Timely Challenge Leads to Creative Opportunity

I am nearly finished with my Master’s degree in Instructional Media. I have found most of the course work to be immediately applicable in my classes. Once again, it has happened. The assignment for this week is to try a digital tool that could be used in the classroom. I chose to make a movie poster with Big Huge Labs.

Here is where the timeliness comes into play. Monday I am taking over 200 students to Physics Day at Six Flags over Texas. My students have been challenged to design an experiment, collect data and create a video lab report. They have an example video to guide and have been working on a plan and collecting supporting videos. As exciting as that is, until now, I did not have a creative way to start the planning. It has been very anticlimactic to just have students write or type their plan and either email or turn in a piece of paper. Students who have not already submitted a plan will be shown the web tool as a choice to submit their experimental plan.  It will be interesting to see if those who have already done submitted their plans will create a poster for their movie.

Group projects can be difficult to manage.  Students can use the Move Poster creator to submit their plan for the experiment. By completing the form for the movie poster creator they are actually assigning the photographer, data collector, music, and other jobs.  Beyond assigning jobs, it will cause them to think about what elements are needed to complete their video lab reports successfully.

I am happy to take any chance to inject an opportunity for choice and creativity in my classroom. As such, I am often rewarded with products that exceed anything I could have imagined. I can see Bighugelabs.com being a tool for creativity once the students have had the chance to give it a try.

Big Huge Labs Move Poster:Star in Your Own Movie! (2014). Retrieved May 10, 2014, from Big Huge Labs: http://bighugelabs.com/poster.php