Movie Project
4/27/17
Purpose:
The purpose of this project was to collaborate while displaying the biology content we learned in a movie. I was the director of the film and my job was to make sure all the students were participating in the project. I believe as a class we struggled finishing the final film because not everyone was doing the jobs they were assigned and we did not have sufficient time. Even though this occurred, as a class we all kept positive attitudes the entire time and I believe our class is now closer because of this project. Additionally, I was very proud how our class had so much content in our video.
Warm Feedback:
Personally, I did well listening to all my classmates. I would run in between the script and film editor teams to make sure the script writer's ideas could be possible. I took in everyone’s recommendations and it made our film better. As a class, we did an exceptional job keeping a positive attitude. We experienced a lot of challenges, like not having a bus to film in, and we powered through it. Every challenge we encountered, we moved positively through.
Areas for Growth:
I had a hard time not getting too stressed. Even though I was the director, I needed to understand there was only so much I could do. If I gave someone a job and they did not do it, I could always have an assistant director do it or help find a replacement. I could not and should not do everyone’s jobs. Next project, I will work towards balancing the work evenly between everyone and not taking on too much. As a whole class, I feel we could have worked better with time management. We ended up finishing filming the week before the project deadline, this did not give the editors enough time to complete their jobs. I think we could have solved this if we worked as a team to support the script writers to finish earlier.
In this project, we collaborated in positive and negative ways. Everyone in my class seemed to enjoy this project and they kept a positive attitude towards the project and their peers. Unfortunately, some of the times kids were not collaborating in a productive way. They simply were slacking off and not participating in their assigned job.
In this project, I collaborated with all students because I was the director. I enjoyed my job because I got to interact with all students in my class. I think the most important part of my job was trying to make sure the class was productively collaborating. At the beginning, I had trouble keeping all the students engaged in the project. I advocated to my teacher for some support with this and she helped by creating an all class meeting to discuss how the class was working together. I was glad we did this early on in project because it got us back on the right track.
Looking forward:
If I were to do this project again, I would change my approach to collaboration. I would work on balancing the work evenly, opposed to taking on too many jobs and becoming stressed. An assistant director or I should have gone around to students during class and made sure they had a job. Instead of telling them in the daily meeting to ask if they needed a job. I think this would have held kids more accountable.
If I could change this project, I would add two more weeks of project work time to it. Our class did not end up finishing the editing all our film. If we had two more weeks I believe the editors could have finished the necessary greenscreen and b-roll work to complete our final piece. On the flip side, I would keep the all the other aspects of the project the same. I loved how in this project I got to see all my peer's individual talents be showcased because we had so many different jobs they could choose. Leaders could be directors, thespians could be actors, the writers could make the script, and artists could design costumes or create storyboards, builders could make props, and so on. I feel like I understand my classmates better sfter this project.
Ecology Infographic
12/1/16
Prior Knowledge
In the infographic section of this project, I felt very prepared on constructing my infographic. In my digital media class at Mountain Middle School, we spent a large portion of the semester learning about how to construct infographics. Additionally, I used my knowledge from Roxy's Digital Arts class about design elements and principles to create a balanced piece of work.
Present Experience
Two of the most significant things I did during this unit were the field trip to Horse Gulch and the final exhibition. When my peers and I went to Horse Gulch we spent half the day learning about the ecology surrounding us and the rest of the day working with Trials 2000 to build a safer, more efficient sections of Mike's Trial. This experience was very educational because I got to literally be surrounded by what I was learning. Also, volunteering with Trails 2000 was an extremely positive experience because it always feels lovely to give back to your community. The exhibition was significant because I always take away more understanding when I have to clearly explain my work.
I came across difficulties when creating my infographic because I was a novice to the program Vengage. I had used other infographic templates in the past, but Vengage was a lot harder. I believe I could have asked for more support from my teacher and peers. During the project, I did not try to understand Vengage better. I used the easiest tools and did not improve my knowledge of infographics. I did not enjoy the program so I just was not interested to get to know it more.
During this project, I confirmed I like to assume to the role as group leader. During my class' time working groups I delegated tasks and made sure our infographics were appropriate to display. Being the leader makes me feel grounded.
I came into this project with very basic knowledge of ecology. During this project, I learned about ecosystems, the level of organization, and productivity in ecosystems. Ecosystems are communities in of organisms and the environment they live in. The level of organization biosphere, biome, ecosystem, community, population, organism, organ system, organ, cell, and atom. Productivity in an ecosystem is the small percentage of the sun's energy that is enough to enable earth's producers to manufacture billions of kilograms of organic material or biomass.
