Earth Day Movie

Earth Day Lesson Plan


Laura Tierney



Objectives:
v Students will use Tool Factory Movie Maker to create an Earth Day video.
v Students will understand the video making technology.
v Students will identify ways the environment is being harmed around the school and their homes.
v Students will use science to explore and analyze the use of natural resources and investigate how they can take steps to solve environmental problems.
v Students will understand the concepts of reduce, renew, reuse, and recycle.


Materials:

The materials needed for this lesson plan are:
Tool Factory Movie Maker software, computer, clay, flip video cameras, research materials.


Procedure:
1. Brainstorm to create a list of things that can be done to help improve the environment. Determine what things can be done around school and their homes to reduce, renew, reuse and recycle.
2. Students will create a clay earth character to narrate the video. After the clay earth is created, they will take several still shots of the earth its mouth, arms and legs moving to different positions so the character can be a claymation narrator of the video.
3. Students will get video clips of waste around the school and at home.
4. Students will work to transform a used can into a planter. They can decorate the outside of the planter with paint or cut out paper. Teacher and students will record video clips of the planters being created.
5. Students will plant seeds and grow plants in the planter to demonstrate the concept of renew. Teacher and students will record video of students planting seeds in the planter.
6. Video of the plants growing will be recorded as the plants grow.
7. Students will write narration to go along with the Earth Day video.
8. Students will work with Tool Factory Movie Maker to create a Earth Day Movie Short about Renew, Reuse and Recycle using the video clips they recorded while doing the Earth Day activities and the claymation narration.


Discussion Questions:
1. What are some of the problems in our schools and homes that have a negative affect on the environment?
2. What are some solutions to those environmental problems?
3. Give examples of items that can be recycled.
4. What improvements can be made at our school to help improve the environment?
5. Give and example of a resource that can be renewed. Explain how it can be renewed.
6. Give examples of waste that can be reduced in our environment. How can we work to reduce this waste?

Evaluation:

The evaluation of the student will be based on the knowledge they get by creating the video. The students will know the concepts of reduce, reuse, recycle and renew. Students will understand the concepts of renewable and nonrenewable resources as well as how humans affect their environment. They will have a basic understanding how science and technology can be used to solve environmental issues.