Celebrating Scientific Contributions: Black History Month Digital Stories

Wonderful combination of learners. And it’s so good to see students step up and take on the role of teacher and collaborator with younger learners. Thanks for sharing your process.

I work a lot with primary sources. So another extended idea might be to pair students up to create a Pages book focused on Black scientists throughout history using primary source images to help tell their story.

Cheryl, thank you for this extension idea. Yes, I am always looking for ways to improve this project, especially since the students enjoy working together. I will include your comment in my teacher journal notes and be sure to post on X (formerly Twitter) too. Have a great school year!

Cheryl, I'm really glad that you are thinking about using Pages for this project idea. I'd love to see how your projects turn out for this storytelling work. I'm hoping to have the students use Keynote to generate animated stories with Voiceover features. Maybe offering them the choice of which Apple application would work for their digital storytelling might be an idea too?

Marianne,

Wow! This is a great project! I like how it involves different grades collaborating on a single project. What seems to be the most common way that your students are sharing their findings? Keynote, Clips, GarageBand?

I can see how this project framework could be used for a variety of topics!

Hello Jeremy,

I apologize in my delayed response to your question. I am still getting use to using our Apple forum space. In terms of which Apple tools my students will use for this project, Keynote is the staple. I’m thinking that I may have them use Notes to gather data/images for their brainstorming work. Also, I love that they collaborate on the short story.

Marianne!

Keynote is a great option to use for this type of project. I went with having my student research women in the computer science field. They then created a multimedia presentation in keynote about what they learned. They were able to record their own video and do voice overs in their presentations. For the collaboration I had my group try Freeform. They see me use it as a digital whiteboard and wanted to try it for themselves.

Hello Jeremy,

Yes! Now that my students have been using Keynote more, they are loving its tools such as the ability to export as a movie. That application and possibly Garage Band will be part of this year's Black History Month celebrations. Oh, and I promise to share the other idea about honoring the Underground Railroad Pioneers too!