2 Minute Moment Project -School Fundraising

2 Minute Moment - School Fundraising

In this 2 Minute Moment video Jenny talks about what it is like to participate in school fundraising activities.  Jenny has been responsible for leading our marketing and fundraising team that has raised in excess of $60,000 over the last two years for her high school robotics team.

When talking about the less compelling activities she talks about the typical bake sale type fundraiser which is typical in our school district and many others.  In our school a lot of classes try to raise funds for classroom materials or field trips.  The photos used in this section are from our government class.  They are trying to raise funds to visit the local jail.  It will cost the class $30 per student for this field trip or about $900 for the entire class of 30 to go.  During the day we photographed them selling puppy chow snack mix in the cafeteria they made $30.

Jenny explains that these fundraising activities are looked on by the students as a chance to get out of class first and a fundraising activity second.  They have become so common place that a different group is trying to sell something almost every day.  The students end up sitting at the front of the cafeteria waiting for other students to purchase what every they are selling and very little effort is put into the activity by the sellers or the purchasers.

Jenny describes her movie night activity as a compelling fundraising activity.  She says that all of the students are involved and engaged in the activity.  They spend more time planning the activity and the activity is conducted after school and involves the whole community.  The movie night she is describing is a screening of the documentary "Last Flight Home."  It is about the BentProp Project and the search for and recovery of American MIAs in the Palau Islands.  Jenny and her marketing team obtained the rights to show this documentary from the films producer Dan O'Brien.  The screenings are heavily promoted by Jenny and her team of student marketers.  They ask for a donation of $5 at the door and offer snacks for sale during the event.  At the last movie night they also held a silent auction.  Planned and conducted by the students.  On this evening they spent the same amount of time (90 minutes) as the above mentioned government class did.  The results however, were much different.  Jenny and her team raised over $3,000 in the same 90 minutes.  Not only was the activity much more engaging for the students participating in the fundraising.  It was also much more enjoyable for their customers/donors. And much more profitable too.  

The key to making it a compelling experience is getting everyone to buy in.  The students, the teacher and the community.  Too often we as teachers fall back on the old staple the "bake sale."  I'n not sure if it is worth the time.

Immaginative Bridges - 9

Immaginative Bridges - 9

Using video in the high school robotics class

I've always wanted to make videos with my students and I've tried several times prior to this semester but the results were usually poor.  It was not the students fault.  It was do mainly to poor quality equipment and my lack of ability to make the old out dated equipment work properly.  I know I needed to fix this so this fall I wrote a grant to obtain a Macbook Pro to use in editing video and I set aside some of my robotics budget to buy newer video cameras for use on land in addition to the ones we use underwater on our robots.

I've learned quite a bit while making these short videos for CEP 882 and I wanted to get my students into the act as soon as possible and before we left for Palau.  One of my goals for this year was to create a short documentary about our project.  I think that may now be possible.

We purchased the new Macbook Pro three weeks ago and my students have used it just about every day to edit videos shot in class and to make videos introducing the class to all their followers on Facebook before our Expedition to Palau.  I would like to share some of these with you here:

We have also been fortunate enough to receive two brand new "Hero3, Black Edition, Cameras" from GoPro.  GoPro donated these for our upcoming trip.  

This video was prepared by one of the members of our engineering team using a GoPro camera and the new MacBook.

Evans Video

This video was posted to our team's Facebook page and ended up being liked by almost 2,000 people and being shared 50 times.  

We also created team introduction videos.  We created one for the engineering team and one for the marketing team.  These videos both ended up helping us quite a bit.  We learned last week the "The Discovery Channel" would be creating a short feature presentation about our project for one of their shows called "Daily Planet."  We used these videos to introduce the producer to our students and based on these videos she was able to set up interviews for tomorrow with my students.  "The Discovery Channel" will have a film crew in Palau to video tape my students on March 26-27, 2013.  Based upon last years trip we all ready know the film company "Roll'em Productions.  Roll'em is owned by an American expatriate formerly from East Lansing, Michigan.  He spent time setting up interviews with the local media in Palau last year.

Here are the introduction videos created by my students in class:

Meet the Marketing Team

Meet the Engineering Team

I think that the use of video has enriched my class and helped to create are more compelling educational experience.  Through the process of creating videos my students have been given another way to express themselves and to show others what they have leaned in this class.

