The Science of Photography: Who knew Science was Art?
My students need 3 digital cameras and art supplies.
$1,079 goal
Hooray! This project is fully funded
Hooray! This project is fully funded
Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month
This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because
it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.
All our school's art programs have been cut, as a Biology teacher I wanted to incorporate more art and science together. By mixing science and digital media my students can learn and extend their science knowledge, while still getting art and technology practice that can prepare them for the future.
I teach in a very low income, high minority section of Oakland, CA.
My students are about 60% Africa American, 35% Latino, and 5% Asia Pacific Islander, who for the most part lack the parental support and encouragement that is necessary for academic success. Out of the 135 9th grade students I taught last year, 1 student had a reading level of higher than a 9th grade level, the rest of the reading levels range from 2nd to 6th grade. Our school is extremely underfunded and does not provide any resources or school supplies to the students, and most of their parents lack the financial resources or motivation to provide school supplies to their children. In spite of all of these setbacks, most of my students really want to improve their living situation and do better than their parents have, so they are very open to teachers who care about them and really want to assist them in improving their academic skills for success in college.
My Project
I am requesting three digital cameras, colored pencils, easel chart paper, and chart paper markers to incorporate into a series of art and science units and projects. My hope is that when conducting their own student developed experiments they can document their progress both with still photos and short student made movies using the digital cameras. From this media aspect we will use iphoto and imovie to create presentations and videos to present in class and at our district science fair. The chart paper will then be used to set up "explanation stations," including photos of their experiments and work. The markers and colored pencils will be used to not only make these presentations visually appealing, but I can stress artistic creativity in the creation of the posters. I believe that it is important to prepare students for an ever increasing technological world, and through the practice of media arts combined with a rigorous science class students will be prepared for this world.
Most of my students do not have the means to have this type of technology at home, and without an opportunity to experiment and troubleshoot with digital media they will be far behind those students who's families have the means.
By familiarizing themselves with programs like photoshop, iphoto, imovie, and basic computer and media skills they will hopefully be better prepared to transition into the business or academic world that is in their future.
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