Walker News Archive
8th Grade Civics Documentaries Place in National C-Span Competition
This fall, a Civics 8 class decided to present their research in an unconventional manner: documentary films. Ten teams of one to three students each set out to research a topic of current interest, create a storyboard based on their research paper, and then to bring in interviews, photos and video clips to compose 5-10 minute documentary films. In addition to learning about their chosen topics, they learned about the process of creating documentaries. The project required a sizeable commitment, with some students investing over 50 hours.
The primary rewards of producing the films emanate from the process itself, and in the resulting product. However, nine films were also entered in a national C-Span student film competition and five of the nine won formal recognition and a cash prize. One team placed third in the competition and their video will air on C-Span on April 8th at 6:50 a.m. Four other teams received honorable mention. The results are available at (http://studentcam.org/Winners08.htm).
This video project will have a broader, lasting impact on the Walker Middle School beyond the experience of this inaugural Civics class. Starting next year, the traditional 8th grade research paper will become a cross-curricular, semester-long project integrating research with skills from every discipline. It will provide an opportunity for the students to apply the knowledge they are learning in middle school to investigate and illuminate real-world issues using state-of-the-art techniques and technologies.
To this pioneer class and those who helped make this project a success, thank you. May others enjoy watching the films as much as we enjoyed creating them!
Brian Surkan
Civics 8 Teacher / Documentary Project Advisor
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