ALA Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2004

GAGGLE -
Today the groups were brought together with two objectives - 1. To work together as small groups and as a team to create a chain reaction that spans the entire studio; 2. To introduce crickets into the work being done.

The team building exercise done today: Each person was handed a piece of paper with one member of a famous foursome on it. Each student had to figure out who they had, what group they belonged to, and match up with three other classmates to form the working group for the day. The students then had to figure out how to use only themselves to lift numerous members of their team off the ground. The last event was trying to figure out how to only use 4 people standing and lift the other 16 people off the ground. The students were unsuccesful in this attempt only because the time was cut short for a small discussion. THey understood that unless they worked together and listened to everyone's ideas, they would have a very hard time of making this work. This translated well into the work of the day - the students not only worked on their own chain reaction link, but they helped each other out as well. Each team had to end with something that would begin the next group's chain. The 11:40 group used much more in the way of crickets and motors and lights and circuits than the 9:40 group. Both groups did an amazing job of putting a great run together, and when they return from Thanksgiving they will be building permanent links in a chain to be added to the entire group's work. Thursday the Gaggle members will be introduced to the programming of the crickets. They used them in their chains as circuits with motors. the Crickets were programmed to turn the motor on when a switch was thrown (or when two alligator clips were touching).

MURDER
Today the students were given the opportunity to come up with some interesting ideas for plotlines in a story, as well as their teammates for the filming process. After they came up with their ideas, they were given the choice of choosing their teammates, and having to pick their film idea from the ones given, or letting Jonathon pick the teammates and then letting them film whatever they wanted. They chose to pick their teammates, and then choose their story from the list of ideas they had given. THe list of the groups and their choices are listed earlier in Bill's entry to the blog. The only requirements they have now are as follows - they must storyboard the work before they will be able to start filming, and they must create a story that lasts about 3 minutes. The students were given the chance to work together on their storyboards today, as well as having the option to watch some short films chronicling the storyboarding process, as well as character development. Some of the students took advantage of the films and others worked very hard on their storyboards. Thursday they students will continue work on their stories and possibly start filming them. THey can use any medium we have used before - live action, stop motion with actors, stop motion with clay or toys. The students have about a month to complete the work.

Jonathon