Video Lesson

Today, October 9th, I conducted my second lesson at Jack Jouett Middle School. Today we were working with digital probes and filming with the flip cameras. We had a cart of laptops to use for the digital probes and each group was able to use one of these for their project. We began with a tutorial on how to connect and use the Vernier digital probes. I started with the temperature probes and demonstrated these for the students by holding the probe in my hand as I went through how to use the Logger Pro Lite software on their laptops. I also demonstrated a light sensor, force sensor and motion sensor. With the motion sensor, we had student move toward and away from the sensor so that we could view the displacement and the velocity of the motion. I also showed them how to re-scale their graphs and how to save their files if they needed them again.
Next, we passed out each probe to the groups one at a time and had them try them out. They were instructed to try each and be sure that they could connect them properly and collect some data with the software. This took a few minutes, but since they had to choose one probe for use in their video, it was good experience to help them decide which one to use. They then made a choice of their probe and worked on their storyboards for their videos. The groups had about fifteen mintues to work on these and some groups had already put in some time to consider what they wanted to do. As they finished a basic storyboard set and showed it to me, I gave them their flip video camera and they were reminded about boundaries, etc. for filming. Groups had from 30 to 45 minutes to film depending on how much time they spent writing and creating their storyboards. As they worked on these, Deanine and I split up between the groups. She had to take some down to the Nurses' office to film one scene and a group to the weight room for theirs. I went outside with a couple of groups working in an amphitheater and a stairway oustide the doorway. Another group used a break room with a microwave oven to check on heating some objects. I took pictures and helped groups get various props, including making some "fake blood" and other types of items for measurement like beakers, etc. I also helped groups to figure out specifics about filming like how far they could be from motion sensors, how to arrange their actors with lighting to get best effect, when to shoot close ups, and several other minor points. The groups were very engaged and all groups finished their shots within the given time. They returned to the class with a few mintues of class left to download and put away all of their equipment. We discovered that even though we could save the files to the server, Windows Movie Maker and viewer would not view the video portion of the mp4 files without the flip codec downloaded first. So, we decided to download as many videos as possible on Deanine's computer, which already had the flip video software. Some of the students helped each other with the downloading, but I don't think all groups downloaded their videos, so we may have to go back and finish some of this on Monday. We also discovered that we may have to convert these video clips to wmv format before we can edit them with Windows Movie Maker on Monday. I will plan on going in a bit early on Monday and do this just in case the Computer lab we are using for editing does not have the flip video codec installed on the computers.
At the end of class, the students cleaned up their props and materials, put up the laptops, and then they each filled out the exit card that I gave them, answering questions about what they learned about filming with the flip camera, what they learned about digital probes, and what they might want to do to edit their video on Monday.
Overall, it was a good class and I think the students did well with the assignment. Monday, we will be editing and I plan to do a short tutorial on Windows Movie Maker for them as well as go over the evaluation rubric for the project with them in more detail. I look forward to working with this group some more.