Jason's Documentary elective

As I'm sure you know, we recently started our second round of electives for the year. My (Jason) elective is Documentaries, where we'll be both watching and creating films. We've met a few times so far, and I thought you might like a peek at some of what we've watched together: 

We started off with a viewing of Roger & Me, the film that put Michael Moore on the map. Love him or hate him, he certainly knows how to provoke reaction, and we used his film to talk about the different ways a filmmaker can manipulate an audience to make a point. It's more of an essay than a strict documentary, and we talked a lot about how Moore uses contrasting footage (some would say unfairly) to make his points. You don't necessarily have to agree with Moore's politics to appreciate this film, and for some kids, it was surprising to learn that documentaries could be used to humorously advocate a philosophy. (It's also filtered through the history of Flint, Michigan, which helped illuminate some of the problems Michigan has had in recent decades.) 

(Note: We didn't watch this film completely unedited. I opted to omit some some of the more graphic imagery [if you've seen the film, you might recall the bunny scene. We skipped that, but talked about it.] and some of the sections with particularly strong language or adult content [who knew Bob Eubanks had such a mouth?]. If you revisit this film with your child, be aware.)

Since then, we've screened a number of short form documentaries, most of which are available online as of this writing. Check them out!


Sticky
Frankly, I think the less you know about this one before watching, the better. I will tell you that it's animated, lovely, and about twenty minutes long. 


Sticky from jilli rose on Vimeo.

If you must have more context before diving in, check out this brief article. 


Lost Buildings
This was a collaboration between the popular radio program (and podcast!) This American Life and graphic novelist Chris Ware. It was originally meant to be shown during a live show in an ornate theater. It was projected on a very large screen, so the images would at times tower over the audience, and at others be small windows into the story. It's about twenty minutes long. 


Lost Buildings from Kobey Teef on Vimeo.


Gan-Gan
A very short (about three minutes) documentary memorializing a departed loved one. It's a stop motion piece, lively and bittersweet. 


Gan-Gan from Gemma Green-Hope on Vimeo.


TMB Panyee FCThis short is upbeat and fun, and we talked about how it's a little deceptive. While watching it, it quickly becomes clear that it's a recreation with actors, rather than a pure documentary of actual events as they occurred. We talked about the ethics of this. Two of the earlier documentaries are animated, so they're clearly recreations as well. While those didn't trigger any ethical issues, this one did. Nevertheless, it's a fun, interesting little story about a football club in Thailand. 




We've got plenty more ahead, especially as we shift toward making our own films. We've been talking about ideas, and started making plans to bring them into reality. It's been really fun and engaging so far, and we look forward to sharing our work in the future! 

Mars Out of Time (or "MOOT.")

Belgian cartoonist Hergé has recently joined our class. 

Over the next several weeks, you'll be hearing a lot about the planet Mars, and something we call "MOOT." 

"MOOT" stands for Mars Out of Time, which is a new spin on one of our favorite annual projects. For many years, Summers-Knoll students have had the opportunity to participate in Place Out of Time (or "POOT"), a simulation run by the University of Michigan. The idea behind Place Out of Time is brilliant: What if we could bring the great (and lesser) minds of history to ponder a contemporary issue? 


In order to accomplish this, students select a notable character and learn as much about them as possible. They study primary and secondary sources (and learn what "primary" and "secondary" sources are in the process). They comb through books, magazines, websites, documentaries, and beyond in an attempt to learn as much as possible about their character, as well as the time in which they lived. 

Then, each student "becomes" their character, portraying them in the first person in classroom discussions and activities, and also on a web-based messageboard. 

The discussions cover a wide variety of topics, but they always eventually lead to one large, overarching issue. For example, two years ago, students were asked to explore and debate the French law that bans the wearing of conspicuous religious symbols in public. Last year, we debated the morality and legality of the Italian scientists who were held criminally liable for failing to accurately predict a 2009 earthquake. 

The project requires that students not only examine the intricacies of a contemporary issue, but that they do it from someone else's perspective, which is often radically different from their own. They learn and practice substantial research skills along the way, and by interacting with their classmates, they learn a lot about characters and times other than the ones that they're studying. It's a fantastic project. 

Dame Julie Andrews has also been recently spotted in the halls of Summers-Knoll!  

