This is a place for the community of learners in Room 8-16 to learn and enjoy math. It is an extension of the classroom making it accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
So we did this project called 2 Minutes to Make a Difference, and after all of the researching and taking notes and organizing information, we were told to do a final reflection. I know mine is late...but I am taking the time to finish it properly.
First version of movie:
Final version:
Changes we made:
We made serveral small changes to our video. we added some more pictures (due to some suggestions) which helped lengthen the video. We also prolonged some images to give people some time to read the text. We also fixed up the minor spelling mistakes pointed out to us. (Give credit to Nhea who did the actual editing)
The student suggestions were quite helpful. Some of the images we added helped get the point across that we were serious about this issue(at least I thought so).
How we found our expert: Laura was the one who hooked us up with an expert. She (or her parents) were well aquainted with a respected doctor and therfore had the connections that allowed us to include our interview piece.
Our experts name is Shane Hartry. Unfortunately, I wasn't present for the interview, but I do know that his ansewrs did clear up some things for me. Many things can lead to obesity, but the main causes are lack of exercise and over-eating. Many things can lead to such; boredom, mood, stress... and the list could go on...
Our greatest success for the project: I would say our greatest success would be that while filming, we managed to keep our laughter down. Since we're all friends, you think we'd have been whooping it up halfway through our video, but no...... The strategies (I used) was to think if dead animals while filming so I wouldn't laugh. During one of our bloopers, I said this out loud and our group thought it was rather funny. I think think this project helped us bond more ( even though the arguing brought some stress). I also think that I learned a thing or two about video editing.
What frustrated me the most was that we had so many ideas that we wanted to use, that we ended up arguing on which one was the best. Catfight...not pretty.....
I personally think that this project is important to all people. It gets people 'in the know' about certain issues; like poverty or racism.
In the future I'd like to make a difference by starting my own charity or becoming an affiliate of a well known humanitarian oganization.
The changes we made between our Version 1 video and our final cut is that we added pictures to our second video. We also fixed up our scripted. The students comments mostly told us to add pictures and as you can see, we have put pictures.
How did you find your expert? List 3 important points your expert added to your movie. What did you learn from your expert?
We found our expert by looking up " Environmentalist in Winnipeg ".
- He told us information that we had never known before. - He taught us that their is a plastic dump in the middle of the pacific ocean - He told us how he would make a diffrence
We found our expert on the Internet .
This movie project in general was a great success. I think our groups greatest success was finishing up our video. This Movie project showed me that things I should careful about and things I could get.
The main problem in our movie project was getting everything to fit together, like we were having problems with getting the pictures, sound, and our voices to fit all together. We ask teachers and students.
I think the 2 minutes to Make a Diffrence was important to us grade 8's because we learned bits and peices about the our world. Everyone had diffrent topics and we learned more about poverty and our environment.
In the future I will make a diffrence by telling people about what is happening in our world and how we can stop it. I will try not to harm our environment.
Google docs- http://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AdHudMRHEx_NZGQ1MmJmbXRfNDA1emNxYzhjcw&hl=en
Version 1- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uS5ATG-kLVk
Final Movie- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wa9T8G4aOO0
The changes my group and I did was to add pictures. We added pictures into our final cut to make the video more effective and show people how much our environment is getting affective by plastic bags. We also changed the script in a way that it would make more sense, to the audience. The comments by the students helped us to see what little and big changes we needed to make for our movie. Then in the end the comments helped us a lot and made our movie better.
3 important points the expert helped us on:
- Our expert helped us with the questions and information we didn't find the answer to.
- He told us how he, himself can make a difference about plastic bags.
- He gave us new information that we didn't know in our other researches.
What I learned about from the expert was that the plastic bags piling up in the Pacific Ocean was twice the size of Texas, which shocked all three of us when he told us that.
At first we all emailed a bunch of other experts but only 1 emailed us back, the expert that emailed us back was from the University of Manitoba. When our expert emailed us back, he gave us his number. So we did our interview over the phone, and we asked him our questions that we couldn't find the answers to.
I think our movie was a success! Although we had so much complications on making our final cut, we still did it. My group and I all equally helped on the movie project.
