About 3 weeks ago, we started inquiring into a natural disaster of our choice…and now we have completed our own science documentaries!
It was a 5-step research journey to create the documentaries. The steps were:
- Choose one natural disaster that was interesting to us.
- Prepare a speech about the 4 big concepts (cause, impact, response and detection/prediction). To do this, we found sources of information, took notes and kept a reference list.
- Make a model or skit to demonstrate one concept.
- Rehearse, then deliver our speech on video.
- Use green/blue-screen technology to make our documentary exciting.
We all wrote wonderful speeches. Each group had different information about natural disasters such as earthquakes, volcanoes, tornadoes and avalanches. On the day of filming we were really excited and nervous to deliver our speeches.
After recording, we used green screen technology to edit in iMovie. We used Google search tools to find large, colourful images that matched each of our big concepts. The images became a background for our films and it helped us to look like we were in the real place. We tried to use gestures to point at some of the images as we spoke. We had some trouble with editing, but Mr Papaseit helped us work out how to get our images the right length for each section of speech.
Here are some screenshots from our documentaries. Please visit our individual wikis to see our films. We are very proud of our work. We hope you enjoy them and maybe even learn some new information!
By Hyun Seo & Diana
What are you most proud of in your documentary?
What was the most difficult concept to explain?
What was the most interesting thing you learned about natural forces?
4 Comments
Join the conversation and post a comment.
Dear Ms.O’Dwyer,
The proudest thing in the N.F (Natural Forces) documentary is that I wrote a speech for my own DVD. I am also very proud that we remembered our script and we used i-Movie to edit it.
The most difficult thing to explain the science ideas in the wildfire documentary and to choose pictures on the topic because my group didn’t really know what pictures we should put in different sections.
The most interesting thing about my natural forces was that is not only one kind of fire and that the radiant heat can also injure people.
But I wonder if we can survive in a tsunami, too? I will watch the video now!
Wonders,
Diana
Dear Ms.O’Dwyer,
Thanks for helping us make videos! When I finally watched my video, it was so cool and amazing!
My mom also liked it! She said she also wants to study about natural forces in our class.She liked everything but she especially likes fires&tsunamies beacause the backgrounds were wonderful and realistic. She felt that the fires and tsunamis would come.
I proud of my documentry because this is first time that I have been hard-working on a scientific report. Usually I don’t work so hard on my writing.
The most interesting thing I learned about natural forces is that when there is a fire, firefighters have many different ways to put it out! I also learned that today from the Grade 8 show, which was a really fun story about natural forces.
Kind regards,
Na Youn
Dear Ms O’Dwyer
It was very hard to make a movie because we needed remenber the script, eye contact, actions and to speak loudly. But we also had a lot of fun. For example we could choose our own back ground. After finishing making the movie, we watched our own movie and it was very cool because we are like real scientist!! During this unit, I learned many things about natural disasters. I wish I could make more and more movies.
Kind Regards
From Kazuki
Dear Ms.O’Dwyer,
It was fun to make our own documentary by choosing a natural disaster.It was hard to research on my topic but I stil enjoyed it. During the reaserch, I learned that the Chinese invented the machine that predicts an earthquake a very long time ago.
My mom was so proud of me when she saw my video. She said she like it so much. I was proud of my self that I did that job. The hard thing was when it was recording day, my partner was absent so I needed to do all the work by myself but I tried my best.
Next time, I would like to know how can we escape from volcanoes. I think I need to research about that!
Kind Regards,
Hyun Seo