The University of Michigan masterminds behind the Place Out of Time program have opted to run a simulation about the Italian earthquake trial again this year. Since so many of our students have already examined this case (most of the current 6th graders, and almost all of the 7th and 8th grade class), we have opted to strike out on our own this semester. We'll still be collaborating with the U of M Place Out of Time crew, but our issue this time will be one that ties into our own recent studies: We will be planning and conducting a manned expedition to Mars. 

Kids have already selected their characters, and we've begun the research phase of the project. On Thursday, we took a field trip to the Ann Arbor District Library, where we were given a tour of their collection, with a specific focus on materials that pertain to each student's character. 

A selection of research materials for our cast of characters from a recent trip to the Ann Arbor District Library. 

Place Out of Time/Mars Out of Time is always a fun, highly-rated experience. Excitement runs high!

Catching up on Feburary - Hodge Podge #1

February has been a bit of a whirlwind, what with a flurry of field trips and new projects and activities. The blog has been fallow for the last few weeks, so we're going to play catch-up with new posts over the next couple of days. 

First up, a few scenes from school from this week: 

Nick and Imogen preparing for a French presentation. 

Keira and Sam discussing the properties of angles. 

Frigid temperatures kept us indoors for PE, but everyone had a good time doing cup stacking. Did you know that "sport stacking" is a thing? It's good for hand-eye coordination, cooperation, and ambidexterity. Read more here. 

Speaking of cooperation, they were pretty pleased with themselves after building this creation. (They were equally delighted when they knocked it down.) 

There was some cooking in Mandarin today. 

I (Jason) run an after-school comics and cartooning club once a week. A couple of months ago, Oliver started creating a stick figure comic book each week, often featuring the exploits of Guy Wiz.

Guy Wiz is a simple idea: A wizard-type fellow battles his enemies by casting spells that are increasingly ridiculous. For example, Guy Wiz might shout "Pig Spell!" during a brawl, which then causes a pig to inexplicably fall from the sky to vanquish his opponent (and they get much weirder than that). It's a fun little comic.

I mention it because Oliver has been cranking out issues of Guy Wiz. He showed up the other day with twenty issues, each more ridiculous than the last. It's fun to see him taking a simple, silly idea and really running with it, and you can really see his creativity exploding. He's also pretty pleased to have such a body of work, and his classmates (and teacher!) were delighted and impressed.

Trip to the University of Michigan Chemical Engineering

On Tuesday, we took a field trip to the North Campus of the University of Michigan to check out some interesting things in the Chemical Engineering labs. 

As part of a Senior-level Chemical Engineering course, U of M students require colonies of algae, which are used in designs to generate biodiesel fuel.  

We learned where the algae comes from (a small sample is purchased from the University of Texas), how its grown, and what's done with it by the students. 

Each of these tubes is full of bubbling algae. 

Examining a jar with fuel and byproduct

Here's a very brief video to give you a sense of what it looked like in action: 

We also took a quick visit to the Wave Field. 

A huge THANK YOU to Christine Moellering for arranging this tour for us!

(And if you have an idea for a tour destination idea, get in touch!) 

January So Far...

January is off to a rollicking good start in the 5/6. (Snow Days excluded, or perhaps enjoyed.) Here's a long, rambling recap of some of the things we've done with these first eight days of January.

A quiet work period in the middle of a very busy two weeks. 

Evan explains the ideas supporting the exploration of Near Earth Asteroids (NEAs).

This month has a strong science and social studies focus. Our new school theme is Journeys, and we're exploring that by beginning a unit on manned exploration of space.

Last week, the students split up into small groups to learn about a possible destination for a human habitat outside of the atmosphere. The groups each read an article about the logistics of putting people in one of the following places: Low-Earth Orbit, Near-Earth Asteroids,  Luna (Earth's moon), Venus, or Mars. (Ask your student about the destination that they researched!)

Marcellin and a guest student explain a proposed mission to Venus. 

Prior to presenting, each student had a specific role in their group: The Data Specialist was responsible for making notes on the key points in the document. The Mission Commander was responsible for presenting the groups report to the whole class. The other students in the group were given mini-rubrics to help the Mission Commander prepare the short presentation, as well as being responsible for the initial reporting.

Each group then presented a summary of what they learned to the rest of the class.

