Today we started our very first microbe animation! We didn't give the kids too much guidance, we let them be creative and just observed what they could do, and and it went really well! But we are not about to show the animations to you yet!
Before getting started we wanted to take a moment to check in on our bacteria “hotels” (aka Winogradsky Column) and see how our guests were growing.
We observed the different “rooms”: the area near the top, where there was more water and air available; the bottom, where we put food (egg yolk and newspaper); and around the sides of the bottle, which were facing closest and furthest from the sun. The kids recorded their observations the kids recorded their observations in their notebooks.
We concluded that after one week we did not notice many changes but we are enthusiastic that we will have more to see next class!
Getting started on our animations was a lot of fun! Before getting our feet wet though we talked about what stop motion animation is and how the Stop Motion Studio App works. We watched a few animations and discussed different factors that can affect the outcome of our animations such as lighting, camera location, steadiness, and focus.
But one of the most important parts of making an animation is coming up with a good story. We split into groups and did some brainstorming, thinking about all that we have learned about microbes so far. Then, using a simple 6-square storyboard, the kids sketched out a plan with each square representing a main event in their story.
Their next challenge was to create a scene and characters using just a few materials, pipe cleaners, clay, some googly eyes, and paper and markers. The characters are beautiful!
Finally, they were ready to set up in their animation studio (Graciela’s kitchen counter was the perfect studio!) and get to work. We'll show you their work soon. Stay tuned!
