIP is giving middle school students the opportunity to take the SAT or ACT, tests that are normally for advanced high school students. This year, 178 seventh graders in middle schools across the county took the SAT or ACT test while still in the seventh grade. When the final results were tallied, 60 Lee County students earned state recognition. This is the highest total in recent history.

Two students are from Lehigh middle schools.

Lehigh Acres Middle, Tyler Colmery, Matthew Evans, Colton Sacks and John Trujillo;

Varsity Lakes Middle: Mason Andrew, Sophia Borghese and Beatriz Gonzales.

This program identifies academically talented seventh-graders based on standardized test scores achieved while attending elementary or middle school. Scores in the 95th percentile on the national norms of a standardized achievement, aptitude or mental ability test qualify for the program. Candidates are identified and invited to complete either the SAT Reasoning Test or the ACT Assessment college entrance examination.

Duke TIP provides all participants with comparative information concerning their academic abilities and resources for unique educational opportunities. The goal is to assist young people with excellent mathematical or verbal aptitude. Students are provided with information about their abilities and introduced to a network of services and programs.