What Teachers Say About the World of 8 Billion Contest – Tips & Advice

We recently had a webinar where three teachers who use the World of 8 Billion contest in their classroom shared their advice. A summary of the tips shared by these experienced teachers, helpful info from our World of 8 Billion team, and the full webinar recording are found here. 

Preparing to Lead the Video Contest in Class

• Check out the rules and guidelines and FAQs for the contest. 
• Read the updated Judging Rubric for details on how videos are scored. 
• Break up the project into smaller steps for students.
  • The Project Organizer is a great resource for planning group work. Make a copy of the google slide deck to add, edit or divide the project into manageable steps. The Project Guide is also helpful for a streamlined version of the contest steps. These resources are optional to complete.
• Inform families that your class is participating in the project and prepare applicable student permission forms. 

Researching and Planning Videos

• Connect the video contest to your student’s personal lives, class content, and collaborate with colleagues for deeper cross curricular connections.
• Review the World of 8 Billion tips for creating a video and watch 7 Most Common Mistakes video on what to avoid when creating videos.
• Bring in outside experts if you can to help students build skills. For example, one of our teacher presenters had an expert come in to help students develop an elevator pitch for a clear and focused message.
• Check out the background readings to help students get started researching their topic. 
  • Another teacher presenter shared that it is important to “make text accessible to readers of all levels and support diverse language learners with supplemental sources to help them gain understanding and background knowledge.”

Filming and Editing Student Videos

• Watch the past winners to gather ideas for filming, editing, and inspiration. 
• Make video creation accessible for all students. Check out some of the video creation and editing tools from past winners, many of which are free to use. 
• Use cardboard boxes when recording audio to reduce background noise in the classroom. 
• Have students peer review each other’s videos using the judging rubric and then give them time to make additional edits. 

Submitting Contest Videos

• Check that the submission checklist is complete before submitting. 
• One of our teacher presenters shared that they make the contest entry optional but all students create videos as a class assignment.
• Celebrate all students by having a viewing party of all the videos that were created in your class! 

Watch the short webinar recording below to see all tips and ideas that were shared. If you ever have any questions as you are leading your class in creating videos you can reach out to the World of 8 Billion team at [email protected].