This week, science has been focused on the wide variety of technologies that have been developed or enhanced as a result of Space Exploration (Insulin pumps! Whale tracking technology! Helmet padding!) . Each student is investigating two specific NASA created (or developed) technologies.



In math, we are doing a small project on data collection, display, and analysis. So far the students have crafted questions suitable for analysis ("What month were you born in?" "How tall are you in inches?").

Today we talked about how to collect and organize the data as it's being collected, and then moved on to actual data collection. A few students have begun to transfer their data to a Google Sheet (the spreadsheet program in Google Drive). Next week, we'll be working on analyzing and presenting the data and making conclusions.

Owen collects data about student's favorite sport to play.

We've also wrapped up our book group presentations. As mentioned in a previous post, we've been reading novels in small groups. Each group has completed their book and prepared a presentation for the rest of the class to share about the book and their experiences. Some groups spoke in the first person as characters from the book, some read excerpts, and everyone gave enticing summaries about what was valuable and interesting about each book that they read.

Eleanor, Emma, and Adri talk about Out of My Mind. 

Jonah, Evan, Gabe, Ben, and Oliver discuss First Light. 

Niko reads a selection from A Wizard of Earthsea, as Marcellin, Luke, David, and Owen await their turns to share. 

We've also been having some group discussions about the media, society, and how we interact with each other. On Monday, we wanted to gauge how kids were processing anything that they may have heard in the news about various terrorist acts. Students' awareness of the news stories varied widely, which lead to a productive discussion about how we consume media, and why certain stories stick out in our minds. For example, of all the current events that were mentioned, the only one that almost every student had heard of was the semi truck full of fireworks that was involved in an accident on I-94. We talked a little about why that story has stuck out in their minds. ("It's sort of scary." "It's exciting.") We eventually hit on the idea of personal relevance and/proximity: Something happened that feels close to you. Car accidents on I-94 feel much more relevant than car accidents in Nevada.

We eventually also talked a little bit about the incidents in France recently, trying parse through the rationale for such a senseless act. We talked about the concept of satire, fundamentalism, freedom of the press, and the challenges (and strengths) of living in blended, multicultural societies.

Finally, we had a long sprawling conversation yesterday about our personal interactions at school. We frequently have these kinds of discussions on a small scale, sometimes in response to a specific conversation, and other times preemptively, but yesterday's chat was particularly in depth.

We talked a lot about how to navigate the constantly shifting power dynamics of the middle school world. We talked about "being your best self" as often as possible, with the understanding that no one can always achieve that. However, if one of us happens to fall short on a given day or in a particular moment, as long as the rest of us hold ourselves together, things will be okay. We also talked about how to prevent situations from spiraling out control, not carrying the grudges of other people, and strategies to help things run smoothly during these occasionally turbulent pre-teen years.

This is a spotty snapshot of some of the things that were discussed. We'll be revisiting this conversation regularly in the weeks and months ahead.

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Oh, one more item worthy of note:

In writing last week, we went over the rules of using quotation marks when writing dialogue in stories. As practice in this, kids were required to write a dialogue between three or four characters using proper punctuation. The dialogue did not have to be a self-contained story, but it did have to give some sense of what the larger plot was, where the setting was, and a bit about the personalities of the characters involved. They are still trickling in, as they're not formally due until tomorrow (Friday), but on the whole, they've been both excellent and hilarious. Since the assignment only asked for a scene, many kids seemed content to come up with some bizarre and creative ideas. Nearly everyone of them is a cliffhanger begging for the larger context of the unwritten story. They're great.

On a whim, we staged a few of them as impromptu mini-plays in class the other day, much to the delight of everyone.

Visitors

We had a couple of special guests today: 

Kermit the Frog (and nephew Robin) visit French class. 

This isn't a photo from last year. Summers-Knoll alum Adi's school is off today, so she elected to come visit for the day! 

Separating iron, salt, and sand

As part of an ongoing study of water, filtration, compounds, and mixtures, students are currently working in small groups to design a procedure to separate this:

A mixture of sand, salt, and iron

Into this: 

Separated samples of iron, salt, and sand

It requires a deepening understanding of many of the concepts we've been working with this year, including filtration, mixtures, and evaporation. It also requires brainstorming a plan with their partners, as well as crafting a detailed procedure to follow. 

Checking out the magnified structures of iron, salt, and sand