Karen Gage, Deep Run High School
Summary
The high speed balloon pop is a student-driven investigation and demonstration of high speed photography and the use of freeze motion. Students use prior knowledge of motion capture with fast and slow shutter speeds to successfully capture a frozen motion image of a water balloon “popping.” Students watch a demonstration by the teacher without any knowledge of the camera settings. They examine the activity setup before breaking off into small groups to address the challenge of performing the task with accurate and effective camera settings, correct studio lighting, and team coordination (“popper” and “shooter” must be in sync). Students have three attempts (3 water balloons) to successfully capture a well exposed, correctly timed, successful composition of a balloon popping utilizing a DSLR camera.
TIPC Ratings
Via demonstrations, the teacher models the process yet does not provide specifics to solve the problem. This lesson is rated as developing as students use their knowledge from class as well as online materials (class website) to determine the proper camera settings. Students construct questions based on the demonstration they have seen. They answer those questions through group collaboration and research.
The teacher designs a challenge by creating a scenario to photograph a high speed motion setup. This setup provides students with a model for the task and promotes collaboration to solve this challenge as a group. Students will form teams, assign tasks and work together to create a successful image. As a result of these efforts, this lesson is rated as developing.
This lesson is rated as approaching in terms of critical thinking and problem solving as the teacher promotes solution to the task at hand by engaging students in a trial and error scenario. Students justify their hypothesis by testing the solution they have a determined as a group.
The teacher includes connections between previously covered information and a real world problem that needs a solution. Students use this information to effectively create an interesting image utilizing a contemporary photographic technique. As a result, this lesson is rated as approaching.
Student Artifact
