I was informed via email on Khan Academy that a world-wide video competition has been launched, called the Breakthrough Junior Challenge. This competition is for 13-18 year-old students who can individually create a video on any topic of life sciences, physics or mathematics. The video is allowed to be a maximum 3 minutes in length and should creatively illuminate a complex concept in any of these areas. I thought this was a great chance for me to try doing something very different and challenging. The prize for the winner is unbelievable: a US$250,00 university scholarship, plus an additional US$ 50,000 for the teacher that inspired the candidate and US$ 100,000 for an improved science lab at the school. Although I was aware that there is an immensely slim chance of winning, this was a great motivation and I worked very hard on the video for several weeks.

A hard part was coming up with the topic. I was sure to do Biology, but what specific concept I would do needed some thought. By reading through the criteria the video is marked against, creativity, illumination, difficulty and engagement, I settled in for two possible themes: DNA replication and a part of photosynthesis or respiration. In the end I chose the electron transport chain and chemiosmosis of photosynthesis. This is a complex concept that would yield itself well to animation, which was something I was considering to do.

I really liked the idea of creating my own animation to help explain the process, but this turned out to be much more challenging than I initially thought. I used Blender, a software I am slightly familiar with, and designed the whole structure as I wanted it to look like.

Screenshots on Blender showing the development of my design.

The animation was tedious but after a while I got a simple-looking but adequate result. I was getting a bit under time pressure as the deadline was June 15 and I finished the animation less than 2 weeks before that, but it turned out everything would be done by the deadline. The next thing I did was, with the help of Milo, the filming of me explaining the process, which included an animation of me drawing the process in fast forward. I had some nice ideas for transitions, which I created after some difficulties with the movie-making program Premier Pro. Anuda helped me with the editing as he is more experienced. In the end the video was done one day before the deadline.

The final submitted video can be seen here.

Although I think the video is good and that I explained the process relatively well, there would have been much room for improvement. Much of this is because in many instances I was not committed enough to repeat certain parts until they are really perfect. This can be seen particularly in the part where I am drawing Peter Mitchell and the cell and mitochondria, where the camera is really shaky. This is because we did not have a tripod and the camera was handheld. Looking back I think this is something that could have easily been avoided, and it was not worth being lazy considering the prize that can be won.

A screenshot of a scene from the video.

Entering this competition was a good opportunity for me to try something new, as I had never really created a video before. This meant it was a very tedious process sometimes, but I learned a lot and developed a liking for making videos. Additionally, it was a real challenge explaining the biological process in 3 minutes (the video is 2:55). We had to increase the tempo and cut several parts, and here I had to really think which parts are the core and must be included and which could be taken out. I feel that this has also significantly increased my understanding of the process. Finally, what is great about this competition is that I had to combine sciences with creativity and other skills. We do not usually have such opportunities in school and I think it is really good learning when one synthesizes different fields.