While making out movie we had a little difficulty on how to put pictures, music, and audio at the same time just to make the movie the way we wanted it to be. But all we really had to do was ask teachers and classmates.
For me, the 2 minutes to make a difference was important to us grade 8s because when we do a project like this, we get to see more about whats going on in the environment. I really liked how we all tried doing different topics and learning about them.
I personally will make a difference by telling family about how plastic bags are ruining our environment and how much plastic bags are being used every year and to try and use less plastic bags and more reusable bags. I will also try not to use as much plastic bags myself.
1) Please relect and talk about the changes you made between the first and final cut of your movie. Were the student comments helpful in making your final cut better?
- The changes we made were to change the voice recordings to text, different background, and adding in different pictures. We got the idea to change voice recordings to text from a comment.
2) How did you find your expert? List 3 important points your expert added to your movie. What did you learn from your expert?
- Our groups expert was Bruce's mom, Ellen Gahigi, she is a Field Coordinator for the U.N. - why there is poverty in Somalia - How the U.N is helping - How we can help support Somalia. Bruce's mom said that we can do so much to help Somalia as an individual.
3) What was your greatest success in the 2 minutes project. What skills will you take away with you and use in the future?
- I think our greatest success was editing our first draft of the video and making it better and stronger. There are many skills we could take, for example , how to make a strong, effective and influential statement.
4) What frustrated you during the movie making process? What strategies did you use to become successful?
- The most frustrating thing was all of the pre-writing activities because to me it was boring but important. - I just asked the other members of the group for ideas and such things.
5) Why is the 2 Minutes project important to Grade 8 Students?
- It is importance because as we grow up we can research more and more to see how we can help other people and places.
6) How will you make a difference in the future?
- I will make a difference in the future by not wasting food, donating and try not to get the extra accessories that i don't need. Also telling people about these problems and how they can help.
CHANGES: 2. In our final video we changed the music because we felt that it didn't fit on what our video was on. We took out the interviews because the adio wasn't that good and you couldn't really understand what they were saying. We also put some more info and pictures in. I think that we used the comments to help us with the final version.
3,4,5. we didn't find an expert for our movie but we tried.
6.I think our greatest success for this project was the editing because we knew waht we were doing. I think we should take our editing skills with us into the future.
7.trying to get the expert was really frustrating because the only expert that we could get in contact with was really busy.
8.I think that the 2minutes to make a difference project is improtant because we need to learn that there is other things that are important then just them selves.
9.I think I will help to reduce water pollution by not littering, picking up trash and turning off the tap when I am not using it.
2. In the final version of the video I changed the volume. In the first one I guess the interview was scratchy because it was to quiet so I had to raise the volume. I lowered the music and the interview so it was clearer. I also added some writing when there was talking so we could know what they were saying. Lastly I added some more pictures to set a better mood in how it is important. I think the comments were helpful. It showed us how we could make the video better.
3. We found our expert at the Winnipeg Humane Society, because I knew that the humane society helps animals so I thought there would be an expert that could help us. Three things our expert showed us were that the Humane Society helps a lot of animals and that they do a lot of stuff to treat the animals or make the animals feel better. Another thing she told us is there is a lot of things we can do to help the animals. We couldn't fit in all the things she told in the interview. From my expert I learned a lot about how many animals they take care of and what they do to help abused animals.
4. I think the best thing about our video was the mood. I think the music went with the video really well, it make the video more effective and more interesting. I can take the information our expert gave us and share it with others so they can help too.
5. It was really frustrating when I was editing the video. I would make some changes but then the computer would freeze up and wouldnt work. When that happened I would have to close it then restart it again, that way it would work again.
6.I think 2 minutes to make a difference is important for grade 8's because we are the age that we can change peoples thinking on he earth. We are the age that we understand what is going wrong and help change it as we grow up. We can also teach the younger kids how to change the world and they can teach other people, kind of like pay it forward! =)
7. I can make a difference by volunteering to places that can change the world like the Winnipeg Humane Society or even places that help other things like SEED Winnipeg( that helps refugees). But ill have to do that when im older. I would also like to donate to places. I already sponcer a child in South Africa named Lesago and I donate to the Winnipeg Humane Society. Also I give my old stuff to the Canadian Diabetes clothes line.