A Tale of Two Spaces

Two Retail Hardware Stores

My Video for the Architecture and Interior Design Module

For this module I visited two hardware stores.  The funny thing is that at one time both of these stores were owned by the same family and had the same name, yet the experience of visiting both stores was dramatically different.  

The first hardware store is in an older store front in a small village.  From the outside it appears to be a quaint little store, freshly painted in bright, victorian colors.  The store front has large windows in the front which allows for plenty of natural lighting.  The doorway to enter the building has a freshly hand painted sign.  The side walk is wooden and worn.  It looks well used.  Upon entering the store the appearance is much different.  It is not neat and clean as the outside suggests.  It is however vary interesting.  Antiques and memorabilia from days gone by is hung high on the wall.  It makes me think that I may be able to find anything in here even repair parts for my older home.  

Next I notice the floors which are wooden and squeak with each step.  They are worn, wooden and probably original, yet dirty.  Dirt tracked in by do-it-yourselfers, carpenters, electricians and all sorts of hands on workers who could careless as long as they find that need piece of hardware.  The lighting is patched together and old.  The store was built before electricity was available in this farm town.  The large store front windows provide lots of natural lighting which is supplemented by crudely hung electric lights which seem to be an after thought.  This leaves the back areas of the store darker than the front.  What could possibly be hidden in the back?

The store is stocked with all of the fasteners, and pluming and electrical supplies that any do-it- your-selfer or farmer may need.  The isles are close together and it makes me feel as if the owners have tried to use every bit of space possible for merchandise.  

In the front of the store, on that old wood floor is a wooded table and four wooden chairs,  this is a meeting place for some of the locals and place to work.  

The second hardware store I visited was a much different experience.  Modern, and recently built, located on the edge of town on a busier road.   The entryway was different, it was not only more modern but it was steel and glass and the glass on these double doors was the only natural light in the building.

Upon entering the store I first noticed the bright fluorescent lights.  The store was clean and recently rearranged.  In front of the door was a common area for the display of seasonal items, gardening equipment, picnic tables and garden/flower seeds were the first thing I saw and it made me wish it was spring.  The new set up of the store forces customers to walk past the seasonal items, tools and nice to have items before getting to the real hardware at the back of the store.  The isles are wide and the displays are brimming with products.  This store is built for quick shopping and an easy in easy out experience.

The design of these two spaces creates two different shopping experiences.  The first is an old time hardware store that encourages the shopper to slow down, ask questions, have a seat and talk about what is going on in town. The second is built for through put.  Quick in and out shopping with easy to find products and convenient shopping. 

Immaginative Bridges - 8 "Space"

How do we create a compelling space for learning and teaching?

After completing the readings I doubt that much thought went into the design of my school or classroom by the folks who designed the school and made the budgetary decisions when the school was built.  And, I now not that much thought has gone into the upgrades and upkeep since then.  The number one concern then and now is money.  Our school was built on the factory model of education.

Not much different than a prison.  And, yes I actually worked in an office that was in located in the former state prison in Jackson, Michigan before it was turned into a National Guard Armory.  Although, the Army National Guard gave me more leeway in choosing how I painted the walls in my office than my current school district allows me.

The school has exposed building material too.  Bricks, that is.  Standard 8"X6"X4" cement blocks painted either white or blue.  A 30' X 30' square room with a chalkboard at the front flanked on each side by a 4' X 4' bulletin board and don't forget the 1' X 1' tile blocks on the classroom floor and the 5' X 5' blocks in the hallways.  Each classroom was designed to hold 30 students and 1 teacher.  All student desk are facing forward towards the chalkboard and the teachers desk.  Regardless of how you rearrange your room during the year after the custodians and maintenance crew finish their summer cleaning it will magically reappear this way in the fall before the start of the school year.

So how do we create a compelling space for leaning and teaching?

It's left up to the individual teacher to best make this bad design fit into his or her teaching style.  Some still look like they did when the school first opened in December of 1976.  Others have changed to meet the needs of technology.  Our former typing room is now a computer lab.  Set up basically the way it was when I went to school their in the 1970's.

Others have be reconfigured to break the standard mold but most have not.

In a perfect world those building the school would listen to the teachers and students and create a space designed for learning.  Not for production.  Although my fear is that  the common core and more standardized testing are leading us to use this factory model school to create TEST TAKING FACTORIES.  Yes it's that time of year again.  ACT/MME Testing at my school next week.

