Hi Darren,

This is a very creative assignment, and your students clearly demonstrated a lot of this creativity in using media and metaphor to create a "commercial".

I would agree that 30 seconds of content is way too short; it ought to be a limit to focus them, yes, but ought to be maybe 60 seconds or 2 minutes even.

My thought though is their subject should be more than "defining" what a derivative, and more so demonstrating how it can be used/observed in every day life. A few of the commercials suggested it, but might go beyond the citing a definition phase.

But again, I love the concept, and thanks for the reflection piece with student voices.

Re: Using YouTube part of your post...

I think it's great that you are using youtube- I like to use Viddler, because of its increased functionality, but find myself posting videos on youtube as well just because that's where the people are...

Hi Talia,

We see it very much alike. ;-)

Thanks for dropping by.

Hi Darren,
Your students' ads look great. I too agree that YouTube is better than TeacherTube. Another positive aspect of YouTube is that one is able to easily upload videos to YouTube using Mac's Imovie with just one click.

I recently had my 8th grade science class create ads for specific elements on the periodic table. They had to explain certain key facts about their element (atomic number, valence electrons, etc) and then "sell it" in their ad by describing its key uses. I tried to have them keep the ads under one minute, but many didn't have enough time to edit as needed.

This brings me to my, well, my conundrum with this project. My students used about one class period to research their element. They then used four additional classes to create their video. Because of the need to use Imovie, a program almost all of my students could not access at home, I had to use my science class time as time for them to create and edit the videos. Even with the four days, I think the majority of the ads could have used more edit time.

So now I'm thinking about how to do this project next year. The question I'm asking myself is whether it's worth it to use a week plus of science class to work on video editing. Though I love the ads (as do my students), I feel like I'm losing some quality science time in the process. It would be great if my students could work on the project at home or during a multi-media type class in school, but as of now, these are not options.

So my (two-part) question is: 1 - What kind of balance did you pursue in terms of having your students develop better calculus skills in conjunction with video production skills? and 2 - How did you assess those skills?

Hi Darren,

What a great assignment - and thanks for recording the reflection as well, all very helpful.

Now that the videos are complete and are on YouTube, would you ever consider posting them to sites like SchoolWAXtv.com or TeacherTube to increase their distribution and also spread the idea to other teachers? I understand why you used YouTube for the initial project, but also think that the act of sharing in school-safe sites is also valuable.

Looking forward to seeing next year's submissions!

That's a wonderful suggestion Jennifer! I'll discuss it with my students in class on Monday.

Cheers!

Great idea! I might use it for my calculus class as well.

My students usually create full-length movies after the AP Exam as part of their final. I've also had them create commercials when we study optimization when they design a Super-Ultra-Mega Big Cup (that's SUM big cup!) for the McDerivative Corporation.