First Panther Field Trip

Hey gang. Our first field trip for Panther went brilliantly. We got 5 teens to get out of thier comfort zone for a trip to the museum. here's the over view...

Big Idea: Get the teens aquainted with thier new Wednesday working envirnment, inform them about the activities to come in the cycle, introduc them to Augie, our resident artist, and get them interested in the study of sound through ebtertaining games and challenges.

Dates: Wednesday, January 18th

Groups Participating: Panther Teens

Attendance: 5 teens including Joshua, Jonathoan, Michael, Eddie and Thomas along with Augie, Saafir, Gabe and myself

Materials: Bucket o' objects that make interesting sounds

Directions:
Since we checked out several activities in the hour and a half we had, I'll run through them and explain a bit about each...

1) For an icebreaker, we played the game I called "rhythm challenge". We circled up and sat so we could stomp our feet. We then all picked a differant short sound we could create, such as a snap, a clap, a grunt, a word, etc. After all of us announcing our sounds to the group, I then explained the rules. All of us stomp the rhythm to "we will rock you", but in place of the claps, the person who starts places thier sound. Immediatly after, they then place another persons sound in the group. That person then must repeat thier sound, then make another persons sound. If a person messes up on the rhythm by not mimicing or choosing a sound in time, they are out. Definatley run a couple practice round first, cause it took our crew a while to get in the rhythm. However when we started the competition iwas fierce and fun. If the gruops really good, pick up the tempo for more of a challenge.

2) Next I explained our upcoming cycle, showed them the power tools they'd be using on Wednesdays, and told them about our various visiting artists they would get to meet, including...

3) Augie! We spent about 15 minutes with Augie where he gave a little bio, we checked out his works online, and passed around a few sculptures and musical instruments he made.

4) We then passed out snacks and proceeded to watch a video where the subject matter is sound: "Stomp". As we watched I asked them to watch for the various materials used to make such a variety of sounds.

5) After snacks and 15 minutes of the film, we listed on the board all the different objects they could think of that they saw used in the film, then we picked a few of those and discussed how many differant sounds could be made with just that one object. This activity led to what I thought was the most fun part of the day, the...

6) "5 sound challenge"! I had each of us pick 3 objects from a box of assorted materials (ie, pipes, wooden blocks, tin plates, wooden spoons, etc.) Then I gave them 5 minutes to discover 5 differant sounds with thier objects. We then individually presented them to the group. After that, I had them each pick thier favorite of thier sounds, and again sit in a circle facing eachother. We then beat the same "We will rock you" rhythm, but tried making our sounds in different orders. For example first we simply started on one end and went around the cicle one at a time. Then we started on one end and split so 2 were playing at once until it came all the way around. Then we built up one at a time and came down one at a time. Fun stuff.

7) Finally, we filled out paperwork and gave away T-shirts to those who have turned all thier things in.

Overall, we had a blast and left these teens wanting to come back for more. I'm definatley looking forward to out next Wednesday here.

myles