The educational screen (c1922-c1956])

Page 376 The Educational Screen tries the earth to see if it be in tune" had we been treated to some pictorial re])resentation of those hnes? How much more appealing than the mere memorization of the phrase from Browning's "Pippa Passes" "the hillside's dew pearled" would the addition of a Koda- slide have been? I would like to see several of our masterpieces of poetry put to pictures. That is the job for the teacher and his inspired students rather than for the commercial producer. For tlie class in creative writing there may be as many diliferent scenes or .shots for "heaven tries the earth" as there are students in the class. To put pictures to poems I have tried editing a film I made in Kodachrome. All On a Sidmiicr's Day, by inserting as subtitles parts of poetry relating to birds, insects, rain, clouds, simset, and other phenomena en- countered on a typical summer's day. This film was tried out both in science and in English classes. Dis- cussions as to whether the poet used scientific method in describing his observations ensued. Some students wanted to know where they could find the rest of the lines of a ((uoted poem. In one class a student has already composed a narrative poem from which a group has volunteered to work out the scenario. After having seen this film. Dr. Wheat, chairman of tlie city's Film Steering Committee, wrote; "I think you have made a' superb film. I have written to Eastman and suggested that they purchase the continuity and publi,sh it." Even the sciences, which are miles ahead of other departments in their inventories and use of visual aids. can i)e further enriched by school and teacher-made films. I have been teaching biology for about fifteen years. Term after term I find students confronted with the .same difficulties in trying to understand such processes as cell division, maturation, etc. It's true that we have a wealth of material in the form of lantern slides, microscope slides, plaques, charts, models, and even soajj and wood carvings. All this material, in spite of its artistic appeal, nevertheless remains static. Biological processes are continuous, from inception to completion ; nothing staccato about them. Most stu- dents fail to grasp the continuity of these processes Iiecause they seem to carry away with them the .seven pictures of cell division as seen in their text books, or the six ste])s as ])ortrayed in the plaster of Paris models. They do not realize that there are many more stages between any tw(j of the drawings or models. This is where the motion picture film .should ccjme in, not as a substitute for, but rather as a supplement to the other visual aids. To try to help my students to understand the.se processes more thoroughly, 1 .spent several eve- nings pushing pieces of modeling clay into and out of certain positions on a board, and by the use of the device of single frame photography the finished film simulated the processes mentioned above. Crude as the results may be, the time taken to cover these topics in class has been cut exactly in half with the use of that piece of film. In spite of my protestations that it is not a finished product, teachers a.sk for this film whenever they approach this topic. Processes, functions, and theories are among the most difficult concepts for beginners in science to master. It is exactly in these fields that the imagination, ingenuity and skills of the teacher can best express themselves through the medium of the motion picture. The number of frustrations encountered by the student during such lessons would be reduced to a minimum. Many a time the question, "what shall we show in a movie to clarify this process ?"', has aroused the interest of an otherwise lethargic audience. A class of slow learners faced with the difficulty of mastering the geological explanation of evolution spent the greater part of two class periods cutting and modeling various {Concluded on' pafje 390) THE ^«v nCIIOli FICTURP CLUB ' PFt5[llT5 Scenes from "Evander's Chicks." Making film Title by chalk on blackboard.