If I did this project again I would read over my groups write up more. Everyone in my group contributed a to a section of the write up. I checked mine for spelling and grammatical errors and to my knowledge my section was polished. I should have read over all the sections multiple times before the write up was displayed for parents and community members to see at the exhibition. Furthermore, I would have made my infographic's layout more appealing. I would have added more to the page because in some places it was very sparse.
Your Future
In this project, I learned about car and elk collisions. Living in the wilderness of Colorado, as a new driver, it is very important to be aware of elk while driving. Now, I know what months elk/car collisions are increased. I will be extra cautious. Additionally, I now know what wildlife funnels look like, so I can be extra alert for wildlife.
I wish I had more knowledge about elk species in Washington. During this problem only learned about how they are getting hit by cars and how to prevent it. I feel if I researched elk in Washington I would understand why elk, car collisions increase during certain months. At the exhibition, many people asked me why collision increased on certain months and I did not know how to answer.
The activities we did in this project worked with my learning style because I like to work independently. Even though we worked as a group we got to make our own infographics. I appreciated this because I still got to have the support of a group, but I was only responsible for myself.
After doing this project I will read over my work and all work being presented to the publish. My group's write up had spelling mistakes in it. I believe in the future if my group has a designated editor then we can avoid unprofessional grammatical mistakes.
In the infographic section of this project, I felt very prepared on constructing my infographic. In my digital media class at Mountain Middle School, we spent a large portion of the semester learning about how to construct infographics. Additionally, I used my knowledge from Roxy's Digital Arts class about design elements and principles to create a balanced piece of work.
Present Experience
Two of the most significant things I did during this unit were the field trip to Horse Gulch and the final exhibition. When my peers and I went to Horse Gulch we spent half the day learning about the ecology surrounding us and the rest of the day working with Trials 2000 to build a safer, more efficient sections of Mike's Trial. This experience was very educational because I got to literally be surrounded by what I was learning. Also, volunteering with Trails 2000 was an extremely positive experience because it always feels lovely to give back to your community. The exhibition was significant because I always take away more understanding when I have to clearly explain my work.
I came across difficulties when creating my infographic because I was a novice to the program Vengage. I had used other infographic templates in the past, but Vengage was a lot harder. I believe I could have asked for more support from my teacher and peers. During the project, I did not try to understand Vengage better. I used the easiest tools and did not improve my knowledge of infographics. I did not enjoy the program so I just was not interested to get to know it more.
During this project, I confirmed I like to assume to the role as group leader. During my class' time working groups I delegated tasks and made sure our infographics were appropriate to display. Being the leader makes me feel grounded.
I came into this project with very basic knowledge of ecology. During this project, I learned about ecosystems, the level of organization, and productivity in ecosystems. Ecosystems are communities in of organisms and the environment they live in. The level of organization biosphere, biome, ecosystem, community, population, organism, organ system, organ, cell, and atom. Productivity in an ecosystem is the small percentage of the sun's energy that is enough to enable earth's producers to manufacture billions of kilograms of organic material or biomass.
If I did this project again I would read over my groups write up more. Everyone in my group contributed a to a section of the write up. I checked mine for spelling and grammatical errors and to my knowledge my section was polished. I should have read over all the sections multiple times before the write up was displayed for parents and community members to see at the exhibition. Furthermore, I would have made my infographic's layout more appealing. I would have added more to the page because in some places it was very sparse.
Your Future
In this project, I learned about car and elk collisions. Living in the wilderness of Colorado, as a new driver, it is very important to be aware of elk while driving. Now, I know what months elk/car collisions are increased. I will be extra cautious. Additionally, I now know what wildlife funnels look like, so I can be extra alert for wildlife.
I wish I had more knowledge about elk species in Washington. During this problem only learned about how they are getting hit by cars and how to prevent it. I feel if I researched elk in Washington I would understand why elk, car collisions increase during certain months. At the exhibition, many people asked me why collision increased on certain months and I did not know how to answer.
The activities we did in this project worked with my learning style because I like to work independently. Even though we worked as a group we got to make our own infographics. I appreciated this because I still got to have the support of a group, but I was only responsible for myself.
After doing this project I will read over my work and all work being presented to the publish. My group's write up had spelling mistakes in it. I believe in the future if my group has a designated editor then we can avoid unprofessional grammatical mistakes.
