Brick MATES Student Places Third in National Video Contest

The Ocean County Vocational Technical School is on fire as a Marine Academy of Technology and Environmental Science (MATES) student from Brick Township placed third in the National Ocean Sciences Bowl Video Contest with a trailer about global warming and other science-related topics.

The contest, which is run by the National Ocean Sciences Bowl and the National Marine Educators Association, allows students to develop and submit a two-minute video on an ocean-related theme.

“What I have them do for a final project in their oceanography project, I try to do something a little more where they can reach out to the public,” adviser Tina Held said.

The students learn the text throughout the year but for the final project she wants the students to have fun, she said.  “It has relevancy with what they’re doing.”

Kevin Boyles of Brick and his classmate Kevin Quigley of Forked River produced the trailer “The Warming.” The video is centered on global warming, evolution and deep water drilling.

Quigley and Boyles put several hours into another version before Held recommended they start over and produce a project that would "test the eyes of the judges," Quigley said.

The original video had an entirely different plot with a research facility and was "presented in a boring and unoriginal way," he said.

Quigley and Boyles' theme of humans and oceans are inextricably connected was linked to the “Living on the Ocean Planet’s” literacy principle—the ocean is changing, Held said.

“Through it (Quigley and Boyles) came up with their movie trailer,” she said, calling the project both “good” and “cute.”

The two students worked through an entire weekend with not much of a plan to reshoot the latest version, Quigley said. Their goal was to get as much footage and edit it as well as making sure the movie matched the provided guidelines.

From the experience, Quigley said he and Boyles learned what they are capable of when they make the effort, how to manage time and how to stay focus and work towards a common goal.

There were several candidates from MATES but the pair's video placed first in its division and third on the national level.

For the past three years, MATES has come in first place regionally and second nationally. This year, the contest also selected a fan favorite, in which the public had the opportunity to view the videos and vote.

The national winner will be featured on National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association kiosks across the country, Held said.

‘There’s a message in each video. It’s a way of outreaching to the public as well,” Held said. “It’s a really cool thing.”

This year’s final winner for both the National and the Fan Favorite Contest was “From Cells to Saviors” by Daniel Seidman, Jung Huh and Jenny Seo of Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology.

The National Ocean Sciences Bowl is an academic competition for high school students that tests their knowledge of marine sciences in a variety of areas.

To view Quigley and Boyles' video as well as the other submissions, click here.