Mark+Rovereto

Eco-Ed Research/Independent Study

Interests and goals for Fall '11 semester:

-Developing hands-on education modules for children from elementary to middle-school level that explore environmental issues and improve critical thinking about related issues.

-Creating a photography and/or other visual-based activity that introduces children to new ways of expressing concepts and issues discussed.

-Integrating storytelling and mythology into a sustainability message that is understandable by the targeted age groups while still offering advancement of critical thinking, and possibly tying in recent events and examples from media sources.

So far:

Week 1 (8/28/2011-9/3/2011) - 6 hr. Friday - Discussed preliminary ideas for eco-education, discussed personal interests within project. (1hr.) Saturday - Looked into photo projects that could work with children and facilitate the inclusion of a meaningful message (2 hr.) - Looked for inexpensive cameras to buy for project, couldn't really find any that were advanced enough to allow a better understanding of photography. (1.5 hr.) - Read Nigerian story about why the sky is far away, interesting idea for a writing activity. Possibly take mythology and mix it into real-life stories/events? Looked into useful myths (1.5 hr.)

Week 2 (9/4/2011-9/11/2011) - Monday - Had email discussion with group about photo activity, talked about the direction and form it should take, as well as any ideas that could tie it to other forms of participation. Visual storytelling seemed promising, and a digital as well as physical gallery was a great idea (Kirk, Ali, and Kim). (1.5 hr.) - Looked more into costs associated with a project like this, including the price of cameras, chemicals and film (for film photography), ink (for digital) and paper (for both). Thought of using the Shelnutt Gallery for the culmination of the activity as a site for the exhibition of photos. (1.5 hr.) - Asked Photo Club president about using