Environment and roads

Herts Short Film Challenge 2008

The Hertfordshire schools digital film challenge this year focuses on making a 3-minute wonder on walking or cycling to school.

The competition is designed for pupils working in groups or as whole classes, to develop their ideas or opinions around the central theme using digital film. We have found this works well where the teacher includes the work as part of a unit of study. There are very many cross-curricular links for this sort of project, for example:

• Persuasion: pupils convince someone to walk or cycle to school as opposed to coming by car (all key stages).
  
  
• Investigation: pupils can explore the how people could improve their fitness levels and keep them healthy (all key stages).
  
  
• Drama: pupils could create a 3-minute drama raising issues linked to the theme
  
  
• Fact file: pupils could investigate how far pupils walk to school in other countries and link to their own journeys
  
  
• Fact file: pupils create a film to raise awareness about keeping safe on journeys to and from school (all key stages).
  
  
• Poem/stories for all key stages:
  
  
• Documentary: pupils can explore the impact of the 'school run' on the environment. (KS2 , KS3)
  
  
• Discussion: pupils interview others or set up live cameras for diary/Vox pop recordings to consider barriers and opportunities around walking and cycling to school (KS2 – KS5)
  
  
• Documentary: pupils consider the school facilities and practices which could help or hinder sustainable travel (KS2 – KS5)
  
  
• Minibeasts: pupils could investigate how many different species they could film on the journey to school (Primary)
  
  
• Map Skills: pupils could film the major landmarks/types of land use on their journey to school and then link these to extracts of OS map. (KS2 , KS3)
  
  
• Personal Geography: pupils could give a commentary of what they like about their journey to school and if there are any places that are special to them and why (KS2, KS3).
  
  
• Local Issues, Global Effects: pupils could highlight issues of traffic pollution and litter as can be seen visually on their journey to school, contrasting with the needs and beauty of the wildlife on the same journey (KS2, KS3).
  
  
• Sustainable travel: pupils could investigate the whole issue of journeys to school and create a short film exploring why not everyone uses sustainable travel and what might be done about this (KS3, GCSE).
  

Pupils can use any camera for this work. Digital Blue cameras will be available for loan from the Resources Library at Hertfordshire Development Centre.

Open to all Schools in Hertfordshire. Categories for single and mixed key stages

Great prizes including Digital Blue cameras and video editing/animation software

Closing date 5pm Friday 12 December (Presentations will be made at the Campus West Theatre, Welwyn Garden City on Monday 2nd March 2009).