A grade seven and eight class at Northside Christian school created a short video and have a chance to win a trip to the Gulf Islands.
The video project is meant to educate and summarize the significance of the last spike of the railroad in Canada’s history.
This was an exercise in project-based learning for the students since they chose the site and the costumes, the props, crew and script. Each student chose an area which interested them; if they wanted to write then they worked on the script, if they like music then they worked on the background music or if they wanted to act or research then there was opportunity for everyone to take part.
“Adventures in grade seven eight land I call it,” joked teacher Cyndi Lauze. “It was really cool. To have things that interest them and play off their strengths. And they really gained an appreciation on how to make a video.”
Lauze’s class created the one minute video which will soon need the votes of residents and anyone they can reach to win the four day class trip. The voting period will run from March 3 to March 24. After which, the Royal Canadian Geographical Society will judge the top 10 winners.
In order to reach the final judging stage the video must be one of the top 10 most voted videos that were entered.
Classes around Canada are taking part in the contest which was to pick one of Parks Canada’s 215 sites and create a video telling the story of that site. The students at Northside chose to do their history video on the last spike of the railroad.
The students had to film, act, edit and create the whole project by themselves, with only a little guidance form Lauze. They even had to film a few things over again since some students mistakenly erased some footage.
But they learned from their mistakes and Lauze said that they were more happy with the finished product because of having a chance to redo and change a few things.
“It was totally student led,” said Lauze. “They had to do the research and figure out the significance of the site. It was great to see them create something from nothing.”
The students have been working on the project since January. They did most of their filming on the museum grounds and the railroad lines there since Lauze didn’t think that it would be a good idea for the kids to film on the real tracks.
