Today for the seventh time, SWITCH honoured the best websites designed by Swiss school classes. At the award ceremony for the SWITCH Junior Web Award held at Kongresshaus Zürich, the young talent received rapturous applause and attractive prizes. The projects submitted impressed from a content and visual perspective, with this year’s jury prize and first prize both going to a primary school class (year 5/6) from Uster.

The SWITCH Junior Web Award competition is open to primary and secondary schoolchildren. At the seventh presentation of this award, the most creative projects were honoured. The participating school classes impressed thanks to the great variety of topics covered in their web projects, with travel and related CO² emissions, respect for fellow humans and a dance film just a few examples from the wide range of work submitted. Urs Eppenberger of SWITCH was delighted: "I am fascinated by the care exhibited by the young people in researching and designing the websites."

Double award for fantasy town
Year 5/6 from the education programme for gifted youth at Primarschule Uster were the clever minds behind the website "Futuretown", winning both first prize and the jury prize. The story of their fantasy town won over the jury thanks to the clear concept with its socio-critical aspect and a pinch of black humour. "The website Futuretown demonstrates a perfect command of the art of storytelling, has a top-quality concept and exhibits a high degree of emotionality, commitment and fun," is how the jury put it in its encomium. At the award ceremony at Kongresshaus Zürich, each pupil won a tablet PC, a DVD hi-fi system or a printer, depending on their ranking. Adventure days at Swiss Post , Microsoft and Google were also awarded to the winners of the public prize, the programming prize and the jury prize, respectively.

Promoting young talent in the area of web technology
Since SWITCH launched the competition to promote young talent back in 2007, over 1,000 projects have been submitted. The Junior Web Award offers schoolchildren the opportunity to create their own website, allowing them to practice working with web technologies through play. SWITCH supports the participating school classes with information material and easy-to-use CMS programs. The eighth edition of this competition will be kicking off in August. Interested teachers can register for the next competition as of 12 August 2013 at www.juniorwebaward.ch.

About SWITCH
As a partner to the universities, SWITCH brought the Internet to Switzerland 25 years ago. Today, the non-profit organisation with 100 employees at its headquarters in Zurich develops Internet services for lecturers, researchers and students, as well as for commercial customers. SWITCH stands for security in the Internet.

The clever minds behind the website "Futuretown"

The winners of the SWITCH Junior Web Award 2013. For more pictures please visit our Facebook page.

SWITCH Junior Web Award 2013 ranking list

1st – 3rd Place Primary Level:

1st place: Education programme for gifted youth Uster, year 5/6, Uster

Project title: Futuretown

http://futuretown.juniorwebaward.ch/

2nd place: Primarschule Freienbach, year 6, Freienbach

Project title: Stories

http://stories.juniorwebaward.ch/

3rd place: Primarschule Toffen, year 5, Toffen

Project title: World of Movies

http://welt-der-filme.juniorwebaward.ch/home

1st – 3rd Place Lower Secondary Level:

1st place: ORS Wolfenschiessen Dallenwil, class 3AB, Wolfenschiessen

Project title: RESPECT

http://respekt.juniorwebaward.ch/respekt

2nd place: Estavayer-Le-Lac, Co esta, Cousset

Project title: Essai

http://esta.juniorwebaward.ch/

3rd place: Schule Meisterschwanden, RFT-Gruppe, Meisterschwanden

Project title: Pizzafreaks

http://pizza.juniorwebaward.ch/

1st – 3rd Place Upper Secondary Level:

1st place: BZ Uzwil-Flawil, class MED3_10, Niederuzwil

Project title: Multimedianer

http://multimedianer.juniorwebaward.ch/

2nd place: Ecole des Métiers Techniques, Informaticiens de 3e, Porrentruy

Project title: Your Travel Cost

http://yourtravelcost.juniorwebaward.ch/

3rd place: Eikon EMF, CM21, Fribourg

Project title: Jamanimo

http://jamanimo.com/

Jury prize:

Education programme for gifted youth Uster, year 5/6, Uster

Project title: Futuretown

http://futuretown.juniorwebaward.ch/

Public prize:

Pädagogisches Zentrum für Hören und Sprache, year 7/8 HSM, Münchenbuchsee

Project title: Tipps & Tricks [English: Tips & Tricks]

http://tipp-trick.juniorwebaward.ch/

Programming prize:

Eikon EMF, CM21, Fribourg

Project title: Jamanimo

http://jamanimo.com/

Prizes

Each participant from a winning class receives:

1st prize provided courtesy of Microsoft: Windows 8 tablet PC
2nd prize provided courtesy of Lenovo: DVD hi-fi system
3rd prize provided courtesy of Epson: Multifunction device for printing, copying and scanning

Public prize for the project that won the public vote, provided courtesy of Microsoft: an adventure day at Microsoft.

Jury prize for the best project as voted by the jury, provided courtesy of Swiss Post: an adventure day at one of Swiss Post's distribution centres.

Programming prize for the best-programmed website, awarded and provided courtesy of Google: an adventure day at Google Switzerland.

Pictures of the award ceremony will be published on the  SWITCH Junior Web Award Facebook page.
http://www.facebook.com/SwitchJuniorWebAward