Spring Trip Twitter feed

We're off on our class trip!

Follow our travels here:

https://twitter.com/JasonsClassTrip (assuming the internet holds up...)

Stills from the first (annual?) Bigfoot Film Fest

As part of our Mythology theme, students spent two weeks researching, writing, filming, and editing short films about people investigating the existence of Bigfoot. Part of the project was to demonstrate some of the (often terrible) science that investigators utilize to substantiate their claims. 

We recently screened the films, and we thought you might enjoy seeing some stills from the productions:  

Ace reporter Kaeli interviewing an elusive and mysterious figure

A special effects spectacular! 

Reflections Night is this evening!

We hope to see you all at Reflections Night tonight! 

The kids have been practicing all morning. Here's a sneak peek:

Home stretch!

As the end of the year fast approaches, projects are culminating! Here we see the 5/6s working on assembling their city in the atrium, as the 3/4s rehearse their play outside.

Meanwhile, Kaeli and Sydney are wiring their building up for light:

Field trip to the DIA!

Art class was particularly spectacular today. Monica arranged a visit to the Detroit Institute of Arts, where we were taken on a marvelous tour that included many pieces of art that tied into the things we've been studying this year. 

One highlight was a close examination of the famous murals by Diego Rivera. We also took a closer look at some landscape work, which the kids will be working on next week in art. 

Today was apparently quite a big day for field trips to the DIA, as the place was virtually overrun with excited kids from many different schools. It was great to see so many kids so enthusiastically enjoying this remarkable local resource, but I have to say that I was especially proud of and impressed with how the Summers-Knoll kids conducted themselves. They made astute observations, asked insightful questions, and did a great job of taking advantage of the experience. 

Bigfoot projects - Filming and editing

We started today with a quick demonstration about filming and editing our Bigfoot videos. We're using Macbook Airs to film and edit our projects. They're great machines, but they're not necessarily an ideal choice for capturing audio and video. We talked a little bit this morning about how to use close ups and editing to make a more interesting film, and also to work around some of the technical limitations of our equipment. 

For example, filming your script in a single take from far away is visually uninteresting and difficult to hear: 

Filming using establishing shots and close-ups, however, can bring the film alive, while also making things a little easier to see and hear: 

Bigfoot videos

Bigfoot? Or an elaborate (or not-so-elaborate) hoax?

We've spent a couple of weeks investigating the validity of the scientific evidence supporting the existence of Bigfoot. Now we're taking what we've learned and working in small groups to write, perform, and film short videos demonstrating some of the common "errors in scientific thinking" that we've seen again and again when people investigate these kinds of claims.