Three local students were honored by C-SPAN this month for their documentaries in the cable network’s StudentCam competition.

En-Hua Holtz and Ethan Stewart, both eighth-graders at East Lyme Middle School, were among the second-place winners in the middle school category for their video “Russia and America: Cold Snap or Permafrost?”

Daisy Colvin, an eighth-grader at Lyme-Old Lyme Middle School, won honorable mention in the middle school category for her video on the gun control debate.

In the annual competition, middle and high school students produce short documentaries relating to a theme. The 2016 theme was “Road to the White House,” and students had to address the issue they most wanted presidential candidates to address. Other topics included prison reform, money in politics and income inequality.

Holtz and Stewart said they found out about the contest from two eighth-graders last year who had won an honorable mention in the 2015 competition for their video on Social Security. Social studies teacher Anne Haling recommended the project to them.

“I knew both of these guys are just very energetic, enthusiastic, self-directed learners,” Haling said. Her curriculum had included a unit on Russia, and Haling felt that Holtz and Stewart could handle a project on their own.

Stewart said he found the subject interesting because Russia hadn’t been in the news much since the Cold War until the conflict of Crimea, which they had talked about in class. He and Holtz worked on researching not only the situation in the autonomous region but also historical relations between the two countries.

“I really learned a lot about how everything is all interconnected, from our relations with Russia to their economy to their military aggressions in Syria,” Holtz said. She said the video took about two weeks to put together.

Haling said the competition showed them that research isn’t just history. Holtz and Stewart were also able to speak with U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy and U.S. Congressman Joe Courtney.

“I think that Senator Murphy was also really into it,” Stewart said. “He seemed very happy to talk to us, and he was talking about how he was really into history and our relationship with Russia when he grew up.”

Colvin spoke with local figures for her video on the gun control debate, interviewing Old Lyme First Selectwoman Bonnie Reemsnyder and East Lyme gun shop owner Ron Rando. Colvin said she picked her topic because shootings had become a regular topic in the news, and her mother Aimee said it was a perfect topic for this year’s competition.

“I was surprised when I found out that I won because there are so many kids,” Colvin said. It was her first time editing video, but she said she enjoyed it and hopes to enter the competition next year in the high school category.

Holtz and Stewart were also excited to find out they won and said they were very nervous while waiting for the email from C-SPAN announcing the winners on March 9.

All 150 winning videos can be viewed on the StudentCam website.

a.hutchinson@theday.com