Science Content through iMovie Trailers

I shared a few of these in my last presentation.  Again thanks to Craig Dwyer for having his trailer planning sheets on the web and shares widely.  I let my students decide what they wanted to "teach" to others, join a like-minded team and get to work.  One idea that I would do differently is talk through with kids about "examples" a bit more.  Many of my students just searched for pictures of the content: water cycle, pulley, etc instead of looking to break down the ideas to explain them better.  Here are two of the star iMovie trailers.

Enjoy

Food Chain

The Food Chain from Autumn Laidler on Vimeo.

Levers

Levers from Autumn Laidler on Vimeo.

Biome Movie Trailers

Here are the students iMovie trailers. They used the planning documents to build the content before starting to film. Some finished, so did most of the video. More to come. There are a few more groups I need to upload. We are planning to host a "Film Fest" with the trailers, green screen movies and movie posters! Should be fun....

The Rainforest from Autumn Laidler on Vimeo.

The Rainforest from Autumn Laidler on Vimeo.

Critical thinking and Film Making

After an uninspired start to my school year the last month has been full of new ideas and exploration with my students and technology. I decided to create a green screen filming studio for my students to make movies about the biomes they had just finished studying. I will share those soon! The work they did was creating scripts, creating the background for their speaking parts and then filming in front of the green screen.

I did not want to just stop at the movie making, but I wanted the students to be reflective both about the work and have practice at giving feedback that is both complimentary and critical. I wanted them to push their own work and see how they could help their classmates be better too.

I really appreciate the focus they displayed in watching each other's videos, but also the focus they put into the feedback. I have stated in this blog before that feedback is something I consider a weakness in my teaching practice. I want it to be done, be done in a timely way and be meaningful to my students. This experience allows me to remember that feedback can be meaningful and have an impact from a peer.

Here is a sample of the students viewing the work and giving feedback on Edmodo.

Reviewing Biome Movies from Autumn Laidler on Vimeo.

Videos and movie trailers to follow!