Quincy after-school program showcases focus on STEM, writing
QUINCY, Ill. (AP) - Fourth-grader Natalie Predmore stands behind the camera, silently counting down with her fingers held high for the next report of WTSB.
Five. Four. Three. Two. One.
"This is Abigail, reporting live. Our special correspondent Natalie is currently at Baldwin School," third-grader Abigail MacDonough said to introduce a segment about the Hangar Store at Thomas S. Baldwin Elementary School.
With careful pronunciation and a serious expression, Abigail reads lines from the "teleprompter," the PowerPoint script the girls had written blown up to a slideshow and projected onto a whiteboard.
Soon after that, the girls head on location to the store, where students trade in "fliers" earned for good behavior for items like slime, notebooks and stuffed animals. Abigail takes a turn behind the camera to film Natalie reading her lines about findings of a recent student survey focused on the store's items and prices.
"This is actually really fun," Natalie said. "You can learn to write stuff better and learn to use technology better."
Abigail learned how to make a PowerPoint presentation, and Natalie, who had heard of green screen technology, learned how it works -- and how the table covered in a green cloth where Abigail sat and a green backdrop can be swapped out for an authentic-looking television news desk in the finished video.
As Natalie and Abigail wrapped up filming for their project, other students worked on videos for kindergarten roundup, the fifth grade's recent visit to Biz Town and the school's morning meeting, sharing iPads to record and edit their efforts.
It's all in a day's work at Flight Academy, an afterschool program meeting Tuesdays and Thursdays for third- and fourth-grade students "to showcase all the great things happening at Baldwin between the two buildings," STEM coach Tammy Stegeman said. "It's just a great way to get kids exposed to different careers out there, STEM or journalism, and build relational capacity."
Funding through the school district's Healthy Communities grant provided basic equipment for the program launched in March with 20 students, split into two groups, with diverse skills in technology, writing and speaking.
"They take ideas, and they run with it. We haven't shown them some things, and they investigate and figure it out on their own. The green screen is their favorite right now," Stegeman said. "We have kids begging us to include them in the program."
The overall goal, Stegeman said, is building leadership skills in this group of students, then pass on those skills next year as students do "a lot more" with videos in the new Baldwin which opens in August.
"They're going to be our leadership group," Stegeman said.
Along with having fun, students build valuable skills in speaking, writing, STEM and collaboration.
"It's a really good experience for all of us," third-grader June Reis said. "We're learning how to use different programs on the computers, learning to work together as a team to make different things."
June was part of a group of students who proudly screened their finished video for last week's kindergarten roundup. "Wait for the end, which makes it look like a real movie trailer. Isn't that cool?" Stegeman said. "See how fast you guys can put things together."
Five adults -- Stegeman, School Support Family Liaison Travis Patrick, fifth-grade teacher Beth Johnson, physical education teacher Kirk Mosley and SSFL Shawn Sparrow -- work with the students.
"It's just a wonderful experience for the people working with them and the kids themselves," Stegeman said. "They're teaching us, and we're teaching them."
Fourth-grader Liam Kelty did the filming as fourth-grader Kylie Buettner read a script for the morning announcements highlighting the day's date, lunch menu and weather. "You need to sound like you're on the news," Liam suggested.
"You need to be intentional about every word. You've got to make sure that you're stopping at periods, pausing at commas and maybe try to let your voice show some emotion," Patrick said to Kylie while also offering a suggestion to Liam. "As tall as you are, you could hit record from your knees. You just don't want your head to be between her eyes and those words."
Liam said the idea of Flight Academy sounded cool.
"I wanted to take videos, take information from the schools and interview people," he said.
Using technology like green screen makes the project more fun for students -- and the adults.
"It allows us to change the background to something we would not be able to do. We can't always tote them where we need them to be if they're reporting on something around town. It gives us options to go places the budget wouldn't allow," Patrick said.
This year "we're trying to get all the equipment and things rolling," he said. "So when the grant runs out we'll be able to continue the program year after year."
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Source: The Quincy Herald-Whig, https://bit.ly/2WTzASo
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Information from: The Quincy Herald-Whig, http://www.whig.com