Hard work pays off. It’s a lesson recently learnt by Northlands Primary students.

Almost every hand went up when information technology teacher Mary-Beth Aitken asked for volunteers for a video competition.

Once they found out how much work was involved, all but six students quit.

It took them two months to make a four-minute film about Bermuda’s endangered animals. It was worth it in the end. The group’s film, Endangered Species — What Can We Do?, took home top honours in an Earth Day competition put on by the Bermuda National Trust.

The students created the artwork, did all the filming, took photographs and edited and wrote scripts themselves.

“We believed in ourselves and we did it,” said ten-year-old Satasia Swan. “It was a fun experience. We had to study a lot about the animals that we chose. It was a learning experience to learn how to put the video together and learn what to do to make a video, and how to fix it. It was fun because we were working as a team and we got it done.”

They won first place in the primary and middle school division, and most creative film and best overall film. Satasia said the prizegiving at the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute was a total shock.

“At first I was upset,” she said, “because they showed all these videos and they hadn’t shown ours. Then there was a break and then they said, ‘And now we have the top three videos’. Then we got all excited.”

Taijae Davis, 11, said the hardest part about the project was writing the script.

“I liked that I got to work with my friends,” she said.

Njeri Thomas, ten, said she struggled a bit with drawing some of the pictures. Other primary six students helped them out.

“I liked seeing how it would come out, as we all worked together as a team,” said ten-year-old Nanami Ingram.

Jeanella Marquez, also ten, explained that the film discussed the plight of animals such as skinks, bluebirds and cahows.

She’d never heard of a skink before starting on the project.

“I didn’t know anything about bluebirds,” another student said.

Mrs Aitken was very proud of her students.

“They did a great job,” she said.

This was the second year of the competition.

Winners were selected from ten entries by 35 students from various schools. Lulu Hedstrom, who is in boarding school in the US, won the secondary school competition. Prospect Primary won second place and the Bermuda High School for Girls won third place.

Somersfield Academy was also recognised.

Northlands students won a paddle boarding excursion from Island Winds, and Prospect Primary received a free snorkel experience from Fantasea Diving. Other prizes included environmental DVDs, free student membership to BUEI, books and movie tickets.

To see all the winning videos go to www.bnt.bm/Education/education.php.