The video project that I thought of would be geared towards a statistics class, so probably seniors in high school taking an AP statistics or college prep statistics class.
The premise of the project is to come up with a survey, implement it, and examine the results.
The criteria for the project are as follows:
Students will:
- work in groups of 2-3
- come up with an original question about a topic of their choice, and the question must be approved.
- ask the question to a minimum of 15 people.
- predict what they believe the results would be.
- answer the question themselves before asking others.
- tape both the asking of the question, the thought process of the person being asked, and the answer to the question.
- incorporate at least 3 ways of displaying the results (bar graph, etc.)
- use a minimum of 5 transitions in the movie.
- use a minimum of 3 songs in the movie.
- give their opinion of the end results after the movie.
For the two days I will have to show the students how to use movie maker (unless we have Macs, then we can use that cool stuff), audacity, and how to find free music. Then, the students will edit simple videos, adding in some music and effects and exploring all of the capabilities that the programs have. After those two days in the lab, the students will have 4 school days out of class to complete the taping of the survey. After that, we will have two more in class days (a third built in if needed) to edit the project. After the project is due, as a class we will analyze the movies.
Goal: We will look at reasons for certain results that the students may not have considered before they started their surveys. For example, the way that a person asks a question can influence the answer to the question. The demographics can cause the data to look a certain way. We will look at differences depending on who they asked, which person asked the question, etc. This way, the students will be able to see how hard it is to survey people and all of the problems that can go into that. The project can also show that when done the wrong way, surveys can be misleading. We will also look at what worked as well (for example, if a student asked a question without hinting at an answer, etc.)
The first two days of the project will take care of the preparation. As for challenges, I think that we may run short on time. I would have to build in a few extra days to see how they are doing, especially with the out of class filming. That is another potential problem, having them do it out of class. Some people may not have transportation to stay after school or meet up with a partner at night. Problems with the programs are always a possibility so I have to be aware of that. Also, different people may already have different exposure to the programs, some may need more than 2 days to learn how to use them, some may not even need the one day. I will have to be very flexible with this project, especially the first time I do it.