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Newsletter | Summer 2015 ⋅ Number 66

Education Corner

Education Corner

High School Video Challenge



For the second year in a row, the RCSB PDB invited high school students to create short videos that tell a story about HIV/AIDS. Students were tasked to include a visualization/animation of one or more molecular structures from the PDB, and include a message about the importance of testing.

PDB-101 hosts many resources to help students in this event and beyond, including the video Learn about HIV from the RCSB PDB, HIV-related education materials, tutorials on making videos, and more.

Many thanks to all of the students, teachers, parents, judges, and voters who made this exciting competition happen.

All submitted videos can be viewed online.

2015 Video Challenge Awards


Judge's Awards

Our panel of expert judges scored the videos based on scientific content (40%), creativity (20%), overall impact (10%), originality of concept (10%), entertainment value (10%), and production quality (10%). Other awards are also described below.

  • First Place: Battling HIV: The Search for a Cure
    By Calvin Qian, Matthew Brown, Charles Morse, and Justin Halim of Academy of Allied Health and Science, Neptune City, NJ (Team Advisor: Richard Tempsick)


    • This video was also selected for the Service to the Community Award by the AIDS Education Training Center (AETC) National Resource Center. This video may be used by AETC for training health care professionals, patients and their families.

  • Second Place: The Search for a Vaccine for HIV
    By Alexa Skolnik and Maryann Zielinski of East Brunswick High School, East Brunswick, NJ (Team Advisor: Anne Sanelli)



  • Third Place: HAART: A Stop Motion Story
    By Justin May, Katarina Wang, Akshay Malavade, and Joy Song of East Brunswick High School, East Brunswick, NJ (Team Advisor: Louise Jasko)



Viewer's Choice Award (as selected by popular vote)

  • The Search for a Vaccine
    By Naszir Johnson, Henry Lucas, Matt Weiler, and Valeria Rodriguez of Engineering and Science University Magnet School, Hamden, CT (Team Advisor: Leon Tynes)