Osaka, Japan - Panasonic Corporation today announced the six finalist schools representing six countries for Panasonic Kid Witness News (KWN) 2013 Global Contest. The Grand Prix winner will be announced at a global awards ceremony to be held at the headquarters of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris in December.
KWN is a hands-on video education program Panasonic operates as part of its efforts to support education of future generations. The company provides video cameras and other equipment for video productions to elementary and middle schools participating in the program. Currently, some 10,000 children and teachers in 29 countries and regions around the world are taking part in the program. Since the program began in 1989, more than 170,000 children have participated to date.
The KWN program, a part of the Panasonic Kids School program, is also a competition that honors the video works created by the children every year. The six finalists were selected this year from among the entries submitted by 622 schools from 29 countries and regions. Under the big theme of either "ecology" or "environment," the films dealt with friendship, child labor, environmental destruction and other topics. The Grand Prix will be revealed at the global awards ceremony, which will also honor this year's winners of the Panasonic Eco-Picture Diary Contest, another global, next-generation education program run by Panasonic under its Kids School program.
In June, Panasonic renewed its partnership agreement with the UNESCO World Heritage Center, with the aim to raise awareness about the conservation of UNESCO World Heritage sites and to promote environmental education for the next generation through the World Heritage Education Program. Panasonic will continue to work to help foster eco awareness among children worldwide in line with the partnership agreement with UNESCO.
Related URLs:
KWN Global Contest 2013 official website : http://panasonic.net/kwn/contest2013/
(This year's six finalist videos can be seen at the above website.)
General information on KWN global program : http://panasonic.net/kwn
Panasonic's CSR activities including KWN : http://panasonic.net/citizenship/
Summary of the final six Grand Prize nominees for KWN Global Contest 2013
| Country/Name of School | Theme Category/Synopsis | |
|---|---|---|
| Video Title | ||
| 1 | <China> Beijing Yucai Primary School (Primary School) |
Communication: A young boy who loves drawing starts fundraising activities for a seriously ill friend. The video - based on a true story - shows how one young friend's love can make a big difference. |
| Love is all around - "friends" of love in the picture |
||
| 2 | <Germany> Montessori Middle School, D?sseldorf (Secondary School) |
Communication: Children love chocolate. In this film, many of those connected to production of chocolate are interviewed in order to highlight the plight of child laborers involved in the harvesting of chocolate's raw ingredient - cocoa. |
| Only 2 Cents | ||
| 3 | <Japan> Nagawa Junior High School (Secondary School) |
Communication: 100 years ago in Japan, a group of young girls walked across a mountain pass in a harsh environment of -10°C and deep snow. What made them to do so? While looking back to past, this video also casts light on social issues of the present and future. |
| The Girls Who Crossed Nomugi Pass | ||
| 4 | <Malaysia> Section 9 Secondary School, Selangor (Secondary School) |
Communication: When getting a little creative, one can find many ways to study. In this story, a young boy who loves English but has no text books devises a simple way to study the language. |
| PAPER CHASE | ||
| 5 | <New Zealand> Mount Aspiring College (Secondary School) |
Communication: A teenage girl is faced with deep sadness at the sudden loss of a close friend. This film tells the moving story of how, through an extraordinary experience, she accepts the loss of her friend and regains hope to her life. |
| Forever Emily | ||
| 6 | <Russia> Yaroslavl gymnasium named after Saint Ignatius Bryanchaninov, Jolly Heels Studio (Secondary School) |
Communication: It is the year 2047. 35 years earlier - during a state of environmental destruction - a flock of birds attacked cities, bringing the world's machines and factories to a halt. As a result, people forced to leave the cities return to live their lives in a more humane manner. |
| Birds' Rebellion |
<Reference>
Panasonic Kid Witness News
KWN got its start in 1989 in the U.S. as a hands-on video education program supported by Panasonic North America, which supplied video cameras and editing equipment to public elementary and middle schools to make news programs from the perspective of children and young adults. The program was subsequently expanded to encompass all 50 U.S. states, and then in recent years grew on a global scale, encompassing Europe, Southeast Asia and Japan. At present, 622 schools from 29 countries and regions are participants in the program.
KWN is designed to foster creativity and presentation skills among young students.
Supervising teachers cite further merits of the program such as a heightened awareness of the environment and the community as well as development of team skills among participants through the process of creating videos and covering the news. Further, the expanding network of KWN schools provides a platform for international exchange among the KWN students. For example, a networking event began last year, with KWN schools in different countries participating to exchange their views and opinions using Skype video calls on smart TVs.
29 countries and region participating in KWN
| North America | Canada, United States |
| Central and South America | Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Panama, Peru |
| Europe | Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Russia, Slovakia, Ukraine, United Kingdom |
| Middle and Near East | Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, United Arab Emirates |
| Asia | China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam |
| Oceania | New Zealand |
Panasonic Kids School
With the concept slogan "When kids shine, so will our future," Panasonic is committed to supporting the development, dreams and futures of the next generation by providing the opportunity for children to learn and discover through Internet as well as events held all over the world.
Panasonic also conducts a variety of educational programs worldwide including the Eco Picture Diary Contest, the Jump Rope Competition, the Global Eco Learning Program and UNESCO World Heritage Eco Learning Program under the umbrella scheme of "Panasonic Kids School." In the hopes of promoting the sound development of children and mutual understanding among people around the world, Panasonic will continue in its work to promote and expand these activities in the future.
UNESCO World Heritage Eco Learning Program
Panasonic conducts the unique program called the UNESCO World Heritage Eco Learning Program, where students can visit and participate in an interactive environment for learning about World Heritage conservation activities in cooperation with UNESCO and the World Heritage sites. The children can also experience the beauty and importance of the World Heritage as they carry on and pass to future generations. Also the students write down and draw what they have learned from the visits in their World Heritage Eco Picture Diary as a step to put their environmental awareness into practice in daily life. Approximately 4,000 children engaged in this program by the end of 2012.
About Panasonic
Panasonic Corporation is a worldwide leader in the development and engineering of electronic technologies and solutions for customers in residential, non-residential, mobility and personal applications. Since its founding in 1918, the company has expanded globally and now operates over 500 consolidated companies worldwide, recording consolidated net sales of 7.30 trillion yen for the year ended March 31, 2013. Committed to pursuing new value through innovation across divisional lines, the company strives to create a better life and a better world for its customers. For more information about Panasonic, please visit the company's website at http://panasonic.net/.
Media Contacts:
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Panasonic Corporation - Tel:+81-(0)3-3574-5664 Fax:+81-(0)3-3574-5699
- Panasonic News Bureau
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