We want to share this powerful educational experience with students and towns around the state.  We do two things to accomplish this. 

 

First, we provide the Project Atlantic Student Film Curriculum that can be used in any classroom, along with any course. 

 

Second, we have created a statewide media-sharing platform that will allow students to share their interviews and other original media clips with each other.

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Teachers make Project Atlantic the culminating project of whatever course they teach.  They require their students to to a 5-7 minute (suggested) documentary film instead of a paper at the end of their course (please see Media Creators Learn More for our argument in favor of film as an academic medium).

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The Project Atlantic Student Film Curriculum has two parts--a general and easy introductory phase that you fit to your curriculum and a Project-specific second half with specific production benchmarks towards the creation of a successful video project. 

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In the first half of the course students are introduced to the WeVideo online video-creation platform and encouraged to play with it to create two projects that use basic video-editing tools, but are themed for your course.  The first project encourages students to tell a story by putting together still pictures, text, music and voice-over.  In my Environmental Science course, I have the students do a Timeline of Environmental Science assignment, with each student assigned to a significant figure in the history of Environmental Science. After they are complete, students view them as a group and give feedback which, along with teacher feedback, is used to do a final draft. 

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In the second assignment of the first half, students take a topic they might have written a short (2-3p) paper about, and make a three-minute video instead.  Believe me, this is a bigger assignment than it seems.  A 3 page paper is 775 words and can be knocked off in an afternoon. Not so with a film. 

 

In this assignment, students are encouraged to cover their topic using film clips from Creative Commons Media and sites like archive.org.  Again, they do a draft, which is viewed by all students, then the feedback process leads to a second draft of the film on e week later.  

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In this way, students familiarize themselves with the WeVideo platform and its quirks so that they are not in the middle of a huge Video Production Learning Curve while they are also trying to create their final project. 

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The Final Project unfolds over a nine-week period (block-length courses, 45-minute courses will take longer).  Students go through a process of picking a topic and doing research just like any other project, but Benchmarks are provided that are film-specific.  Bi-weekly assignments have students create a storyboard, conduct, transcribe and catalog their interviews, create a rough draft and then a final one.  

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Since WeVideo allows for collaboration between students, there is some latitude as to whether students will want to work on their own or in groups. Groups can accomplish more, but as you know, sometimes they can accomplish less the larger they get, so roles will have to be well-defined.

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Project Atlantic works in any classroom because you make it part of your normal courses! It is a big project, and towards the end it will use a lot of student time.  However, like most final half of the course culminating projects, the learning helps to weave together a great deal of your course's goals. Also, as an important bonus, the Project involves your students with their community.