Create a short video to enhance project-based learning!

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DINOSAURSSeptember 2009

NOTE: THIS LESSON

DOESN’T TEACH HOW TO USE

VIDEO OR SOUND EDITING

SOFTWARE

Make A Cool Toys Dinosaur Video!

PURPOSE

HAVE FUN!A fun project-based lesson where the child takes the lead in his/her learning and puts the information together to teach other children. Multiple skills are developed. This lesson incorporates language arts, science, technology, art, music and play!

OBJECTIVECombine technology, toys and fun to research and present about dinosaurs. Estimated Time: 5 two-hour sessions to complete.

MATERIALSAn assortment of toy dinosaurs, dinosaur reference books or trusted web sites, digital camera, document scanner, computer with video editing software, sound editing and image editing software (Macintosh computers are excellent for this lesson because all new Macs come with the necessary software), pencil and paper. NOTE: This lesson is intended as an outline of the creative and technical

process and does not teach how to use video, audio and photo-editing software.

Choose at least three or four

different - looking toy dinosaurs to

research.

Eclectic Homeschooling

V i s i t u s o n Y o u T u b e

h t t p : / / y o u t u b e . c o m / p l a n e t l o c a lO N L I N Es p o t t y b a n a n a . c o m E N J O YSHARE

Stegosaurus

Brachiosaurus Brachiasaurus

MAKE A COOL TOY DINOSAUR VIDEO! PAGE2

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LANGUAGE ARTSStudents research and cite their sources, can create exotic narration voice overs or on -camera personas, practice typing, hand writing and compose narration scripts. This lesson can be extremely basic for younger students or adapted for older students by adding more research requirements, sophisticated stop-motion animation techniques and storyboards.

ARTStudents draw and create graphs, pictures or char t s for present ing research information.

DO NOT SKIP THIS PARTDon’t forget to let students play with the toy dinosaurs. Take them outside and set them up in a nice spot and take lots of pictures. Find a moist area where you can make toy dino footprints or build a dinosaur nest. We had fun pretending our dinosaurs were herding, eating and nesting. Whatever you do, have fun! Having fun is relaxing and unlocks the imagination. If you can’t go outside, find a sunny window and place

your dinosaurs on a large map or solid colored paper.

MUSICIf the student plays a musical instrument, have him or her perform and record a short piece of music for the video introduction and ending. Otherwise, the student can sing or hum a tune. Be creative by perhaps creating and recording your own sound effects, too!

This project-based approach to

learning about dinosaurs

incorporates multiple subjects in a fun and engaging manner. Student

becomes teacher as he or she creates a

rich media presentation.

Tyrannosaurus Rex Tyrannosaurus Rex

MAKE A COOL TOY DINOSAUR VIDEO! PAGE3

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This lesson places student as teacher using research and presentation vehicles. Basic technology expertise is a prerequisite for creating a rich media presentation.

RESEARCH & DOCUMENTChoose at least four different toy dinosaurs and use your local public library or the internet to research basic information about each dinosaur. Try to find out the names of each dinosaur, the period in which they lived, some interesting facts about each one, what each one ate or perhaps their relative size and geographic location. The resulting video should be about two to three minutes long, so limit the information to just a few facts for each dinosaur.

Be sure to take note of your sources so that you can cite them for inclusion in your video. We use Zotero, a Firefox browser extension that helps build bibliographies.

WRITEAfter researching each dinosaur,

have the student spend time thinking about a story line and write a basic script for each dinosaur. The student will be recording his/her voice reading this script. Our homeschooler used paper and pencil to write the script to practice handwriting skills, but you can easily use word processing software or even a storyboard outline.

DRAWNext, draw diagrams, charts or

graphs to display time periods, relative s i ze s o r some o the r d ino saur information. Use a document scanner to scan the image onto your computer hard drive.

A f t e r p l a y i n g w i t h a n d photographing your dinos, upload digital images from your digital camera onto your computer for use in your movie software. Movie software varies greatly, so budget time to learn the basics.

MOVIEUsing your choice of movie editing

software (we used iMovie which is a Macintosh-only product), create a new project and insert your pictures and scanned images into your movie. Make sure each image is displayed for about 15 seconds. Once you have your images in the proper sequence, add transitions, titles, credits and other supporting information. There are various methods for adding sound. Add it directly into your movie using your movie editing software or export your movie to the sound editing software. We export our movie as a Quicktime file (.mov) and add as a movie track in GarageBand (Mac-only) music editing software.

SOUNDSound editors are fun. We

explored the various sound effects and music loops and had fun incorporating them into our movie. If your child plays a musical instrument, assist with using the software to record a short musical piece to be used as an introduction and during the end credits. Macs come with built-in microphones so we didn’t have to deal with additional ‘gadgets’ while recording our script narration or instrumental performance. However, you may need an external microphone or other digital recording device in order to capture sound either directly onto your computer or transferred digitally after recording.

EDITINGSome editing will be necessary to

better sync audio with video, but this is part of the process of learning to use the tools. Allow plenty of time for this part of the project (a couple of hours). We export our video in HD quality and upload to a YouTube account. We use our account to share some of our educational ideas, experiments, etc.

EXPAND THIS LESSONCreate a dinosaur blog, create a

series of dinosaur videos, or adapt for homeschool coops.

ESSENTIAL ELEMENTSTHE BASIC ELEMENTS REQUIRED FOR MAKING A COOL TOY DINOSAUR

MOVIE