The Educational screen (c1922-c1956])

Page 42 The Educational Screen In conclusion, it is our experience that the fascina- tion which the microphone has for the youth of today should be utilized. If pupils can use the "mike," they like to speak; and they soon become conscious of the fact that a speaker must have something to say, and be careful how he says it. Classes pay better at- tention and learn more, because they can hear what is being said. Larger classes can be taught without the common phenomenon of finding all the good stu- dents in the front seats and all the poor ones in the rear. The class can be brought to order very quickly. Pupils like to become class chairmen so they may use the microphone. Schools may easily produce their own audio aids for a visual program, merely by pur- chasing a sound projector, which has a surprising way of paying for itself in a very short time. We are convinced that as more and more schools adtl the audio-element to visual instruction they will find it eminently worth while. Student Camera Crew Makes A "Scoop'' AMATEUR motion picture production in high schools is not new. Innumerable pictures have been made of football teams in action and of other school activities. Dramatizations have been filmed creditably, and commendable news reels have been made of the intra-mural life of some of the larger sec- ondary schools of the country. Now comes the instructional film, produced by teacher and students. By the instructional film is meant the motion picture which is designed to be used as a direct teaching aid in some special unit of study. Commercial producers of educational films have made available to teachers all over the country a great num- ber of instructional pictures on many different sub- jects. But there are some fields which, naturally enough, they have not yet covered. It was in such unexplored territory that the motion picture crew of the Eagle Rock (California) High School found it possible recently to score a "scoop" in the production of a highly serviceable educational film. The crew is made up of eleventh and twelfth grade boys who are members of a regular curricular Graphic Arts class. Their teacher and advisor is Miss Edith Frost. A biology class in Eagle Rock High School, one of a group of selected high schools participating cur- rently in a state-wide experiment in progressive edu- cation, wished to engage several months ago in a unit of study on date cultivation. Visual aids of the type desired were not available. Date culture is restricted to a small area in the Imperial Valley in California. Commercial producers of teaching films had not got around to making a film on this special subject to accompany the many excellent pictures they have made on other agricultural products. The biology class did not wish to wait until a com- mercially-produced film could be made available. The class believed there was a unique and valuable study to be made on date cultivation and that that study, with the aid of the camera crew, could be made by themselves. It seemed appropriate that California stu- dents should make this particular study. They wanted to get some first-hand information about an interest- A high school class supplements its visual aids with student-produced teaching films. By ERNEST E. OERTEL, Ph.D. Extension Division, University of California. ing California product which is rapidly gaining im- portance economically. Perhaps, they thought, other science students in other states would be interested too. Miss Frost and her camera crew drove to the Im- perial Valley from Los Angeles (Eagle I-iock High School is part of the Los Angeles City High School District) to get pictures for the biology class on this subject. They "shot" motion pictures of the date gardens in various stages of growth and cultivation. A ccmiplete story of the production of the famed California natural, unprocessed dates was recorded on 16mm. film. The crew made a special point of photo- graphing carefully the process of hand pollination, an artificial method of fertilization unique in plant life, in Miss Frost and her Camera Crew which the biology class was particularly interested. The science students were so pleased and interested in the pictures obtained that much creditable detailed research work was done in this unit of study and ex- cellent study guides were prepared to accompany the film. The photography throughout the film is unusually good, meeting, and in some respects surpassing, stand- ards held to in the typical commercially-produced film (Concluded on l^agc 44)