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High School Students Practice, Produce and Perform During Campus Visit

Several hundred high school students are settling back into their normal routines at schools across Colorado after an exciting opportunity to create short films, develop websites and practice newscast production at CSU.  The students came to campus to get a taste of the many forms of technology-related programs offered by a number of different departments involved in CSU’s Information Science and Technology Center (ISTeC).

High school students participating in the Information Sciene and Technology High School Day at CSU sit on the set at Campus Television (CTV-11).              

ISTeC is a university-wide organization for promoting, facilitating, and enhancing CSU's research, education, and outreach activities pertaining to the design and innovative application of communication, computer, and information systems.  JTC is one of just four departments from four different colleges that make up the core of ISTeC.

ISTeC recently sponsored the fourth annual Information Science and Technology (IS&T) High School Day at CSU. The purpose is to introduce the best and brightest high school students across the state to IS&T career paths and educational opportunities at CSU. There are many activities and events held during High School Day that provide students with a first-hand look at CSU IS&T departments.

With the help of the Student Media department, Journalism and Technical Communication hosted three different activities for High School Day, more than any other department involved in the event.

Student-run Campus Television (CTV-11) hosted a demonstration of how a newscast is produced.  News and Public Affairs adviser Julia Sandidge and CTV student staff members hosted the event. High school students ran the studio cameras, sat on set as anchors, read off the teleprompter, directed the “newscast,” and ran the boards in the control room. The high school students ranked “Digital Television Production” as the most-popular event of the day.

JTC also sponsored a video-production contest, coordinated by Assistant Professor Jamie Switzer and assisted by students in the TV News and Video Communication concentration (Rob Peters, Ted Mast, Carri Wilbanks, Kim Allen, and Justin Vaughn).

Four groups of high school students wrote, shot, acted in, and edited a short minute video created on the premise that “Chasing someone is fun!” The high school students had only two hours to produce their videos. The judges (Professor and Chair Greg Luft, Instructor Pam Jackson, and graduate student/video lab director Mike Gaede) were impressed with the quality of the high school students’ videos, particularly considering their relative inexperience and the two-hour time limit.

Dr. Switzer also coordinated a web-design contest with the help of graduate student Jennifer Walton. Fifteen high school students had two hours to design a website about “My favorite (fill in the blank).”

The websites, a minimum of five pages, ranged from topics as varied as favorite sports teams, bands, comic books, and even spiders. Assistant Professor Rosa Martey and graduate student/instructor Rebecca Anderson judged the website contest, and also commented on the high quality of the high school students’ website designs.

JTC has participated in High School Day since its inception four years ago, and has been hosting the two different contests for the past two years. If you would like additional information about the event, please contact Dr. Switzer at jamie.switzer@colostate.edu. If you would like more information about ISTeC, please visit the website at:  istec.colostate.edu/