The "STAR" Effect

Just to wrap up our look at the bridges between Television and Film and education I would like to mention how the stars of theses shows and sporting events compel people to watch, participate or emulate their behavior.

This is something I feel we may be able to replicate in while trying to create compelling educational experiences as well.  Our younger students tend to look up to our older students and they some day want to be like the older students.

We have tried to leverage that in our robotics program  in Stockbridge.  My high school students routinely work with elementary and middle school students and classes.  The younger kids love to work with the older students and believe it or not the high school students enjoy sharing their knowledge with the younger students and it's not just the girls.  The guys in my robotics class get a lot out of working with the younger students as well.  Both groups of students are able to learn quite a bit through this.

This week our Elementary teachers asked if we could help their students build a claw for their competition underwater robot.  So we decided to teach a group of their students to build the claw and have them return to the elementary school and teach or show their peers how to build their own.

High school robotics students demonstrating robotic gripper(claw) with wrist joint

High school students working with elementary students to build gripper

Elementary students building gripper with wrist joint

Hard at work.  This went on for 3 hours during my high school robotics class and then carried over into my accounting class.

The elementary students took pictures on their IPad and made videos of this process on their Ipad so they could relay the information back to their classmates.

Heritage Exploratory Academy video of gripper demonstration

By having high school, middle school, and elementary school students work together on similar, complimentary projects we can leverage this "Star" effect to the benefit of all students.

The younger students love learning from the older students and the older students can demonstrate their knowledge my teaching someone else.  In this case my high students learned how to build a gripper and improve the grippers performance by adding a wrist joint.  They built their own and installed it on their ROV.  Then they taught the elementary students how to build the same gripper and wrist joint.  The four elementary students went back to their classroom and taught their teacher and classmates how to build a gripper and wrist joint.  That is project based learning and cooperative learning at its best.  Not to mention a multiage classroom.

The elementary students showing off their completed gripper with wrist joint before heading back to Heritage Elementary school.

Imaginative Bridges - 7

Film and Television.

The pacing of the images used in my video helped to create interest and suspense.  I teach in a 90 minute block.  Much to long to lecture.  Plenty of time for large projects.  The key to using and managing in the block is to chunk it up into smaller bite size pieces.  Then push the pace to keep the kids interested and wanting the next piece of the puzzle.

On another note.  Today is Presidents day.  Yesterday one of my students messaged me and asked if I could let him and 3 other students into the school to work on their robot.  He said that this week was spirit week and he new they wouldn't get a lot done with all the distractions and they wanted to have the frame rebuilt before our next pool test.  He reminded me that we only have 31 days left before we leave for Palau.

How many teachers get calls like this?  Not many.  Kind of cool.  So what compelled these students to want to come in on their day off?  I would like to think it is our project.  More than likely it is a combination of the the project and a great work ethic.

Compelling Video

PATH TO PALAU (My Compelling Video)

I was trying to create the sense of adventure.  The hardest part was making it fit into a 30 second package.  I thought I had a great one but it was a minute and nine seconds long so I ended up redoing the video several times to shorten it up.  The first seen is almost in black and white.  The dive boat heading out of Malakal harbor in Koror, Palau as the adventure begins.  Then I move to scenes on the boat with my students and their guides.  Once again each one of these clips were cut down.  I tried to keep it moving along without losing to much of the sense of adventure as I edited.

The titles that I used to transition are not up long enough.  I almost wonder if I should have removed them rather than shorten them?

I added some stock sound from "IMOVIE"  it seems to go with the plot of the video.  I feel like I created the sense of adventure.  My hope is that this can be used to get my students motivated to edit and display more of the video we have taken in class.  Just this week we shot over 3 hours of video.  How do we edit it to share project????


I actually loved this project.  This is what I've been after my students to do for the last six months.  In all fairness to them our school computers are garbage.  But, they will not have that excuse much longer.  We received a $2,500 grant from Touchstone Energy this week to buy a new laptop and that is what I used to create this video.  I've used PC's since the early 1980's and this is really my first experience with  a MAC.  I should have made this switch years ago.  I was able to create this "IMOVIE" and learn the software and computer in about three days.  My students are going to love it.  My tech director will pitch a fit though because I bought it outside her system and I'm not letting her touch it to install all the crap they have on the school computers.