StoryChasers

On February 15, 2012, the Yukon Review newspaper shared the following photograph and caption about the first student Storychasers group starting at Skyview Elementary School in Yukon, Oklahoma.

3rd grade students are working with their principal, Carla Smith, to write articles about school news and record their articles as a “radio show.” Radio WillowWeb from Willowdale Elementary School in Omaha, Nebraska, is an inspiration to these young Storychasers. Tony Vincent (original founder of Radio Willowweb and author of the “Learning in Hand” website) along with Maine educator Bob Sprankle (the creative genius behind the New York Times acclaimed “Room 208 Podcast”) are also major inspirations for the idea of a student Storychasers club.

A website for the group is being established and their first program will be published soon. The Storychaser student clubs in Yukon are pilot groups starting in Spring 2012. Hopefully, if things continue to go well, this is program which will expand to other schools in months to come. Learn more and sign up for updates on the Storychasers’ mailing list by visiting storychasers.org/clubs.

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This video is a 73 second interview with Laquita Semmler, principal of Mustang Elementary in Mustang, Oklahoma. Mrs. Semmler won a $2000 technology grant from the Oklahoma Association of Elementary School Principals (OAESP) at the mid-winter conference on January 20, 2012, in Oklahoma City. She is planning to use the funds from the grant to purchase a new iMac computer and mobile cameras to provide students with tools to be videographers and journalists for their school website.

Instead of Flip cameras, which have been discontinued by Cisco and do not import video in a Mac-friendly format, Storychasers recommends student videography teams use iPod Touches or iPads for quick-edit videography. In addition, an external microphone is a MUST to improve audio quality. (A $60 iRig mic, available via the Apple Store, was used in the video above.)

Congrats to Mustang Elementary students and staff, and kudos to Mrs. Seemler for applying for and winning this student technology grant!

In advance of next week’s “Teaching Creativity and Innovation to Inventive Minds” workshop on the campus of Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, it seems appropriate to share several videos on our Celebrate Oklahoma Voices (COV) learning community which are science-focused. These were created by teachers attending past COV workshops.

Forensic Science by Anita Cosby (An introduction to forensic science class)

Find more videos like this on Celebrate Oklahoma Voices!

Starbase 2011 by Pamela Sue Gilder (Video about a fifth grade class during their six week adventure through Strarbase)

Find more videos like this on Celebrate Oklahoma Voices!

Ben Franklin Science Academy’s Friendship Garden “The Green Patch” by Sandra Marie Riley (A story about the “Green Patch” that touched a community)

Find more videos like this on Celebrate Oklahoma Voices!

It will be great to see the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) related videos our workshop participants create next week at OSU! More information about hosting and requesting a Storychasers workshop is available on the frequently asked questions (FAQ) page of our website.

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science, stem, video, videos, workshop