Science Videos

Introduction: The school science department is looking for willing videographers to create and produce short, 3 minute videos to go along with the third grade science unit. These videos will be used when a teacher is introducing or reviewing specific topics. They might also be shown on the in-house tv broadcast.

Task: You and a group of friends will plan, practice and act in a 2-3 minute videotaped production about a specific topic. Before you can create your presentation, your teacher will help you to learn about the topics. To learn more about creating a production of this kind, high school students will give presentations to your class to demonstrate good presentation skills. Finally, several adults will assist with the videotaping and editing of the tape.

Process:

Teachers present background information on the following topics:

• seasons-their causes, sun and earth positions
• earth rotation-the causes of day and night
• moon phases-tides and gravitational pull
• water cycle-evaporation, condensation, and precipitation
• severe weather-tornado, blizzard, snowstorm, flood, hurricane, thunderstorm
• natural disasters-earthquake, tsunami, volcano, mudslide
• renewable and nonrenewable resources
• forms of matter
• magnets
• food web and food chain-herbivore, omnivore, carnivore, producer and consumer

****Teachers: see your science teachers' guide for specifics

1. Students from a local high school give presentations pertaining to seasons, earth rotation, and moon phases.
2. Elementary school students are asked to analyze the presentations and think about what was interesting for the audience.
3. The class is divided into groups of 4-5 students and given a topic from the list above. (Note: in our project, two classes were involved. Each class took 5 topics.)
4. Students make a list of things they need to cover in their video and start brainstorming ways to present the topic. Lists of props are generated.
5. A storyboard is used to track the flow of the video presentation.
6. Groups are given time to write their script in the computer lab, to create their props and practice the presentation.
7. In the meantime, high school students also act as experts by answering questions via email.
8. When the students are ready, three adults help them film, and edit the presentations.

Opportunities to share:

1. High school students give several presentations on relevant topics and they interact with the third graders to expand their knowledge on the day of the presentation and via email.
2. Students work together to analyze high school presentations.
3. Groups share ideas for their productions with each other.
4. Each group creates a 2-3 minute video on a specific science topic to share with the school via the in-house news show.
5. The tapes are archived for teachers to check out and use when introducing or reviewing the topics.

Assessment:

Ongoing assessment in the form of anecdotal records are taken as students work together to learn about all of the topics and work on their presentations. Multiple choice tests are given on specific topics and students are asked to fill out a rubric assessing group participation and cooperation. The rubric (Cooperative Grouping Rubric) was obtained from the book, Solving the Assessment Puzzle: Piece by Piece by Carolyn Coil and Dodie Merritt.

Choice Board #1	Choice Board #2	Contract for Choice Boards
Moon Quiz	Food Chain Quiz	Our Changing Earth Quiz

To see pictures from the unit, click on the camera.

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Unit designed by Tina Davis and Pat Smoyer
Page created by Brooks Widmaier
April 2003